18 replies · 578 views
Hey,
I was wondering about the following:
How many New Order songs have a distinct 'bass line' played on a sequencer so Hooky can play a melody line? Bernard has said in interviews he likes coming up with the basic bass line for many songs on keyboard.
How many New Order recordings have two bass tracks recorded by Hooky? (i.e. 'Regret'.) And is that Bernard playing the second, root-note bass on the UP version of 'She's Lost Control', or is that the beginning of Hooky double-tracking?
LOADS of NO tracks have the actual "bass" part chucked off onto some machine or other. I think you can tell which Hooky wrote and which barney/steve/gillian came up with by ear....certain of them just have a sound that shows they were written with someone who knows bass sensibilities... the phrasing and so on.
The easy answer is, if it sounds like it was ever played on a bass, it's Hooky's doing.
Barney's attempts on the bass a fairly amusing...he seems to have the timing thing down, but he just looks deeply ill at ease withthe thing around his neck (on PFD he has the look of a man who had a brand new string fail on him one night while doing a pulloff, happened to me once and it fucking HURT), whereas Hooky looks perfectly happy with a guitar....although possibly worried about breaking such a fragile little girl's instrument.
PS... SLC, insight, 24 hours et al ...that's Hooky playing 2 strings at once....a droned D and the melody on the g. Barney's classic Joy division guitar sound is the same thing.
Mr. Disco, Vanishing Point, and WIM would be the best examples of bass sequencing in NO tracks, wouldn't they? Barney has a pretty distinctive style on keyboards where he likes to do progressions of synth stabs occasionally punctuated with quick melodies. Listen: Isolation, Reality, Tighten Up, Twisted Tenderness. I dunno how many basslines he's actually sequenced but the bass in a lot of Electronic tracks is surprisingly complex, so that may be a guidepost to go by.
Not that bass sequencing is all that hard if you've played picross or used a spreadsheet before.
As for droned D and melody G, it's surprising how an open string and a little overdrive give you instant-Primitive Notion.
Hey Steve,
I know about the drones with open strings. Listen closely to 'She's Lost Control'-I believe there's another bass track on there matching the guitar part root notes, and at one point it doesn't go away when Hooky begins the main line again. This was an earlier question, but I don't think any of us accurately figured out where Bernard plays bass, as credited on the BBC Sessions.
Bernard played bass on Atrocity Exhibition, The Sound Of Music and Confusion when they did them live. Not necessarily in the studio.
The extra bass you can hear in She's Lost Control would have been overdubbed in the studio, and you can bet your bottom dollar that it was Hooky.
On the subject of bass sequencers underpinning the bass melody, they are everywhere! Age of Consent, Love Vigilantes, Dream Attack, Let's Go are the first four off the top of my head.
I forgot the studio version of SLC was 2 basses, mainly cos I ignore studio versions in general. :D
I was tryin to think of the VERY best sequenced bass part on a NO track. I can't. The Village is a personal favourite tho. It sounds like barney job tho.
So Hooky played guitar on 'Sound of Music' and 'Atrocity Exhibition' live? Are there photos that document this? I had known about 'Confusion'...Bernard looks pretty nervous in one of those bonus clips on the live DVDs (I think it's 511).
I've noticed the absence of the actual bass guitar itself in New Order songs, it's usually the keyboard doing all the potential bass lines. I'm a bassist in a band called The Echos, so I'm always listening for the bass line in songs.
JV wrote: So Hooky played guitar on 'Sound of Music' and 'Atrocity Exhibition' live? Are there photos that document this? I had known about 'Confusion'...Bernard looks pretty nervous in one of those bonus clips on the live DVDs (I think it's 511).
Yes, video footage of Sound of Music at Manchester Apollo 1979, and Atrocity Exhibition at Plan K in 1979. Plus Hooky has himself confirmed this.
Nicky wrote: I've noticed the absence of the actual bass guitar itself in New Order songs, it's usually the keyboard doing all the potential bass lines. I'm a bassist in a band called The Echos, so I'm always listening for the bass line in songs.
You are having a laugh, right? Would you actually know a bassline if it hit you between the eyes? This wins the prize for the daftest posting ever on NOOL, I would think!
Not to make a personal dig, but it should be echoes, not echos.
I can see how for the uninitiated discerning the bass guitar in a few New Order songs could be tricky...at least on songs with six-string bass, where certain lines could be mistaken for a lead guitar if you are unfamiliar with Hooky's style. But it's clearly there and furthermore dominant most of the time.
That's quite funny about 'Sound of Music' and 'Atrocity Exhibition', since they sound pretty similar.
I don't know about 'Murder'.
What NO song ranks as having the most bass tracks? I'm thinking 'Thieves Like Us', unless that's all panning, but I doubt it.
Hannett of the Apes wrote: Didn't Hooky and Barney swap on Murder as well?
They've not played it live. Seeing as none of us were in the studio when they recorded it, I would think we probably won't ever know unless Jack asks his old man!
oldmonkey wrote:
Hannett of the Apes wrote: Didn't Hooky and Barney swap on Murder as well?
They've not played it live. Seeing as none of us were in the studio when they recorded it, I would think we probably won't ever know unless Jack asks his old man!
Barney said they were completely off their nuts on acid when they wrote murder so they probably pcked up the wrong instruments. Barney has made this claim about almost all 80's and 90's NO songs, I'm not suprised he needs an auto cue now
Murder has a bit of slap bass in there too - this could be Hooky or Bernard since both have slapped in songs (Hooky in TPK and Bernard in Confusion).
At a pure guess, I'd say it's Barney on Murder, I'd also guess Hooky is doing onee of the guitars from the way it's timed and phrased. Thin, personal and subjecdtive evidence I know. The reason I think it's Barney's bass is that it's played with the same cack handed all pull-off style as you can hear on confusion.
LOL @ the concept of Jack asking his da about anything longer ago than last week. :D
