What's That Noise? (1989)

What's That Noise? is the debut album by Coldcut, released in 1989.

Guests on the album include: Lisa Stansfield on "People Hold On" and "My Telephone", Mark E. Smith (the Fall) on "(I'm) In Deep", Junior Reid on "Stop This Crazy Thing", Queen Latifah on "Smoke 1" and Yazz on "Doctorin' the House".

The album peaked at No. 20 on the UK Albums Chart and at No. 103 on the Australian ARIA chart.

Critical reception

The album was featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Trouser Press wrote: "In between the vocal tracks are various 'Beats & Pieces', as one title has it: samples, melodies and grooves that help flesh out What's That Noise?, a patchy but generally rewarding debut." The Stranger called the album a "classic LP [that] married cut-and-paste techniques with old-fashioned songwriting smarts."

Personnel

• Jonathan More – drum machine, bass, percussion, keyboard, engineering, turntable, sampler
• Matt Black – synthesizer, drum machine, keyboard, engineering, turntable, sampler
• Tony Harris – engineering
• George Shilling – engineering
• Lisa Stansfield – vocals
• Barry Clempson – engineering
• Ian Devaney – piano, keyboard
• Merlin T. – engineering
• Dave Campbell – engineering
• John Jamieson – keyboard
• Junior Reid – vocals
• Snowboy – percussion
• Mark E. Smith – vocals
• Cleveland Watkiss – backing vocals
• Queen Latifah – vocals
• Yasmina Evans – vocals