ShadowParty

So before anyone else is tempted to grasp at NO threads about new songs, keep in mind that ShadowParty are currently rehearsing and about to unleash themselves upon the world. I'm sure you'll agree that it's unlikely this would happen at the same time as NO doing anything substatntially new. ShadowParty being the band of new New Order members: Tom Chapman and Phil Cunningham along with "Josh Hager and Jeff Friedl from DEVO".

I got that from THIS ARTICLE from 2015, although I'm not seeing the Josh Hager name so much at the moment. As you can see, it also adds:

We have collaborators performing on some of our songs, such as Nick McCabe from the Verve (who joined us at SSR), William Cashion from Future Islands, Denise Johnson from ACR/Electronic/Primal Scream and Joe Duddell, who has worked with Elbow, new Order and Jimi Goodwin from Doves, who all add amazing textures to the music

I get the impression that Denise Johnson's contribution(s) are of the "lead vocal" variety, as she did a small festival gig with some of the above musicians a few months ago and she was up front and centre (also the band don't appear to have a specified lead vocalist).

FWIW I had a little twitter chat back in August with Mr Chapman and a lady called Michelle Hussey from BBC radio Manchester. There's definitely a track called Marigold, which at one point was on BBC iplayer/ radio player, but isn't now. Ms Hussey commented "I'm absolutely sure it is something we will be featuring again because they're amazing". And Mr Chapman said of the timing of the new music "Soon very soon". And now with the tweets below, the time has almost come, it appears.

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Nice t shirt (top RHS). Judging by the mention of Mute UK & USA, I think we can guess what label the music is coming out on. [TWITTER]957249675983192065[/TWITTER]

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EDIT: Oh yeah, in case this all looks familiar from the forum I did give it a mention in a Charlatans thread (post#8) about 10 months ago.

Ok, Maybe the Morrises and Sumners are doing helpful exercises and stretching and getting limbered up while Tom and Phil are already ready to release terrific stuff. At least maybe in the future mute might just build them a New Order cruise ship just for NO fans. Each week, 15 different songs each night = 105 songs .And even though they have written more great songs than anyone in the history of music, they realize there are way more genres that could use some fresh NO type ideas. What if they write new songs about outer space love? They will surely all be way better than other outer space love songs by other bands So , Bernard and Stephen must do their stretches, and stay limber

Ok, Maybe the Morrises and Sumners are doing helpful exercises and stretching and getting limbered up while Tom and Phil are already ready to release terrific stuff. At least maybe in the future mute might just build them a New Order cruise ship just for NO fans. Each week, 15 different songs each night = 105 songs .And even though they have written more great songs than anyone in the history of music, they realize there are way more genres that could use some fresh NO type ideas. They will surely all be way better than other band's songs So , Bernard and Stephen must do their stretches, and stay limber.

Uh oh I accidentally posted the same shit twice.

Well, Phil and Tom are having fun while the sumners and morrises are out yachting , but why not work with a more interesting duo, as those 4 songs are nearly awful.

Boy, do I hate all this bollocks. All this dickin' about. It's like the early 90s when it was all Revenge/Electronic/Other Two, Hassie, one-off collaborations etc etc etfuckinc. My feelings were always, Shut the fuck up and make another Technique... And they did. 25 years on.

keepitcoming wrote: Well, Phil and Tom are having fun while the sumners and morrises are out yachting , but why not work with a more interesting duo, as those 4 songs are nearly awful.

If you mean this shadowparty, then that ain't Tom & Phil's thing. Although confusingly they do mention NO as an influence in their little bio.

Anyway Tom & Phil's band have their own twitter now, and a festival slot booked at Dot To Dot.

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*EDIT1* also Chappers tweet listing collaborators and mentioning album:

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*EDIT2*: A long interview with Nick Mccabe of The Verve HERE from last August. Scroll down a bit and you will find:

You recently played a show with Pete, Martin Blunt from The Charlatans and Denise Johnson at Kendal Calling. How did that come about and will there be more shows and maybe even a record in the future?

We've been talking about doing stuff for ages. Me, Si, and Pete met up at Jodrell Bank because it's a midpoint for us geographically now...Then we bumped into a guy ... who said he'd been talking to Denise (Johnson) that afternoon. I had another chance meeting with Denise when I was working on the Shadow Party record. It's the two new guys from New Order and Devo, Tom Chapman, Josh Hager and various other people.

Tell me about the Shadow Party record? How did you become involved in that?

It's a social media thing really. I got chatting to a couple of those guys through Facebook and they invited me to go down and meet them. Which I did for coffee one day. It was the first time I'd met them face to face and we've been friends ever since. It just so happened they were making a record with a lot of different people and asked me if I'd like to be involved. Steve Perry from Journey is on it alongside loads of other bizarre and interesting people. I'm part of a cast of thousands! It's an ever revolving door. I've done seven tracks with them now. I've played so much on the record I didn't actually realise how much came out of it.

Steve Perry from Journey?!? [:eek]

from Facebook, ShadowParty will release his album in July (Mute).

Joe Duddell on Facebook:

Keep your eye on this band - Shadowparty - new venture from members of New Order & Devo. I wrote the string arrangements for their debut album which is out on Mute Records later this year.

“ShadowParty are a band united by a fairly unusual circumstance - each member is a latter-day addition to a huge band – but here they’ve combined as synthpop’s answer to The Avengers.

The nucleus of the group formed when Josh Hager and Tom Chapman met in Boston, Massachusetts. Josh is a former member of The Rentals and currently playing guitar and keyboards in Devo. Tom Chapman is the former bass player of Bad Lieutenant who followed frontman Bernard Sumner to New Order in 2011 when the band reunited for a series of charity gigs. Completing the group are Phil Cunningham, founder member of Marion and New Order’s guitarist since 2002, and drummer Jeff Friedl, who plays for Devo.

Now they’ve completed an album that nods to those groups but exists in its own right entirely, a synth-pop album with guitars and strings, and guests including the incomparable vocalist Denise Johnson (Primal Scream, A Certain Ratio) and The Verve’s revered guitarist Nick McCabe”

I'd like to thank ShadowParty for the backhanders they're slipping me each time I remind y'all of their existence. I'm up to a bag of Fruit Salads and a couple of Blackjacks (oh look Amazon actually sell these as a mixed 1 kilo bag!).

I’ll have the first play of their debut single next Tuesday @BBC6Music

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Oh look, it's me replying to myself...

"Celebrate" got it's first radio play this morning on BBC 6 Muisc. Go to 1hr,43min,33sec HERE

The vocals are - I think - by Johnny Marr's drummer Jack Mitchell. I suspect this may be a radio edit as it's only two and a half minutes long, and the intro is very short. The 17 second clip they teased yesterday (below) doesn't seem to appear quite like that.

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I guess this is the album artwork and title: In Devotion they found order. See what they did there? Anyone else reminded of Get Ready by the white lines? Oh how I miss Concorde; getting regular planes just isn't the same.

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**EDIT** Ah ok, here's the (slightly) longer version with the above sound clip at the beginning. I think I shall describe this as "jaunty".

Sorry - rarely notice posts on the other boards.

Pretty good song. Kind of reminds me of mid-90s U2.

Perhaps that "In devotion they found order" thing was misleading. Looks like the album is just called Shadow Party, and the Concorde image is nowhere to be seen.

Now listed on Mutebank HERE and HERE with a track listing and blurb. It seems Denise Johnson is on six of the tracks including the one we've heard - Celebrate. I guess she's in the chorus but it ain't obvious. I hope she'll be a bit more obvious elsewhere. Also hope the album may have a bit more experimentation to it than the single. The opening seconds of Celebrate had me thinking it might be quite edgy indie.

SP

Chappy chat:

NorthwichGuardian

Album is out tomorrow (July 27) anyone hear it? curious about the verdict....

LostSiren wrote: Album is out tomorrow (July 27) anyone hear it? curious about the verdict....

Yes. Early thoughts track-by-track

1. Celebrate: Doesn't quite live up to the first few seconds of intro, but "jaunty" remains my opinion. Looks like they tried to tap in to world cup fever judging by the football themed video they released recently.
2. Taking Over: Lyrics seem political "their lips are moving fast & theyre spinning lies". There's some synth bass here, also "americana" style guitars. Pleasant driving music with a message. Won't change your life.
3. Reverse The Curse: Early favourite for me: 80's NO handclaps, a funky repeated 3 note bassy synth/piano sound, some chords that almost sound like TBTHOG. And a groove that sounds borrowed from "Get Innocuous" by LCD. Oh and lovely prominent backing vox from Denise Johnson. Just as it ends I expect it to come back in, but it doesn't. It's not hugely original but I like a good groove. The only track I wish was longer (it's about 4min 30).
4. Marigold: Duddell strings, lyrics that go: "Take me to the days of old, take me back to your marigolds". Someone misses their mum? Would-be emotional pop/rock. I think there's a song in here somewhere, maybe it will emerge after repeated listening.
5. Sooner or later: "You've been a user and you've been used" - there's a hint of sneer about this, but there should be more. There's an 80's pop-rock vibe here, I can imagine a band with mild mullets and jackets with their sleeves rolled up performing this on a sub- Top of the Pops show. Forgettable.
6. Present tense: Co-written and co lead vocalled by Denise Johnson (the only lead vocal she gets, alas). There's some jaunty piano on here along with pleasant guitars. "If I turn off my heart after you I'll be free" - a break up song I guess. I love Denise's voice but I'm not sure song writing is her forte. At 5.09 in length it's too long for me. Another 80's flavoured pop-rock song that won't change the world.
7. Even So: A slow dramatic one. A similar vibe to Spiritualized's slowies. But not quite as good. Nice Dudell strings though, nice atmospheric production. This one is all about the verses and the vibe. Nice squally guitar at the end. I feel like this could have been great. It so nearly is.
8. Truth: A T-Rex tribute surely? The guitars are pretty much "Get It On", the chorus "What do you with truth?" sounds borrowed from Prince's Paisley Park (the song). Some synth bass underpinning the whole thing, Denise's backing vocals are right up there. Growing on me
9. Vowel Movement. Funky rock underpinned by "mighty real" (Sylvester) synths. This one feels like an INXS tribute, but I like INXS in small doses. The lyrics "come on, come on come on, it won't be long now" aren't exactly deep. You can dance and strut to this one though., and it's catchy. Release this as a single guys!
10. The Valley: Reverend & The Makers meets current (non-oasis) Noel Gallagher. Big drums, indie-rock vocals, pizzicato strings. It feels like there's a lot going on in the production. Can't really hear the lyrics though. It's...ok.

The whole album makes me think of other things, often from the 80's. None of it is bad, most of it is ok. Three or four songs are definitely good. I won't be buying the limited edition vinyl with scratch off foil, but it'll get another listen or two from me.

Thanks. I bought it an listened to it today - some good moments. Needs a few more listens to see if it really catches me and stays in heavy rotation. In my first impression among the heirarchy of New Order-associated acts, it's certainly light years ahead of Freebass and better than the back half of the Bad Lieutenant album, maybe.

Who did the cover? It looks like Saville.

Only listened to it twice so far. Present tense is as catchy as anything, really liking that one. The Valley is really quite nice. Nothing else holds together for me yet, as if there is too much going on… further listens required, for sure.

I've been listening to it a lot, which is a good sign. I like Celebrate much more than when I first heard it. Reverse the Curse sounds just like a Holy Ghost! tune (they're a Brooklyn group that opened for NO on the east coast leg a few years back). I quite like Present Tense. They should have featured Denise Johnson more, her voice is a livelier

Album gets better and better with every listen. Most of the tracks could do with being simplified a bit, to make them more accessible… they fidget about the whole time… which means plenty to enjoy in the long run, but hard to love immediately. Last album that I felt the same about was Them Crooked Vultures.

Loving this more and more. Reverse the curse a current favourite. Once you get your head around how this (just like. the other tracks) jumps between, and overlays, so many different ideas, it properly gets under your skin.

LostSiren wrote:

In my first impression among the heirarchy of New Order-associated acts, it's certainly light years ahead of Freebass and better than the back half of the Bad Lieutenant album, maybe.

Yeah, agreed. My comments about it being Ok were harsh. It's better than just OK. The closing track is the only one that really fits that category.

Spittingcat wrote: Most of the tracks could do with being simplified a bit, to make them more accessible… they fidget about the whole time…

Yes some of the intros mislead you because they sound different from the rest of the track. There may be an element of "too many cooks" here. Despite the fact that Celebrate is a very straightforward affair, other tracks feel like they needed the firm hand of a producer or band leader to say: " lets cut some of this stuff out". Perhaps this is what happens when you get professional musicians together who know how to play and record music but they lack a ruthless "ego".

Spittingcat wrote: Loving this more and more. Reverse the curse a current favourite.

Yep, still my favourite. When's the Erol Alkan extended rework?

Following on from Reverse The Curse discussion above, there may not be an Erol rework, but there is an Other Two remix according to Chappers on twitter just now. Was played before NO went on stage tonight. Tom says it will be released early September, full announcement soon. Well, early September is about three days away...

*Update Edit1: tweet*

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*EDIT 2*: According to this interview it's a remix EP.

The Other Two remix of Reverse the Curse is here, along with four other remix tracks which aren't really addressed in the Clash Magazine article.

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To paraphrase an old James Bond movie, the Other Two remix is different. Not better, just different. A Certain Ratio go for a more bouncy - and fun- take on the same track. There's also a promising sounding Outernationale remix (mentioned recently for their/his remix of Freebass' You Don't know This About Me). Present Tense gets a couple of remixes too (Stereotype, and Beg Steal or Borrow).

Digital only release.

Reverse The Curse: Other Two remix

Reverse The Curse: ACR rework

Reverse The Curse: Outernationale remix

Present Tense: Stereotype remix

Present Tense: Beg Steal Or Borrow remix

New EP