There are actually two “Best of”’s… Pink and Blue. Pink is the only one you can get now. This is the shorter singles collection released after their final album, and has different tracks than the extended 12” greatest hits that was the original Blue Best of. The latter is apparently hard to find at this point in time. (Sept 9, 2006) Maybe that will change one day.

It contains the entire “Who’s Afraid” album, almost all of the “Into Battle” EP, and some remixes of “Moments In Love”. You’re missing the original artwork, but no matter.

BUG PLUS: The bonus DVD seems to be the only way to get the absolute classic video “Close (To The Edit)” among other early Art Of Noise video work.

BIG MINUS: The only track on this EP that had never been previously released, the original “Beat Box”, is replaced by the previously released album opus instead, despite the misleading track listing in the back, therefore making the CD a complete waste.

I’d give it a higher rating if it weren’t so pricey.

...then this box set is highly recommended. Otherwise, it’s essentially an exhaustive look into the making of that album, with some bonus inclusions of the first EP and certain great remixes. If that’s what you want, this box set will deliver.

Otherwise, I recommend the Daft single CD instead.

If you have to start anywhere as far as getting an introduction to the essentials of Studio One recordings, this is the item to get. Granted, it might be a bit pricey given that it is a CD/DVD combination… but every track on this CD is excellent. I wish I could say the same about the DVD, which can only be taken in doses. That said, it was a lucky stroke that Coxsone Dodd was given a full interview by the Soul Jazz label people, as he would unfortunately pass away not too longer after this. With that hindsight, it’s quite an emotional documentary, even if it’s a bit too long and uneven. Still, these artists are the seeds to what has influenced the influencers, if you will - that is, influenced not only Western Music - especially hip-hop, but global pop music as well.

NOTE: the album art currently displayed is actually that of their second album Kraftwerk 2. The first one looks exactly the same but has a red cone instead—granted.

Both are very different than the Kraftwerk that influenced electronic pop music forever, but they are amazing Dusseldork based “krautrock” albums that fans of the era shouldn’t be without

Absolutely captivating. Incredibly intense reading. Can only ingest in chapters, but highly enlightening.

The most unexpected great thing to come from reading this so far is my getting into rocksteady, reggae, and dub—bigtime.

“Slogun” (collected on this semi-compilation), from 1979, is probably the earliest most intense “noise rock” song I can think of. The entire six minutes just grabs my head and dangles it over a jagged chasm every time.

I listened to the entirety of this several times while in record stores. The album repeatedly goes over my head… there’s one song near the end that’s a bit pretty and is somewhat catchy (before the gobbling/yelping overtakes the mix), but otherwise, while it’s not bad, it’s incredibly overrated.

If anything, The Arcade Fire remind me of a more sluggish Polyrock, who were one of many frenetic guitar pop bands from NYC in the early 80s, except not as proto-Stereolab-ish as Polyrock’s first two albums were.. so if you like Funeral, you might want to check out the first two Polyrock albums.

The best thing to come out of Funeral is more money to the great folks at Merge records. This probably means more funding of releases of great bands from New Zealand related to the Flying Nun family. :)

One of the greatest hip hop albums ever.