What's That Noise?

Released in April 1989 on Ahead of Our Time and distributed by Big Life Records, What's That Noise? gave the breaks of Coldcut's early singles the full-length treatment. Spin noted that the record found room at the same table for Queen Latifah and Mark E. Smith. Stansfield sings on People Hold On and My Telephone, Smith on (I'm) In Deep, Junior Reid on Stop This Crazy Thing, Queen Latifah on Smoke 1 and Yazz on the Say R Mix of Doctorin' the House.

(I'm) In Deep set Smith's raucous freestyle vocal over an acid house backing, with psych guitar samples from Deep Purple. It anticipated the indie-dance guitar-and-breaks crossover of the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. Some copies came with a bonus 12-inch holding the Mo Bass Remix of Beats & Pieces and the Hedmaster Mix of Stop This Crazy Thing, and the US edition had a different tracklist.

Chart performance

The album peaked at number 20 on the UK Albums Chart and number 103 on the Australian ARIA chart. It was certified Silver in the UK.

Reception

Trouser Press called it a patchy but generally rewarding debut, and The Stranger described a classic LP that married cut-and-paste techniques with old-fashioned songwriting smarts. The album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.