first thoughts on Electronic

I've always been a strict JD/NO fan, never really paid much attention to any of the side projects. Curiosity got the better of me so i got hold of a copy of Electronic - Electronic.

Have to say, im far more impressed than i thought i would be. Plenty of class tunes; Tighten Up, Reality, Soviet, Idiot Country and of course Get The Message.

Interesting to think that Barney did this between Technique and Republic. I find it hard to believe Republic came after what i see as an overall superior LP, altough i've know that Republic was a very forced effort.

So yeah, Electronic impressed me, and i never thought they would

Are the other side projects and later Electronic going to surprise me further?

Electronic second effort may take a few listens to break through but there are many good tracks on that. Their third and last, Twisted Tenderness sports the title track which is nothing less than perfect, Vivid and a few others. -You´ll find Electronic in more rockier terms on this one. Monaco have a few tunes, What do you want from me?, Kashmere and few others. In my opinion not as strong as Electronic. The Other 2 did Tasty Fish, Selfish and few more but rest very forgetable. Revenge is pretty mixed.

My first thoughts were; WOO-HOO!

RTP is fantastic musically; less so lyrically.

TT took a lot of listens before admiration set in; it's the rockiest of the lot and pointed to more promise in the future.

He's hoping Marr and Sumner get it on again some day!

Ruddinn wrote: Electronic second effort may take a few listens to break through but there are many good tracks on that. Their third and last, Twisted Tenderness sports the title track which is nothing less than perfect, Vivid and a few others. -You´ll find Electronic in more rockier terms on this one. Monaco have a few tunes, What do you want from me?, Kashmere and few others. In my opinion not as strong as Electronic. The Other 2 did Tasty Fish, Selfish and few more but rest very forgetable. Revenge is pretty mixed.

I have to agree with most of that, but I will add that Monaco's second album was in my opinion very underated. Less poppy than Music for Pleasure it still had some high points esp. "It's a Boy". I just always felt that Pottsy was a little too Embrace-esque for my liking.

As for Electronic, their debut album was superb, especially the Holy Trinity of Get the Message, Some Distant Memory and Feel Every Beat.

If you take the side project albums (8?) i think there might be two,maybe 3 albums worth of material that was good enough to be put out as NewOrder. So yeah,its worth checking out.

ohh to be just discovering Electronic's Electronic. WoW.

Having said that, for the first time I listened to Revenge's Gun World Porn and One True Passion (some over exhubrent Ebaying). Anyway, I was impressed. I was ready not to like either and to be honest could barely remember Pineapple Face on its own. Nonetheless, I thought the songs on the whole had some craft and poise. Yes, they don't live up to NO or the first Electronic LP but on initial listen, a pleasent discovery. (15 years late.)

First thoughts were - I really hate this. Now I hate it with less of a passion but I really still don't like it. Some of it sounds really tinny and dated and the rapping is just terrible.

Even though the other two had also dated a bit they are still my fave side project. Gillians vocals just lift me up so much and the layers of sound always fascinate me.

Chris Nash wrote: The thing that spolied the Electronic stuff for me was the terrible 'rapping' that Barney got into.

Chris, I have to agree with you on that but have to say Feel Every Beat was the exception to the rule. Barney's rapping is quite cutting (eg; "..well received but I don't send...") and his Manc/Salford accent comes thru a la Ian Brown. Sort of.

If only somebody could please tell me the meaning to the bloody lyrics...

("Put your faith in the mother load" What the fook was that about?!!! )

Craig W wrote: My first thoughts were; WOO-HOO!

RTP is fantastic musically; less so lyrically.

TT took a lot of listens before admiration set in; it's the rockiest of the lot and pointed to more promise in the future.

He's hoping Marr and Sumner get it on again some day!

I agree with all of this.

I loved the first album, then RTP even more, and it did take me several listens to appreciate TT, probably because it is much rockier than the first two, so it wasn't what I was expecting.

FrogChorus wrote:

Are the other side projects and later Electronic going to surprise me further?

Aye, Twisted Tenderness is also a MUST HAVE. Some really classy tunes on it such as Vivid, Can't find my way home, Haze etc etc.... Not saying that you shouldn't listen to Raise the pressure as well, it's a very good and catchy pop album but bear in mind that all 3 albums are musically kind of different.

Can't say Revenge has ever impressed me much but make sure you pay attention to Monaco, both albums are pretty cool.

Mrs. Brightside wrote:

FrogChorus wrote:

Are the other side projects and later Electronic going to surprise me further?

Aye, Twisted Tenderness is also a MUST HAVE. Some really classy tunes on it such as Vivid, Can't find my way home, Haze etc etc.... Not saying that you shouldn't listen to Raise the pressure as well, it's a very good and catchy pop album but bear in mind that all 3 albums are musically kind of different.

Can't say Revenge has ever impressed me much but make sure you pay attention to Monaco, both albums are pretty cool.

TT is shite. i was dead disappointed.

J.A.K wrote:

TT is shite. i was dead disappointed.

once more?

Very first impression was when i first heard Getting Away With It in 1989.Loved it straight away.Very accessible song.Many people i knew that didn't like NO loved it .

then Electronic's first album in 91.A classic. Musical heaven it was and took just one listen to fall in love with it.

I fall in and out of liking RSP and TT.RSP is kind of good but thn again...

TT is alright

Erm, what exactly is RSP?

OOps ,RTP then

Dont miss Superhighways!

I remember getting the first Electronic release. Man. Was I really that young? I was a big NO, PSB and Smiths fan and it was like some cosmic blessing to have an album blending all these wonderful musicians together.

Soviet became a quick fave, too. Instrumentals always do that to me, though. Lush. I need to re-put together a collective instrumental cd of all the different releases again, now that I've though on it.

After listening to all of the albums by all of the projects, I've just gotten to the point where I like them all on their own merits and don't try to associate it much with what could have been but what was. Seeing their separate but alike creative outputs was pretty exciting to me as it showed pieces of personalities and their own engrained preferences in directions.

Or so I like to believe. It's not much of a circumstance of anyone being forced into an album, at least. They all just seemed to enjoy what they were doing, even when it didn't sell well or wasn't hailed as a fantastic jam.

I used to play Soviet on my keyboard!

Haven't played in years though :\ohwell:

[brown]Ally[/brown] wrote:

Mrs. Brightside wrote: I used to play Soviet on my keyboard!

Haven't played in years though :\ohwell:

Can you remember the chords?? :D

I'll try when I have time. I don't normally write things down which is rather stupid. Silly cow!! Me not you! :D

I love The Other Two and You. Unfortunately never been able to get a copy of Superhighways. :( Likewise I like Music For Pleasure a lot, but haven't been able to get Monaco. Revenge are OK. I like the music a lot, but not so much the vocals.

For me Raise The Pressure is a tremendous album and I have always liked Electronic.

The smiling faces of the neighbours Proud of their endeavours Unemployed forever Watch TV at home

has their ever been a more stinging and scathing attack at Thatchers Britain

I liked Electronic since hearing Getting Away With It and I agree the first self titled album had many gems on it Tighten Up, Reality, Soviet, Idiot Country, Get The Message etc. I too am that old that I bought it on Cassette tape when first released through Factory (it doesn't have Getting Away With It on it and might be a collectors item now?!) and also like Raise The Pressure that saw Sumner and Marr team up with ex-Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos and the more rockier Twisted Tenderness which has a title track thats as good as any of the Dance inspired stuff New Order have done. Haven't got around to getting the Other Two, Monaco and Revenge albums yet so which one would you recomend to getting around to first as hopefully I will get them ASAP. I do prefer New Order's more Dance inspired tracks but also like the indie rock stuff they've done. Don't know whether or not the ideas in these side projects would have been better within a New Order album but at the time I think it did the band members good to work with other ideas and people and lets face it New Order would probably have split up if they had tried to do a follow up to Republic in their hiatus period in the mid 1990's.

P.S. The best 'side project' track any New Order member has done IMO is the Chemical Brothers Out Of Control and Bernards work on this track impressed Hooky so much so that he said it was the best New Order track they never done, cheers!

i liked Electronic from when they first came on the scene,and i still listen to them quite often.

Actually I didn´t like the first Electronic album when it first came out. I found it a bit of embarrasment trying to have my mates listening to it, and them taking the CD out, claiming it girlish rubbish and putting in Stone Roses, Guns´n Roses, Jesus Jones which was the thing happening at the time. Remember one of my mates bursting out in laugh by the lines of Some Distant Memory "See that girl? She´s over there. I don´t need her. She doesn´t care" -Very much not in line with GnR "Welcome to the jungle" I also found the album in bad alignment compared to the (at the time) more cool sound of the Roses, Mondays etc. Still the album got rave reviews and after repeated listening there was more than the girlie or PSB sound than appeared first.

Ruddinn wrote: Actually I didn´t like the first Electronic album when it first came out. I found it a bit of embarrasment trying to have my mates listening to it, and them taking the CD out, claiming it girlish rubbish and putting in Stone Roses, Guns´n Roses, Jesus Jones which was the thing happening at the time. Remember one of my mates bursting out in laugh by the lines of Some Distant Memory "See that girl? She´s over there. I don´t need her. She doesn´t care" -Very much not in line with GnR "Welcome to the jungle" I also found the album in bad alignment compared to the (at the time) more cool sound of the Roses, Mondays etc. Still the album got rave reviews and after repeated listening there was more than the girlie or PSB sound than appeared first.

"Girly embarrasment"? There was nothing embarrassing about the girls it helped me pull in Magaluff in '91...

As G 'n R - for fooks sake the girly looking guitarist is from Stoke-on-fookin-Trent!

Although not a side project, nor a NO track, I've always been partial to Barney's vocals on 808 State's Ex:el track, Spanish Heart

Quality