The very first side project thread?
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Monaco had some class singles, but Electronic makes the more consistent quality albums really. I'm sorry but I don't care much for Revenge or the Other Two. One sounding too much like the attempted soundtrack to a Neuromancer/Johnny Mnemonic radio drama and the other like bouncy elevator muzak.
Wow, turning the clock back to good times. Completely agree, anything with Marr "the maestro" can only be a good thing.
"Getting Away With It" (I certainly have) "Gangster" "Some Distant Memory"
On that note........
Well, you already know, it's Revenge for me. All the side projects had their great moments, but only Revenge came near the power of New Order...
Mick Aneworderfan wrote: Well, you already know, it's Revenge for me. All the side projects had their great moments, but only Revenge came near the power of New Order...
I don't mind Revenge, but musically they weren't at all spectacular in my
opinion. No offence Mick mate 
but Revenge were the only
ones coming close to the "powers of New Order"???? 
A bit of a
controversial statement there! Surely "What do you want from me?" by
Monaco or "Tighten Up" by Electronic were more the "power of New Order"
than anything Revenge ever did. I like Pineapple Face and a handful of tracks off One True Passion in a
novelty kind of way. All of Gun World Porn is cool (Bar Little Pig = obvious
throwaway track) in a slightly humourless way. But I think even Hooky
admitted Revenge were for touring only, and not for making great
music. The version of Dreams Never End on No Pain No Gain is ok,
nothing massively electrifying though!
IMO if you're talking "power of New Order" Wdywfm? is the best song New
Order never wrote. Even Barney put it forward on an "imaginary"
New Order mix tape in Q magazine years ago. He said something
along the lines of it being almost perfect, then added "I imagine Hooky
had alot of help with it" 
I think Hooky put forward
Revenge's 14K as his track, not the best frankly! But not truly
awful, it has a kind of child-like charm the lyrics in that track.
Cheers,
Ally.
Of course no offence, I'm used in being alone as a Revenge fan though I still find it weird as for me it's so obvious their songs were so excellent... WDYWFM and Tighten Up are great songs, but nowhere near to the power of New Order... When I think at New Order I don't think at All Day Long or Lonesome Tonight, you know... I think at those HUGE songs, those monumental masterpieces like Blue Monday, Perfect Kiss and True Faith. The only songs that give me remotely similar feelings (apart from Joy Division) come from Revenge... when I hear stuff like Pineapple Face or Slave, with those storming keyboards and guitars, that's something almost as powerful as the keyboards of Blue Monday or the bass of Perfect Kiss... I also like different songs, like the amusing weirdness of tracks like Surf Nazi and Kiss The Chrome (which remind the brave inventiveness of New Order) and quiet but beautiful moments like 14K. Revenge had everything and I don't care if Hooky changed his mind, after all Barney didn't even remember Procession and hates it now after hearing it again, and it's just a brilliant song... sometimes artists are wrong about their own music...
Agreed mostly there... I do think Revenge had their moments (State of
Shock is amazing and the ready equal of most Electronic stuff) but
overall not the best Hooky musically could have done ;) That came
later in Monaco. Still I have nice memories attached to the
Revenge stuff and I certainly give my Revenge MP3 folder a good listen
now and then! Incidentally, do you have the Little Pig
(Extended Mix) from the US "State of Shock" 12" Mick? Say hello
over MSN if you're after it and I'll send it over. It seems to be
a difficult one to find as it's on US only vinyl.
Ally.
I don't have it, thank you very much... I hope to find some time soon... if you have a fast connection you can also send it attached to a mail message, it would take just a minute to download it for me...
His Holiness the Pope wrote: erm....they're all pretty crap
Much like the content of the majority of your posts, Holiness
If you don't like 'em, don't post here. I said that quite clearly and simply in the announcement thread for this new forum in Digital Republic. This forum is for people who have any sort of liking towards any of the side projects and want to discuss related records/songs (of which there is a fair old amount) so posting sheer negativity wastes everyone's time. For instance if you said you thought Electronic were great but Monaco were shite that would qualify as a relevant post, but posting simply "they're all crap" is tedious to deal with.
Stick to Digital Republic really.
Ally.
I need to catch up on all of the Electronic albums. I loved the first one and "Raise the Preassure" was pretty good. Any suggestions on the others?
Monaco, loved the first album, did not care for the second one.
Revenge, recently got their album,. honestly, only cause I love Pineapple Face.
Never cared for the Other Two :(
Ally3000 wrote:
His Holiness the Pope wrote: erm....they're all pretty crap
Much like the content of the majority of your posts, Holiness
If you don't like 'em, don't post here. I said that quite clearly and simply in the announcement thread for this new forum in Digital Republic. This forum is for people who have any sort of liking towards any of the side projects and want to discuss related records/songs (of which there is a fair old amount) so posting sheer negativity wastes everyone's time. For instance if you said you thought Electronic were great but Monaco were shite that would qualify as a relevant post, but posting simply "they're all crap" is tedious to deal with.
Stick to Digital Republic really.
Ally.
Well, that's quite valid. If I just wanted to spout negativity to waste space, I'd be Digital Mike. That said, here's a more relevant post:
All of the side projects have a few decent songs, though I've not heard enough of any of them to give an unbiased opinion, but overall they all sound nowhere near as good as New Order. Electronic sounds like awful dated Eurotrash music like PSB or REPUBLIC. Revenge just doesn't interest me all that much musically, though Monaco is more appealing to my ears, even if it is too poppy. The Other Two is very discoish but I can stand some of it as well. Overall, the side projects are all forgettable to me...nothing they did can remotely hold a candle to anything New Order did together...except most of Republic.
And now I'll crawl back to my hole and spew out more useless posts on the insane side.
I suppose for me it would be
The Other Two
I like some songs from each 'side project' but they've all had some stinkers. The Other Two have been the most CONSISTANT for me - not quite NO but no fillers.
Strange to think that there have been 8 (?) studio albums between them wheras we are only this month getting NO's 8th.
His Holiness the Pope wrote:
Well, that's quite valid. If I just wanted to spout negativity to waste space, I'd be Digital Mike. That said, here's a more relevant post:
All of the side projects have a few decent songs, though I've not heard enough of any of them to give an unbiased opinion, but overall they all sound nowhere near as good as New Order. Electronic sounds like awful dated Eurotrash music like PSB or REPUBLIC. Revenge just doesn't interest me all that much musically, though Monaco is more appealing to my ears, even if it is too poppy. The Other Two is very discoish but I can stand some of it as well. Overall, the side projects are all forgettable to me...nothing they did can remotely hold a candle to anything New Order did together...except most of Republic.
And now I'll crawl back to my hole and spew out more useless posts on the insane side.
That was a good post! You should've done that one first time around.
Now back to your hole....
Ally.
kamar wrote: I need to catch up on all of the Electronic albums. I loved the first one and "Raise the Preassure" was pretty good. Any suggestions on the others?
*Well, the only one you're missing is Twisted Tenderness, then there are two early singles, Getting Away With It and Disappointed, which you might have if you have the reissue of thei first album, and you're probably missing quite some B Sides, most of them excellent.
Although for a long time the first ELECTRONIC album was the best one for me,recently i must admit that TWISTED TENDERNESS got an awful lot of play by me.I did spend vast amounts on all the PROMOs too.The strangest one was buying the MINIDISC of it yet no more were ever released in this format for almost any groups.MINIDISC is a great medium for recording your own collection to and with the edit function you can actually NAME the tracks rather than write them out.I never wanted any of the side projects to BE NEW ORDER and just enjoy them for what they are.Some see them as LIGHTWEIGHT but i love the PSB also and some of this stuff has a feel about them too.At the end of the day if it sounds good to your ears there is nothing to be gained but MUSIC FOR PLEASURE.
Regards Rocket Mick
, and POPE shut up taste is subjectiveFor me it was that Getting Away With It single. For many many years it put me off getting any of the other side project stuff. In the last couple of years I have corrected this ommission.
On disc my selection would be The Other Two, though I accept its essentially high quality TV theme tunes.
Live its Revenge, no doubt. First time I saw them they opened with Lets Go, fantastic. Not just NO tracks though, they were just good entertainment.
Electronic and The Other Two. I think Tasty Fish is the best side project song, followed closely by Getting Away With It. :D
Probably Electronic. I liked all three of their albums. Actually, I like all the side projects except for Revenge. Just couldn't get into much of their songs. Monaco was class; Other Two was good but a few of their tracks off their last album had Melanie or whatever her name was, and I would have preferred Gillian singing. 
Barney was ma hero when I was younger, so I always sided with Electronic. Never liked Revenge's first single, so never even bought their stuff, which riles me these days. Hooky thought it was funny as fuck when I told him this in that famous lock in we had in Glasgow. What Do You Want From Me got all the hardcore neworder fans buying Monaco, and while I wasnae a massive fan of theirs I did enjoy their stuff. My Uncle John bought TO2 when the first album came out, loved Tasty Fish from the first listen (and funnily enough it's playing on my computer as I type)
Years later I have got loadsa Revenge MP3's and as I say I regret not buying the stuff cos there's a lot of good shit from them. Electronic are still ma faves though, their first album brings back so many happy memories from that time, Summer 91 was when we went to see the Mondays at Elland Road, the Electronic album had not long been released so we listened to that in the coach up to Leeds drinking beer and a 3 litre bottle of Pernod Shandy! Then we had Cities In The Park just after that. Happy Days. The first and 3rd albums are brilliant, never been the biggest fan of RTP though, even though there are a good few songs on it.
Revenge rock, how can you not like Big Bang, Pinapple Face, Slave and Trouble with Girls?
I didnt really care for Monaco, some good singles I admit, some not so good remixes, sounded way too much like New Order, In fact I think Bernard slammed Hooky about it in NME in 1997 when there weren't getting on well - "they sound just like me" when asked about Monaco (he was part of Electronic at the time).
The Other Two, I really love both albums, why didnt Gillian ever sing any New Order songs? I didnt like all the remixes.
Electronic, debut album and b-sides are superd, some distant memory, feel every beat, try all you want and idiot country are the best for me. I wasnt so keen on Raise the pressure (some good guitar from johnny though), and twisted tenderness was patchy, like the title track and make it happen, not so keen on the rest and the endless remixes!
I have to say Electronic too. Any band that can have Bernard, Johnny and feature Neil is incredible in my book!
All this side project shananigans has attracted fifteen years' attention totally out of proportion to its actual achievements. As I wrote elsewhere, just buy 'Electronic' and 'Music for pleasure'. If you like those, you could then go for either 'Twisted Tenderness' or 'Monaco', but they're hardly essential. The Other Two are nothing but anonymous instrumentals and Stock-Aitken-and-Waterman synthpap, 'Raise the Pressure' was the biggest disappointment of my life after missing Melanie C in concert round here, and Revenge weren't even a band, just an excuse for superegotistical Hooky to get on the road and dabble in some dodgy wank studies. I really can't understand how one pisspoor album has allowed a 2-hour re-release and a live CD over a decade later. I just want those lazy fuckers New Order to get recording their 9th album.
So, what are you really mad about? The fact that Electronic got a retrospective piece put out, or that NO hit a breaking point and didn't put out music for almost a decade?
As I said before, New Order aren't gods, they're human beings, and it's only natural that over nearly thirty years there are gonna be ups and downs. And the bigger the up, the bigger the down. It's only my opinion, but I reckon Barney made the best post-Curtis albums of his life (Techique, Electronic) followed by a decidedly lean period. Republic was the most forced effort since Movement, then he gave the okay to the Rest of..., then Raise the (yawn) Pressure. And the others were struggling at that point too. Do we really need Revenge and Other Two albums?... It wasn't till NO got back on the road in 98 that they sorted themselves out again.
