Like a lot of New Order album versions versus remix versions there are positives and negatives to each.I was always torn between the drum sound on the album version of Run and drum sound on the single version depending on what day it was/is.The single edit/remix has a lighter sound to the drums.Sublime keyboards on both versions though the album version slightly pips it on the keyboard sound but then i think Hooky's bass fares better on the single edit/remix though his bass on the album version was/is hard to beat.The 12" extended was utter shite and not worth further comment.The video to Run was possibly my favourite ever NO vid though unfortunately some of the scenes with the older man and the young girl though they're not actually "together" at any point look slightly dodgy in this day and age. The only thing i don't like about Run now is maybe its title.It's the kind of title the likes of crap like Snow Patrol now might use for a song title and indeed did.
Ceremony to Superheated - revisiting and reviewing every core song
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Great set of reviews for technique looking forward to one of my favourites (well they all are on technique) Dream Attack. Interesting reading some of the comments. Technique is one album I cannot understand anyone disliking it's so fuckin good. But -1 seems to hate it. I love how music can divide opinion so much even the same album.
One of my least favourite records by NO is morning night and day yet for Mr DR this is one album cut you think is better than the singles, once again another shock opinion to my ears!
Keep up this excellent review of all the NO catalogue. Shame I never thought of doing this myself before, although I have plenty of times in my own head. I think I have spent far too much time than is healthy thinking of New Order!
I'm always bemused how NO fans find levels that are lost on me. The 'awesome' instrumental breaks on Mr Disco strike me as padding cos 9 tracks is the least they could get away with (there was a great BS quote on getting so many songs written for Sirens: It was strange cos normally we'd just do enough to fill the album and then fuck off down the pub). Gillian's 'understated elegance' I always read as 'Fuck, fuck, fuck, they're pointing a camera at me and I still can't hack it.' According to new sociological research, men buy pornography to express a universal need traditionally associated with guilt and transpose it to one of euphoria. Far from constituting a threat, the user aims to purge himself of baser instincts so as to present a healthier public persona and contribute to a safer environment. Paradoxically, his urge is to reassert the superiority of the female form, which may act as a trope or broader feminist emancipation: Consider the rising number of female employees in mass media. He further provides income to those lacking means and qualifications which our society wrongly takes for granted... Wow. I thought I just like wanking.
Michael Monkhouse wrote: fuck off ... Fuck, fuck, fuck ... Wow ... wanking
😄
Thanks Michael - I look forward to tomorrow's instalment.
If I turn the blog into a book I may have to invite you to write the Afterword...
D
I've been asked to take all the swearing out of my act. Good night. What happened to Hooky in Dream Atttack? Check out the live versions - lovely!
Michael Monkhouse wrote: I've been asked to take all the swearing out of my act. Good night. What happened to Hooky in Dream Atttack? Check out the live versions - lovely!
you are continuously vile for no particular purpose than simply to be. such a sad person you must be.
Jumpin' the gun slightly but I guess the next one is Dream Attack, one of their best ever, so I expect a glowing review... My only whinge is that Hooky almost totally disappeared from the final mix! Listen to the 89 / 93 live takes and while they're less polished, there's a LOT of bass and it adds to the melncholia and wistfulness. The opening is almost reminiscent of 'Decades'...
Michael Monkhouse wrote: Jumpin' the gun slightly but I guess the next one is Dream Attack, one of their best ever, so I expect a glowing review... My only whinge is that Hooky almost totally disappeared from the final mix! Listen to the 89 / 93 live takes and while they're less polished, there's a LOT of bass and it adds to the melncholia and wistfulness. The opening is almost reminiscent of 'Decades'...
seriously, you are going to make me google this crap? too much work man
Dennis Remmer wrote: Dream Attack + The Happy One reviews now up. Technique era completed.
More than any other song on Technique, Dream Attack was the one song in the weeks and months after the album came out and then in the long hot summer of 1989 that became stuck in my head and constantly rattled around in my veins and bloodstream.It was ecstatic but at the same time melancholic, sad but at the same time optimistic.It was genius in its effortlessness.Bernard did say in the Melody Maker interview late 1988 a few weeks before Technique was released that he felt almost as if they weren't writing and creating the music , rather the music was coming down to and through them from some heaven or godly figure above and it seemed completely believable back then.I was actually surprised at the brilliance of Technique back then, when Substance was released 18 months before i had kind of thought oh they're running out of ideas by falling back on releasing a greatest hits.
Dream Attack is melancholic,optimistic, sad, hopeful, dreamy, touching, cool and a lot of other stuff that's impossible to put into words.
Dennis Remmer has added tons of something wonderful to the world of our favorite band . We of New Order fandom are lucky .
![[skeptic]](/emoticons/skeptical.gif){kind=small}
What's the difference between WIM 7" and WIM 12"? 2 quid. Fucking rip-off. Mind you it worked for Transmission. I remember an NME WIM article where Bernard quipped, 'This must be the last straw for the JD fans!' The cover featured 'New Order's Barny and England's Barnsey' leering like teens who'd just mastered masturbation - 'KICKIN'!' - with a tiny pic of Ian in the corner: 'He died 10 years ago this wank'. Times change.
Have just listened again to WIM and 'the b side' for the first time in ages to find my opinion of the song again.
WIM is frivolous but at the same time really clever and witty.You can't really listen to it straight after a classic New Order song like Leave Me Alone or Run, but it is a good song.It's a strange thing.It was clever and playful in a way none of NO's peers like Depeche Mode or U2 could ever have come up with.
I remember being aware in the early months of 1990 that New Order were going to release a song for England's upcoming World Cup campaign at Italia 90 but was wary yet hopeful it would be good.Sometime, a few weeks before it was released a friend who hated New Order told me he had heard it and said he did think it was a good football song- and he's Scottish! I hadn't then yet heard it and recall asking him what it was like and he described the fact it started with a football commentary bit and i was like ha! that's brilliant, there hadn't ever been a football song with something like that in before at that time as far as i knew (for years after the idea became ten 'a penny)
I first heard the song on the radio when i was at work one day a week or two before it was released.I actually think my first impression was a bit, oh they've just stuck a new beat over that tune Steve and Gillian did for that Reportage tv show.The football commentary parts are great though.I guess i took to the song more once i had bought the 12" and England's World Cup campaign gathered momentum.The lyrics perfectly describe "the beautiful game" and you have to take your hat off to Keith Allen for that, as far as i understand he wrote most if not all of them? Or at least he wrote the great John Barnes rap.
I sometimes wished the beat could have had a bit more of a thump, but maybe that wouldn't have suited the song so well.And i would have wished some of the keyboards from the beautiful Roli Mossimann 'b side' could have been more integrated in to the main version but that's minor quibbles.The song actually has a big ending ,true to New Order fashion, everything is thrown in for those last moments, the beery, celebratory "En-ger-land!" in there against Hooky's bass, Steve's addictive drums,Gillan's keyboards and the repeating football commentary "Well it is now!"
I love 'the b-side' and always play it after i've played the single version.Some beautiful synths and beats.
Haven't listened to the remixes much for years but i was lucky enough to be in the Hacienda one Saturday night in May 1990 just before the Italia 90 started and was on the dancefloor when the DJ ( could have been Pickering? Or Graeme Park? can't recall now) dropped the No Alla Violenza mix as the very last track of the night.It was the first time i had heard the mix and it was a great moment.Right place right time.
The sleeve was genius clever Saville - a map of the world as football panels and a blurred hot summer "sun" in the top corner stretching out towards a blue "sky".
Having said all that i'm not sure World In Motion is my favourite football song anymore.When the BBC kept playing it in the backgound of their coverage of Euro 2016 (or was it Brazil 2014? Or Both?) I often found myself thinking oh change the record.I sooner dig out Fat Les' Vindaloo if i want to stick a football record on to get me in the mood for an upcoming England match when they are in the Euros or World Cup every other summer (if they even qualify).I actually even like England's 1982 World Cup anthem 'We're On Our Way' these days.
1990 seems a million years ago now.England's semi-final defeat to West Germany a long distant memory from another lifetime.It bloody hurt big time back then and for years after whenever the clip of Waddle's penalty flying over the bar was shown on tv all the pain came flooding back.England's,again, semi final defeat to , again, the Germans, again on penalties, at Euro 96 actually hurt even more though and since those so near to the final yet so far landmarks for us English it's been an ongoing, repeating source of pain, embarrassment, anguish and shame every two years at major football tournaments ( or even less frequent when England don't even manage to qualify) .I don't see much change in the forseeable future.
Oh, also, i was once the proud owner back in 1990 (ok maybe proud isn't the right word) of a pair of EnglandNewOrder World In Motion shorts.
I'll never forget that semi final match. Hooky bought Revenge to Derby The Dial bar, watched the match with Hooky which at the being only 17 was amazing to be chatting with one of my heroes from new order. Hardly anyone attend the gig, less than 40 people. Hooky refused to go on stage until the match was over. Even though we lost its a memory that will always stay with me.
Pink Floyd 's brilluant and beautiful Fearless ,from Meddle, with You'll Never Walk Alone, was the only football song I heard before WIM. WIM is a fine song but not very inspiring. New Order's Such A Good Thing does capture the feelings of anticipation , the excitement of sport, the childlike reverence, and it is just as inspiring for any sport- a fabulous magnificent song, The one by Ian McCulloch and the spice girls is such a dreadful abomination and shameful and horrible it should be played never again
keepitcoming wrote: The one by Ian McCulloch and the spice girls is such a dreadful abomination and shameful and horrible it should be played never again
I liked it but I'm biassed for two reasons (Melanie C's shoulderblades). WIM was once called 'the best football song of all time'. What competition.
Michael Monkhouse wrote: I'm biassed for two reasons (Melanie C's shoulderblades).
Well it wasn't gonna be her breasts!
p.s. why are/were you so obsessed with this group? They foisted shit music on us and were so promo & merchandise-heavy they were impossible to avoid. Those of us who got into indie music did so to avoid commercial dross...
I shall not rise to that. I have to go for one day without mentioning any of the Spice Girls... Scary!
Debaser wrote:
Michael Monkhouse wrote: I'm biassed for two reasons (Melanie C's shoulderblades).
Well it wasn't gonna be her breasts!
p.s. why are/were you so obsessed with this group? They foisted shit music on us and were so promo & merchandise-heavy they were impossible to avoid. Those of us who got into indie music did so to avoid commercial dross...
Not a fan. But in those early, simpler times, I recall liking the tops they wore in the Wannabe video...
Excellent review of Regret and the interim period of side projects. Completely agree with your review on Republic as a whole. I too was hugely disappointed after Technique and the Electronic album. Like you at the time other music interested me more, for me the basic channel sound of Berlin, Jeff Mills, Rob Hood, UR from Detroit. But time has proved this to be a lot better album than I originally thought particularly side A.
The strange thing about Regret is I originally thought the Fire Island Mix was the '''''proper''''' version cos (a) I heard it on Rado One and (b) I bought the 12" and was used to Factory, i.e. the complete version on 12" with an edited 7". As such, it struck me as NICE but that's hardly a compliment - it wasn't until I heard the true version I understood it was classic NO - hesitant but heartfelt lyrics, swooming synth, dreamy drumming, crashing guitar and THAT bass, including one of the Hookster's finest moments since BLT. It bode well for the album, but that turned out to be bollocks. Unfortunately, it's been played to death - the only 'Reublic' gig constrant since, well, 'Republic... The Slow / Low mix was intriguing but like my genitals, far too long. The Fast / Throb mix was total filler and sadly auspicious for 65465376068756i53 London mixes: some overpaid, undertalented DJ indulges its ego at the band's / fans' expense but ooooooooh fuck, there's a token line from the original so this is New Order innit. World never takes off for me, mainly cos there's no Hooky. The Perfecto mix pisses over the original, and - fact fans! - an original Brothers in Rhythm mix appeared on the RIAD 12". That's how bored I was back then. The video works though, not least cos of the Hitchcock one-sequence technique. It also reveals Gillian in all her awesome, stage-swaggering, heroic glory: one 64487068750850764076437643064074077th of a second in front of the camera and she still can't cope. She is the John Lydon of pap.
The moody blues regret remix was the one I was always hoping for, but then New Order could have done some truly rousing versions of 'ride my seesaw', or 'question', but didn't.
Meanwhile ,
Republic is brilliant and groovy and the songs are easy to sing along with , especially avalanche
keepitcoming wrote: The moody blues regret remix was the one I was always hoping for, but then New Order could have done some truly rousing versions of 'ride my seesaw', or 'question', but didn't.
Yeah, I think everyone was expecting those.
Getting a bit ahead here but on a Republic theme...
If only Times Change had always been a stonking instrumental.
Rorschach wrote: Getting a bit ahead here but on a Republic theme...
If only Times Change had always been a stonking instrumental.
That's what I thought when I heard the nstrumental on Saturday
That setlist looks awesome (unlike rowing, that's oarsome). It's like 1998 when they finally started digging out lesser-played tracks after 89 / 93's NO-by-nrs. PS Special mention to the TOTP World for (a) Hooky miming like Pete Townsend to a synth and (b) Stephen looking even more mentally unstable than usual. Is he all right?
