Technique

because i'm more than slightly drunk, i've decided to register and wanted to know what others thoughts are on technique i think it's NOs best album and have seen it described on itunes as the first great british acid album (or something like that)

what did people think of it then, and what now? i quite like the mix between dance (vanishing point) and more acoustic sounds (guilty partner). And it does help that dream attack is the greatest end to an album ever...

You'll find a lot of people on here thinking it's NO's best. I think it's overrated and sounds more dated than Low-Life or even PCL.

I recently decided that Technique deserves more credit than i gave it. With only one song that i don't like (Guilty Partner), i find the rest thoroughly listenable (Fine Time isn't that bad for me to have on. And i lovbe the second side of the album. Run followed by Mr. Disco, Vanishing Point and the amazing Dream Attack - not a bad way to end an album at all

Still probably only my third favourite NO album though

Am I the only one who likes "Fine Time"? I mean, the effect that Barney uses that makes his voice so low is so lame its kind of cool.

For me, its NO's best, probably cos I was most obsessed with NO at the time of recording it, and it was the first studio album i was an obsessive NOOL lunatic on the day of release.

At the time, no one had a clue as to how it would sound, and as to whether recording an album on Ibiza at the height of ecstasy culture was a good idea. However, somehow they pulled it off.

Nothing for me, has bettered it since, and the only album that stands up to it, in my opinion, is Lowlife, which is a song shorter.

Technique it is.

methanolcereal wrote: Am I the only one who likes "Fine Time"? I mean, the effect that Barney uses that makes his voice so low is so lame its kind of cool.

I love that song. Just because it's a little dated and unusual by New order's standards doesn't necessarily mean it's no good. I think it's really cool.

Technique is also one of my favourite New Order albums. :)

methanolcereal wrote: Am I the only one who likes "Fine Time"? I mean, the effect that Barney uses that makes his voice so low is so lame its kind of cool.

I ADORE Fine Time! I think it's a clever song. The vocal effect, the channeling, the lyrics...

methanolcereal wrote: Am I the only one who likes "Fine Time"? I mean, the effect that Barney uses that makes his voice so low is so lame its kind of cool.

Fine Time is a brilliant track! it hit the mood of the time spot on when it was released - with the whole acid house thing at the time. still love it!

It's the best NO LP. 'Nuff said!

I think its their best album. I still remember the 1st time I played it, I had headphones on and I loved every track. Usually there's always 1 or 2 tracks that take me a while to get into but this was just perfection for me.

I remember a guy who worked at the record shop gave me a tape of it about 2 weeks before it came out and i loved every song on first listen.The only other New Order album that has done the same thing to me was Low Life.

it is of course a "classic dance album" with songs like All The Way,Loveless,Guilty Partner,Run,and Dream Attack.All floorfillers them

Tempted wrote:

methanolcereal wrote: Am I the only one who likes "Fine Time"? I mean, the effect that Barney uses that makes his voice so low is so lame its kind of cool.

I ADORE Fine Time! I think it's a clever song. The vocal effect, the channeling, the lyrics...

"Fine Time" is another one of my favourite tracks. It's a really fun song to listen to.:)

#1 for me too!

It's pretty dated now though, some of it. Only three or four songs would get played these days. And obviously the band don't care for the songs, as they don't do 'em live anymore!

The 'masterpiece' album, IMO. Stunning, I can still listen it to from start to beginning without skipping a track, even with the oft-maligned Fine Time leading the cavalry.

Don't a lot of you just love Technique becaue it was the first studio album that many of you anticipated so highly after "Substance," BLT and True Faith made a legion of new NO fans?

I think it's the ultimate mix of dance & rock by the ultimate band capable of doing it justice,as being the first true rock band that really pulled the two genres together.Of course,there's going to be other people & other bands making claims to the contrary,probably some with good reason,but Blue Monday is what it is & who else can argue with that.Personally,it's N.O.'s second best after Low Life,with the only thing saving Guilty Partner being the bassline.& was Fine Time the 1st Acid House record?

always cracked me up/angered the fuck out of me how when U2 brought out Achtung Baby 2 years later and claimed it to be the first ever dance /rock album.

i like using THAT "/" forward slash thing.its great

Papa Bendi wrote: And it does help that dream attack is the greatest end to an album ever...

i concur. it's a brilliant song.

as for the fine time debate: i loved it when it first came out, but boy has it soured on me.

mark kelly wrote: was Fine Time the 1st Acid House record?

naaa... It was way behind lots of stuff in UK; e.g. MARRS, S-Express etc.

The first acid house record for me was 'Humanoid' by Stakker Humanoid, but then thats if you describe the stuff that was rolling out of Chicago even earlier, as 'acid house' rather than house

[brown]Ally[/brown] wrote:

His Holiness, The Pope wrote: Don't a lot of you just love Technique becaue it was the first studio album that many of you anticipated so highly after "Substance," BLT and True Faith made a legion of new NO fans?

Erm, so alot of people like this album simply because they were riding the Substance 1987 wave? I'm not seeing how that works personally! High anticipation does not equal blind adoration i.e. Get Ready was hotly anticipated from 1998 onwards and split the fanbase in many ways when it arrived with the guitar saturated direction

We know you're not a fan of the album Pope :p but it is universally and critically regarded as one of New Order's most consistent efforts.

WFTSC is probably their most consistent album since in terms of quality but suffers from the fact there's no clear Regret or Crystal on it in terms of a hit single.

No, not simply because of Substance, but I've lost count of the number of people who've said that they got into NO around 1987 or so (though BM 88 may have had something to do with it too) and Technique was the first new studio album they had to look forward to. Of course it's a strong album, despite my feelings about its first side and its dated overall sound. Besides, I would hardly call the anticipation surrounding Get Ready to be the same as in 1987-89, when NO were really in their heyday with a string of singles saturating the market.

I became a fan around the time this album came out, so yeah, I guess there's a bit of a nostalgic bias for me. No other record has come close, though, to blowing me away and changing my ideas of what good music was like this one did.

Anytime someone asks me what my favorite record is, I still point them to Technique and tell them to listen to EVERY song.

Burt Reynolds wrote:

mark kelly wrote: was Fine Time the 1st Acid House record?

naaa... It was way behind lots of stuff in UK; e.g. MARRS, S-Express etc.

The first acid house record for me was 'Humanoid' by Stakker Humanoid, but then thats if you describe the stuff that was rolling out of Chicago even earlier, as 'acid house' rather than house

I agree,I was asking,not stating.It's just that as year zero for acid house is widely recognized as being '89,at least in the UK,& Fine Time came out in Dec'88,it gets labelled as being so,certainly when I read modern reviews of Technique,trying to pigeon-hole it

Fine time is the only one i never play. just skip. and typically of N.O. it was the first single.

classic album.

but Low Life still rules!!

OK!!

I think Technique is their best album. A great mix of eletronic & acoustic, happy and sad. This album has a bit of everythnig, with no weak tracks.

leather_girl wrote: Technique is also one of my favourite New Order albums. :)

It's in my top ten favourite new order albums...

AHW came out at the time as saying that they were a great singles band & this was thier first great album.

obviously complete nonsense as it doesn't compare with low life, but there you go.

His Holiness, The Pope wrote: Don't a lot of you just love Technique becaue it was the first studio album that many of you anticipated so highly after "Substance," BLT and True Faith made a legion of new NO fans?

I was only a few days old when fine time was released! My excuse for liking it is just being a dance music fan, and for me this has got their best dance records on. To be honest, if it wasnt for the edit of perfect kiss on low-life that would be my favourite album, but its not

El Jarvo wrote:

mark kelly wrote: & was Fine Time the 1st Acid House record?

Not quite. We'd even had an Acid House no.1 in the UK maybe three months before Fine Time hit our stores.

Very true, MARRS, S-Express, Baby Ford, etc, not to mention tracks like "Voodoo Ray" (well, I would say that! :) )

Of course, before the above, the multitude of tracks from Chicago/Detroit are the true origins of Acid House!

Nick King wrote:

El Jarvo wrote:

mark kelly wrote: & was Fine Time the 1st Acid House record?

Not quite. We'd even had an Acid House no.1 in the UK maybe three months before Fine Time hit our stores.

Very true, MARRS, S-Express, Baby Ford, etc, not to mention tracks like "Voodoo Ray" (well, I would say that! :) )

Of course, before the above, the multitude of tracks from Chicago/Detroit are the true origins of Acid House!

Hit House as well. jack to the sound of the undergound.

unless my date is wrong.

J.A.K wrote:

Nick King wrote:

El Jarvo wrote:

mark kelly wrote: & was Fine Time the 1st Acid House record?

Not quite. We'd even had an Acid House no.1 in the UK maybe three months before Fine Time hit our stores.

Very true, MARRS, S-Express, Baby Ford, etc, not to mention tracks like "Voodoo Ray" (well, I would say that! :) )

Of course, before the above, the multitude of tracks from Chicago/Detroit are the true origins of Acid House!

Hit House as well. jack to the sound of the undergound.

unless my date is wrong.

Great song, and yup, you're right!

I`d say more like nearly 2 years before Fine Time. Never understood the "acid house" tag on Technique,it was for me just the next step on after Brotherhood.

I was living in Sardegna at the time that Technique hit, talk about right place, right time. The first listen through just confirmed what had been proven to me time again, best f**king band on the planet! Became my fave NO lp at the time and nothing has changed. Oh, there have been some choice tunes since but as the complete package, technique does it every time.

VP Run Mr Disco Dream Attack Round & Round

are there any others?

its a classic, but not there best for me i think Get Ready is up there with some great songs.

Great album with great diversity, but LL and PC&L are rated even higher in my book...

Nick King wrote:

El Jarvo wrote:

mark kelly wrote: & was Fine Time the 1st Acid House record?

Not quite. We'd even had an Acid House no.1 in the UK maybe three months before Fine Time hit our stores.

Very true, MARRS, S-Express, Baby Ford, etc, not to mention tracks like "Voodoo Ray" (well, I would say that! :) )

Of course, before the above, the multitude of tracks from Chicago/Detroit are the true origins of Acid House!

I agree with everything that has been put here. Looking back at the House/Dance music revolution in the UK in 1988 it came from much more different fronts than just 'Acid House'. IMO in 1987 the 'majors' in the music industry were as plastic as what they are now and if it wasn't crass cock-rock/soft metal, Stock Aitkien and Waterman's (S)Hit Factory clones or a awful 1950's 'Rock'n'Roll' revival (Fairground Attraction doing Nat King Cole and Eddie Cochrane etc. were really relevant in 1987/88 NOT!) it wasn't making the charts or getting noticed. Converseley Dance Music was seen by people like myself as a new, interesting and exciting sub-culture. At the time this included Hip Hop (which had been around for a few years and being spearheaded by Public Enemy, Run DMC, Beastie Boys, Mantronix, etc.) and the emerging Chicago House/Detroit Techno scene (from DJ's Marshall Jefferson, Steve 'Silk' Hurley, Farley 'Jack Master' Funk, Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson and the creator of Acid House DJ Pierre) which began to emerge in the UK. Furthermore House/Techno became the soundtrack of Ibiza in 1987 the same time New Order and many of London's DJ like Paul Oakenfold, Nicky Holloway, Danny Rampling, Lisa Loud etc. where there. Their ecstacy fuelled holiday resulted in this scene being brought back to the UK in the form of New Order and Manchester based DJ's Mike Pickering, Graeme Park, John Da Silva, Laurent Garnier, 808 State/A Guy Called Gerrald etc. championing it in the Hacienda, Boardwalk etc. and London clubs like Shoom, Spectrum and the infamous warehouse party scene invetiably thursting it in a big way into the UK Top 40 in early 1988. Okay there are tunes from the era which do sound horribly dated and there were 'one hit wonders' like Krush (of which Moloko's Mark Brydon was involved) and Jack'N'Chill etc. However IMHO the '88 anthems from like MARRS - Pump Up The Volume, Bomb The Bass - Beat Dis, S'Express - Theme From S'Express, Royal House - Can U Party, Baby Ford - Oochy Koochy, Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock - It Takes Two, Mr Lee - Pump Up Chicago/London, King Bee - Back By Dope Demand, Stakker Humanoid, A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray and Inner City - Big Fun or Good Life all probably played a big part along with the Hacienda/New Order in shaping the eventual Rave, Drum & Bass and Dance Music revolutions which followed in the 1990's and without them the Stone Roses/Happy Mondsy's 'Madchester' would not have sounded the way they did nor would the likes of the so-called Dance 'supergroups' like Leftfield, Orbital, Chemical Brothers, Underworld etc. which became massive from the 1990's onwards. Cheers!

Shug wrote: As someone from the True Faith generation (remember I was only a wean of 12) by the time Technique came out, I already had PCL & Substance that I owned masel and I had copied Brotherhood and Low-Life onto a C-90 thanks to Uncly John

Technique is the dogs bollocks. My favourite album of all-time. Ok it's not got an AOC, Sunrise or even BLT..... but from start to finish it is a fucking joy to behold.

And I'm 100% sober :D

Me too mate I was around 12/13 at the time of True Faith and at the time I wished I was 18/19 so I could have gone The Hacienda. Ah Well!

Shug wrote: As someone from the True Faith generation (remember I was only a wean of 12) by the time Technique came out, I already had PCL & Substance that I owned masel and I had copied Brotherhood and Low-Life onto a C-90 thanks to Uncly John

Technique is the dogs bollocks. My favourite album of all-time. Ok it's not got an AOC, Sunrise or even BLT..... but from start to finish it is a fucking joy to behold.

And I'm 100% sober :D

100% sober-what is the WORLD coming to? MTO Mick

The origins of Acid House is closer to home than you think.

'Acid' refers to the squelchind sound made by twiddling the knobs on a Roland 303 bass machine. Section 25 used it back in '83 on a remix of the Barney-produced Beating Heart. Being on Factory, it will come as no surprise it wasn't released.

T-Coy's Carino, featuring Factory old boys Topping and Pickering, is conserderd to be the first UK House record.

And yes, Technique is the dogs:-

Behind Low-Life and PC&L for me, but in my, say, top 20 albums of all time...

Snorri xxx

steveone wrote: I`d say more like nearly 2 years before Fine Time. Never understood the "acid house" tag on Technique,it was for me just the next step on after Brotherhood.

Steve, that's a good point and very important when considering the impact of Technique. Play Brotherhood and Technique back to back and the change in style is profound.

Brotherhood ends with State of the Nation and Technique begins with Fine Time. Compare the two songs and you can see how the use of synths has changed from a very 'industrial' style (imitated by Depeche Mode et al) to a 'loved up' one that nobody else used. In that respect NO pioneered a second era of synth music in the same decade.

When Fine Time came it sounded like nothing else, and neither did Technique. It is a wonderful album let down only by Round & Round mix, the single version being infinitely superior.

And Dream Attack is the best NO song. Very poignant considering that we had to wait four years for Republic.

Good example of a whole album being greater than the sum of its parts. No massive Temptations, Ceremonies or BLTs but the only NO album which is a very good listen from start to finish. Not that the songs aren't great played on their own though- all the way, Love less, Run and Vanishing Point are all songs capable of rendering me speechless but just haven't really got the steel to be good singles. Fine Time is a cracking house tune; pisses all over just about anything else you'll hear a club DJ play.

Don't really understand why people think so highly of Lowlife; Love Vigilantes, this time of night and Elegia are all pretty average songs imho (though subculture's spot on) face up is a good high note to end upon though hardly in the same class as vanishing point (I consider Dream attack, alongside Mr Disco and Guilty partner to be among the more 'enigmatic' songs on Technique)

noorder (aka Barcaboy99) wrote:

steveone wrote: I`d say more like nearly 2 years before Fine Time. Never understood the "acid house" tag on Technique,it was for me just the next step on after Brotherhood.

Brotherhood ends with State of the Nation

GoOd album,but not their best.. Fine Time always did my head in,and Guilty partner is shit but the rest are good.Run is superb

El Jarvo wrote: You not done any gigs of late? Love Vigilantes an 'average song' my arse. I'd like to see something off Technique, bar possibly Vanishing Point, stir the masses quite like that particular track.

LV was my absolute favourite NO track from the first time I heard it... Still is... Can't really explain why, maybe, as with a lot of NO tracks, the sheer simplicity of it - a great POP song, brilliantly executed...

Snorri xxx

His Holiness, The Pope wrote: Don't a lot of you just love Technique becaue it was the first studio album that many of you anticipated so highly after "Substance," BLT and True Faith made a legion of new NO fans?

Not me I've been listening to NO since they were formed by the tragic death of Ian Curtis.

Technique is NO's best album, yes 'Fine Time' was the 'acid' track but listen to the other tracks and you can still hear Hooky bass!!! A pleasure to listen to from start to absolute brilliant finish

Great album, but not their best. I guess I rode the "Substance" wave, however it was when I was 12 and I wasn't allowed to buy albums, so I didn't get Tech. when it came out. It was actually the second to last NO album I've bought. Don't know why I waited so long to get it. I guess I liked the "Best of" versions better than the album versions of songs on Tech. Probably because I listened to them first.

JHC