New Order - Technique

_Technique_ is wonderful and fantastic. I was dubious about "Run" for a long time, but even that song has now won me over. ("All The Way" has taken its place as the dubious track.)

"Guilty Partner" is possibly their most underrated song.

I played the first Electronic album again recently. How MUCH better is it than anything they did subsequently? A couple of duff tracks but the rest are joyful AND triumphant.

*as per on any NO track generally

That Electronic album is pretty good. Maybe a bit overhyped at the time, though. Oddly enough, I just heard "Soviet" last week while watching a football news story at Martin's place. "Patience of a Saint" is a beauty and a half.

Yeah, I think this album has ended up being underrated by people because of how meh the rest of Electronic's output has been.

With Technique, I think one of the things that makes it great is its consistency -- it seems very seamless and cohesive, something that just plays well as an album.

The whole point of it for me is that it's a whole album. I adore the sweep of it. It's all of a piece. With grinning confidence it introduces itself in the hi-hats of the glorious 'this is where we all are' Fine Time, sets the emotional 'this is where we've come from' note with All The Way and then spins through five perfect whirls of sun-bleached pop, feet never hitting the floor. Is Vanishing Point a shining pinnacle or the comedown? Depends on whether I'm dancing, maybe. Either way, it's the brilliant heart of the album. Then Dream Attack comes along to shoot you through the heart again, an epilogue, the most beautiful of all mornings after.

It took a long time, but a few years ago I realized just how good "Run" really is.

I don't know if I told you, but I'm seeking sanctuary
You'll never guess the things that I do
I'll have the devil round for tea
Don't you know that I'm here beside you
Can't you see that I can't relax
When I saw you in my rearview
You could've stopped me in my tracks

I'll be there for you when you want me to
I'll stand by your side like I always do
In the dead of night it'll be alright
'Cos I'll be there for you when you want me to

You can take me to an island, ride across the stormy sea
We can worship pagan idols, there together you and me
Why don't you run over here and rescue me?
You can drive down in your car
Why don't we both take a ride and turn that key
We'll drive at 60 miles an hour

they are the most banal, senseless and cringy lyrics ever. in fact i think bernard is one of the worst lyricists of all time. at least other amateurs can do 'dumb' and sound cool, but this is sub-oasis. actually, the more i think about it, new order get far too much kudos. they're old, boring and earnest. fuck em.

The day before this record came out I had a very lucid dream that I was listening to it and it was the most fantastic thing I had ever heard. When I woke up I ran straight to the record shop to buy it and ran straight home again... and it WAS!

bernard butler's favourite album of all time too.

other thoughts :
http?//ilx.wh3rd.net/thread.php?msgid=1086897

Technique is a great album, no question. probably their best whole album, in fact. it's consistently good all the way through. as to complaints about Bernard's questionable lyrical ability, i've argued before that with NO, it' s the whole package moreso than individual components. admittedly some lyrics do make me cringe (i think it's a B-side from one of the "60 MPH" singles that contains the line "you keep me feeling fresh; we're driving down that highway" which always makes me think it belongs in a commercial for feminine hygiene products), but for the most part, i don't see how they're torn apart so often and with such abandon. i wouldn't say they're brilliant, but that doesn't mean they don't work a good portion of the time.

and although i'd argue that it's technical perfection, i wouldn't say Technique is my favourite, because Low-Life is. despite the sinful truncation of "The Perfect Kiss" and "Elegia" edits which are onboard. and probably mostly because of "Face Up," which never fails to amuse me. mmm, Bernard sounding psychotically gleeful. :)

Took me a while to get into 60 MPH, honestly. Liked Crystal and Rock The Shack better, poss. due to Bobby Gillespie on backing vocal.

No doubt Technique is class. Rates second for me, as there isn't a dud song in the bunch.

MAYBE YOU CAN. Whenever I hit "The PErfect Kiss" or "Sub-Culture" on _Low-Life_, all I can think is "FOR FUCK'S SAKE WHY CAN'T THIS MAN CARRY A TUNE??????"

but still.. one out of 60-75 aint bad.

The Other Two wrote the theme for a TV drama called"Making Out" (on telly 88ish based aroudn the workers in a small Manchester electronics factory) featuring Keith Allen as the boss. The theme was expanded upon and became... was it Vanishing Point. anyone better able to remember the theme and able to tally Technique trax with titles?

I listened to what used to be side 2 of Technique yesterday, and it was very good but... I don't know. It is FUNNY and SAD at the same time. Back in the block party era I though Fine Time was great and everything else came a long way behind. I think I was right.

I've bought noth Technique and Low-Life in the past, but returned both due to finding them unsatisfactory to my ears, for whatever reason. Nonetheless, I'd count New Order as one of my favourite bands from the 1983-1991 era - is that so wrong?

Also, "The Perfect Kiss" on _Substance_ is much more in tune vocally than the version on _Low-Life_. And don't get me started on the howling "OH HOW I CANNOT STAND THE THOUGHT OF YOU" nonsense.

1) Anything could be a single! You can't really say that about any other NO album. All The Way, Love Less and Guilty Partner would have made grebt singles around 84/5, but are perhaps not so late 80's.

2) I keep expecting Neil Tennant to come in during Mr Disco.

3) They've never really done anything like Dream Attack. Almost beat-pop.

4) Barney's sunkissed semi-acoustic and acoustic guitaring is unexpected. And unexpectedly good.

5) Steve Morris's live drums are genius. Just the odd hi-hat lift here and the odd emphasis there to punctuate the motorik machine.

6) 'Parasites and literasites they'd burn me if they can' (!!!!)

7) 'It don't take no Houdini to tell me what I am' (!!!!!!)

As ever, the Barney critics are so off-the-money.

This from a Cure fan?

Also, Robert howls in tune. Bernard does not.

and while it's definitely arguable that Barney and Robert definitely have some seriously out of tune warbling issues going on, their voices warble off tune in completely different ways to one another. well, most of the time. except for blatant, er, influenced-by moments such as "Sunrise" vs. "A Forest." ;)

(if we're going to get into whether various warblers are more on-key than others, i'd say as a whole Andy Mcluskey is a more on-key warbler, but then this gets into the question of whether we're looking at technical singing ability or effective vocalising...?)

(and, yanno, this also brings in one Stephen Patrick Morrissey, if we're going this far into the whole warbling thing. mostly an on-key warbler, but no range to speak of. him and Laetitia Sadier, i'm telling you...)

'tisn't a slight against any of them (whom i [mostly] all love), but just saying...

Some of the aptest comments on this thread have been about the splendid unity of the album, how it feels of a piece. Listened to it for the first time in a while last night and then again right now and that unity is if anything stronger with time -- and is perhaps further built upon by the album's brevity. I was honestly startled when I noticed that not even half an hour has passed by the start of the next to last song "Vanishing Point," something that honestly struck me and which I don't think I had ever noticed about the album before. In an era of CD bloat and constant complaints about 'only the hits being good,' the briskness is something which stands out all the more -- but even at the time it had to be something notable for its relentless focus.

It's hard to say that there's anything extraneous on the album as a result -- about the only thing I can actually think of that is is intentionally so, that cough and drone at the start of "Love Less," a 'mistake' or fillip that calls attention to itself by being there. Otherwise, the album is rigorously, almost maniacally precise, and though the comparison is not exact I am reminded of the particular precision of much modern day pop, where the beats and space and delivery is so tightly wound and cossetted to achieve an often brilliant perfection. Similarly Technique -- the 'rock' songs do not sprawl, there is no sloppiness, the 'solos' -- think the break on "All the Way" -- fit tightly within the songs, everything is a specific piece to the puzzle. The 'dance' songs similarly seem to draw on everything they had done before and increase the impact to a slippery, endless shifting that is so fantastically and frenetically effortless. "Round and Round" in particular -- after the stop-start-shift of "Fine Time," itself a razor-sharp exercise in element interacting with element and then spinning off from it at a right angle, this is even more insanely spot on. Listen to the difference in rhythms between verses and choruses, how Bernard has a ridiculously good anti-flow flow (and even a call and response with himself at one point, all the more striking for being the sole moment like it -- if it wasn't there it might never have been missed, now that it IS there it can't be ignored), and how nothing STOPS -- everything is pure fluidity at high speed. Compared to, say, the slow burn build of the extended "Perfect Kiss" or the triumphalist progression of "True Faith," this is spiralling choreography that gets more involved as it goes until it smashes into echo and dies.

The division between 'rock' and 'dance' is ultimately artificial though, thus the quotes. The fluidity of this album, how it does feel of a piece, lies in how easy the whole idea between switching from, say, live to synth drums and back again is, how sometimes synths are more prominent and sometimes the guitars are and sometimes it's all a specific balance and then it changes again. It's so ridiculously unforced.

Also, this album is so beautifully bright -- not without darker moments, the unnerving sense of threat and desperate clawing back in "Guilty Partner" led specifically by Peter Hook's bass, but something about it calls to mind the description I read once about eighties pop being an incarnation of the reflection of CD lasers bouncing off glittering cocaine. The high synth melody on the second verse of "Round and Round," the acoustic guitars Dr. C mentions above, the sweet rising/falling electronic chime on "Vanishing Point," much more. Combine that with the sense granted by the album's precision and one can imagine this as a high-flying instance of collage, like the album was never written and conceived as a series of songs in a 'classic' sense, however you wish to define classic.

And then of course there's "Run," their 'John Denver song' -- except John Denver never made me feel so perfectly on-point melancholy as that part Alan talks about way upthread where it all strips back to synth string and drums and then Steven Morris quickly switches to a louder but just as steady beat. Absolutely beautiful.

Quite possibly my favorite album of the eighties at least. One of the best ever for me, definitely.

Forty minutes, nine singles. One of those great albums you can put on repeat and never feel it drag.

There really does seem to be a strong synergy between all the band members while they were recording this. It's almost like they had unconsciously reached a point of comfort and chemistry between them, and by default, it elevated their songwriting to a more potent and distilled level.

I actually find the lyrics about relationships quite poignant, even if there are some goofy phrases now and then. Bernard has a way of "sighing" over his words; It's as if he firmly believes in what he is saying, but can't bear to reduce himself to melodramatic whining or shouting.

One of my favorite albums of all time, definitely.

I remember trying quite hard with my mini appreciation upthread. I don't often write things like that.

Which ones? The last ones I got were the 'lost' Blue Orchids album 'The Sleeper' and Section XXV 'Fron The Hip - Live in America', I think.

These are out now and are essential I reckon :

http://home.wxs.nl/~frankbri/ltm2398.html

http://home.wxs.nl/~frankbri/ltm2396.html

Cripes, about ten of them (I had a lot of store credit and was looking to fill in some gaps). I'll post 'em on the LTM thread here. The two you link are probably already en route, as Mr. Nice was kind enough to add me to his promo list a while back.

I've been waiting years for that.

I've said it before...Animal In My Head from the Fruit of the Original Sin comp is THE GREATEST POST-PUNK FUNKY/ANGULAR SONG EVER. Better then Fire Engines, Josef K., Boots for Dancing, insert whomever...

I also get the feeling that the Smiths must have had a huge influence as well on the songwriting. Compare "All the Way" to "Girlfriend in a Coma". The genius of Technique is to conflate the giddy bounce of "Girlfriend" (on the very edge of ska, if you squint your eyes), with the swinging feel of house. its why this album stands out: there are not many indie-house-pop hybrids that work quite this synthetically and well (though one can see superpitcher pushing towards this now from the other side. can't say i see him getting the balance right, though.)

About one description above--"the reflection of CD lasers bouncing off glittering cocaine"--I've never seen cocaine glitter, it's powdery dull; bathroom mirrors?

does anyone remember this being called their balearic album? some of cocteau twins "heaven" done under the same influences (its the only cocteau album I like)... "fifty-fifty clown" and "run" played next to "sueno latino" et al. in ibiza. maybe thats the better geneology of the album's light, pop, crypto-latin style

dan i do understand where your coming from, and its the opposite of where i am in some ways--I found Saunderson through NO and synthpop, not the other way around...obv. these things matter to one's impressions.

I play Perfect Kiss a lot as well. It kind of mixes itself when it goes through the instrumental parts, I used to mix it into a remix of Patrick Cowley's Mindwarp. New Order are the best band for transitioning from pop/new wave to electronic disco/house.

MTO/MTO2 is too tracky for the album; a great song, though if I remember that's the one that bites a contemporaneous Derrick May riff; Chris Orr left his record bag in my apartment after an extended afterparty, and playing through his records the next day I found the song, and was like, Damn! They straight stole that shit. I remember hearing that Detroit was up in arms over "Run" copping the style they invented; Sumner in discos taking notes and stuff. Pretty ironic in retrospect considering something like Kreem's "Triangle of Love" from roughly the same moment. Biting went both ways (though "TOL" is so lame it could be a parody...)

Here's the tracklisting from "Balearic Mastercuts", which was a precis of the evanescent genre in the moment of 'Technique'. All of this--save 'Wax the Van', since the Arthur Russell reissue--is pretty obscure/uncool now, but is a neat counterpoint to the thriving American house stuff, which is generally more rhythmically tense, moodier and more synthetic. Sublimely cheesy stuff but I'm feeling it, esp. Electribe, BBG, and the Grid (early Weatherall). A few songs sound like "Blue Lines" instrumentals (Sheer Taft!). They were playing some shambolic indie mixed with this stuff in the discos, and that stuff mostly curdles my blood: James (eeurgh), House of Love, Beloved, Sundays and that.

1. Barefoot in the head - Man Called Adam
2. Snappiness - BBG & Dina Taylor
3. La passionara - Blow Monkeys
4. Josephine - Rea, Chris
5. Talking with myself - Electribe 101
6. Flotation - Grid
7. Wax the van - Lola
8. Spiritual high - Moodswings
9. Cascades - Sheer Taft
10. Sueno Latino - Sueno Latino
11. Primavera - Tullio De Piscopo
12. Hoomba hoomba - Voice Of Africa

More than you ever wanted to know...

but Triangle of Love is the most blatant, for sure.

Fine Time
Run
All the Way
Round and Round
Love Less
Dream Attack
Vanishing Point
Mr. Disco
Guilty Partner

I love how I'm in love with this album again. It's always been in 'my top 10 albums' for as long as I've thought about such things, but I haven't been so immersed in how wonderful it is for ages.

there isn't a single weak moment on technique. it is sonically perfect, and very probably my favourite album ever made.

You may be right about that. It's one of those albums I've never gotten tired of.

I love it as much today as I did as a 14 yr old in 89.

But the hiss behind Fine Time's intro pisses me off !

This one. To which you said "Splendid stuff Ned. I will say more later." And I've been waiting! Not impatiently, though, that would be wrong.

am i really the only one who feels like this?

Oh wait, I forgot about KMFDM. So there was one, but they weren't even really ever my favorite band.

Why not accept a band's flaws as more reasons to hug them harder?

This is the point were a less-jaded me would incredulously type "You're kidding, right?"

Suffice to say that I'm not ever going to agree with you, ever.

That's cool, man. However, you're wrong: we both love New Order. After a few beers and a couple of listens to "Brotherhood" and "Technique," we can discuss my theory.

Detroit 89, soundboard, in it's entirety

enjoy

Listen to the Felix Da Housecat mix of Here To Stay for what Get Ready could have been.

New Order are so much more than ageing rockers and I hope the new album (which I'll buy the day it comes out) proves it.

Technique is fantastic.

shoot speed kill light (from exterminator) vs rock the shack:

the former is a razor-edged sprawl of scuzzy rock goodness, the latter is a dumb joke. the fact that primal scream made an ace song with barney and new order made a pish one with bobby suggests to me that NO are at fault here, not mr G.

That said, I feel for you, Fiendish, even if I don't agree with you. If it turns out the new one disappoints me, I still hope you like it.

this needs remastering.

They all do!

they sound ok to me

just turn it up, fool

That's how I noticed they needed remastering.

Also, I retract all the silly things I said upthread.

it could do with a 5.1 while we're at it.

just turn it up, fool

-- sexyDancer, Wednesday, 25 July 2007

--

That's how I noticed they needed remastering.

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 25 July 2007

me too.

we've entered a time warp
again, through a time warp

Lurve this bit by N. It's worth requoting in full:

The whole point of it for me is that it's a whole album. I adore the sweep of it. It's all of a piece. With grinning confidence it introduces itself in the hi-hats of the glorious 'this is where we all are' Fine Time, sets the emotional 'this is where we've come from' note with All The Way and then spins through five perfect whirls of sun-bleached pop, feet never hitting the floor. Is Vanishing Point a shining pinnacle or the comedown? Depends on whether I'm dancing, maybe. Either way, it's the brilliant heart of the album. Then Dream Attack comes along to shoot you through the heart again, an epilogue, the most beautiful of all mornings after.

It remains my favorite NO album by some distance, and the one that convinced me of their greatness. However, it's fascinating that Gill remarked on the "strong synergy between all the band members" yet earlnash notes that they "sound even less like a band playing together and more of songs put together via studio production." I say it's a bit of both, no? Anyway, Republic is the one that sounds like Bernard and Stephen Hague programming synths with the odd Hooky bassline here and there.

It's always sounded fine to me.

"Guilty Partner" is criminally great.

Have you come around on "All The Way"???

that was the track that instantly gripped me all those years ago.

I was trying to remember if my old rant about this album was upthread and it was. Good.

this is the best. ever. 'all the way' is my coming out song.

Listened to the reissue a few times through a week or so ago. Totally great album, possibly my fave New Order.

yeahhh

Listening to this for the first time. Love all their other albums so far. This and Republic are the last of the NO albums I've yet to hear.

So glad I waited for the reissues to hear them for the first time. This shit sounds amazing! I read that the original CD pressings sounded like crap.

So far so good! Currently on track five, "Guilty Pleasure". What I love about NO (and what NO veterans will think, "no shit," is that every album has a distinct sound - but to pull all these distinct-sounding records off with resounding success is rare, imo.

I mean, how many bands can/have pulled this off? The Beatles, Radiohead?

Barneywaves.

I love Technique. It's my favorite album of all time. OF ALL TIME! I can still remember unwrapping the cellophone on the cassette the day it was released. The opening of Fine Time made my heart race and I was on cloud 9 for months after just letting the tape flip over and over in the car.

the best pop album ever made. it's as simple as that.
― piscesboy, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 13:17 (7 years ago)

I concur with me. nothing's ever even come close. i kinda feel like England fans waiting for a team that will take them to victory like in 66. i've pretty much accepted it won't happen and i'm okay with that.

i mean this was a *number 1 album* in the UK and they advertised it with this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjpCr8wh6zE

man alive...

the original cd pressings don't sound like crap, except for love life which had pre-emphasis on it and so sounded bad if played on a player that doesn't deal with that (which would be most players now). I haven't listened to the official remasters because I still can't figure out how to tell if you have a good batch or bad batch (the first issues of the REMASTERS were apparently awful, and they have allegedly fixed those but I don't know anyone who has found the fixed ones). anyway easier to get all of this stuff (single wise) off the internet now, the fan-led remaster project was better.

copyright date on the spine says Rhino 2009. most of the corrected remasters don't have the Deluxe slipcase overlay.

did they correct the first CD in the package or was it just the second disc that had the flaws and needed correcting? i always thought the first disc sounded amazing on that first issue. the packaging was a bit rubbish though.

They speak!

That wasn't an advert, that was played on Tony Wilson's "The other side of midnight" TV show, if I recall correctly.

Or maybe it was an advert (just played it through).

Maybe for the american market..

It's my favorite album of all time. OF ALL TIME! I can still remember unwrapping the cellophone on the cassette the day it was released. The opening of Fine Time made my heart race and I was on cloud 9 for months after just letting the tape flip over and over in the car.

I don't know for sure if it's my favorite, but if I made lists this would definitely be in my top ten.

still GOLD:

NEW ORDER 'TECHNIQUE' by Chris Roberts - from Melody Maker (1989)

It begins. It thumps with glee, it swirls with lackadaisical intensity. "You're much too young to be a part of me, you're much too young to get a hold on me." And never have veterans sounded so brilliantly arrogant, masters so eager. Jesus. "Technique" is so effortlessly GREAT, so languidly heroic, so vibrant and thrilling despite itself, that one wishes one could weep. As the Austrian philosopher Rose Royce once commented: "I'm in love (and I love the feeling)." That's what this is like. I first hear it on a train from Waterloo and as the power stations and football pitches fly past, I want to get out and race the train to the sound of this perfect, perfect music. New Order know that the times throw a malfunctioning grey electric blanket over our emotion, but also that the slightest wriggle could be the one to turn it on again. They do this wriggle repeatedly, on every jauntily fatigued song, like they've done it many times before. Only on "Technique", they do it more skilfully and confidently than ever. This leads not to plushness or sumptuousness, but to a tumbling pumping river of their strengths, their weaknesses, their glib grandeur. Never have New Order sounded so little like people from Manchester, so much like gods.

It's clear by now that, though they seem able to clean up in any medium, there are two bas(s)ic New Order modes of transportation - the pop one which is like The Cure ripping off New Order, and the disco one which is like Shannon ripping off New Order. Both are severally represented here without any falling between two stools. Their feel is whisker-fine, their surges are princely. Albrecht's fragmented and victimised, but resilient, paper-mache poetry hauls itself up for what stings like one final summation of the shameful agonies of being male, of being prey to love and lust with equal sincerity/severity. Of acknowledging a bewildering sense of futility but still for some reason writing things down. When I say "male" I don't mean to imply that a "female" couldn't have written these simple yearnings and elegies, but that she wouldn't have started from the same angle. Undoubtedly "Technique" is inspired by a vulnerable, peculiarly boyish, somewhat petulant romanticism. from start to finish, from (heart on) sleeve (a cherub) to beaty monster inside.

"I can't find you, I can't find my peace of mind without you." As ever New Order temper Barney's pseudo-metaphysical couplets with a deceptive flippancy. (this is what always made them better and deeper than Joy Division.) "Fine Time " bubbles in, fascistically and facetiously making you dance. "Sophisticated lady, you got style and you got class, but most of all..." We strain to hear the punchline. We want to hear the punchline. We need to hear the punchline. "...Love technique." Ah, that'll be the title then. I am fully prepared to believe the lamb bleating at the end of this track is Christ applauding.

From then on it's irresistible, New Order marching through eight effervescing asphalt plains. There isn't a sub-GREAT moment to be found. When the majestic swooning "Run" "takes it down" you know that if the modernist ensemble come rushing back in with all swooshes blazing before the song fades, you'll start giggling at how marvellous all this is getting. They do. You do. you're sold. you're buying. You're coming out for spring. "All The Way" is gently awesome, precision guitars and rhythms levitating Albrecht's camp grandiloquence: "It takes years to find the nerve to be apart from what you've done, to find the truth inside yourself and not depend on anyone." There are many confessionals regarding strain, age, doubt, determination. "Love Less" and the probable next single "Round And Round" (a shimmering white funk whirlwind, if whirlwinds can shimmer, which I'm sure they can) build an apposite bridge between sentiment and dynamism. The latter is again evocative of travel, of flirting with life's hugeness. New Order are all about those minutes when you feel like a winning underdog and you knew all along you could do it. Of course, there's some miserablism. The beautiful (no other word) "Vanishing Point" and "Dream Attack" allow the lights up at the end of the party and, well, things are really quite manageable. They don't get morose. They get serene. Authentically. Before this there's a snarling "Guilty Partner", a bloodrush rather self-effacingly called "Mr Disco", and the aforementioned and utterly regal "Run", possibly their most poised and potent sculpure since "Thieves like Us". Play it loud and obsessive. Ultimately New Order are a subjective experience. A hundred lines here provoke productive self-examination and the hygiene of the sound encourages more anima projections than "La Boheme". I'm not being indulgent here (not by my standards) but you should be when you listen to it. And it swings, did I say it swings? "My life ain't no holiday, I've ben through the point of no return. I've seen what the man can do, I've seen all the hate of a woman too." Yes Bernard, we're all growing up. England's finest reluctant pop poet. I mean it. When he hits menopause there'll be a hell of a novel in this man. Meanwhile, the propulsion of the grooves is crisper than ice, more active than anarchy, swaggering on crutches. When New Order are this GREAT, this effortlessly, the rest might as well go home and peel onions or something. "Technique" is the state of the embers of the Eighties, mystique and mistakes merging, kissed by the ruby lips of God. "Technique" is a rare and ravishing triumph.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkWxlb8EIYE

Been listening to this album a lot lately. Every time I listen to this album I'm always struck by how many fantastic moments there are on it... the hi-hat and throbbing bass on the intro of 'Fine Time' before the drums kick in! That pulsing, phasing synth at the end of 'Round & Round'! The 'Just Like Heaven'-isms of 'All The Way'. Fucking brilliant album. Their most perfect record, IMHO.

I just started getting really really into this for the first time ever! So much fun.

At the end of the video Steve grabs a surfboard and runs straight to the beach!

I was more fascinated by Bernard Sumner's dancing! Aciiieeed!

Best album by the best band of all time!!!!

I'm unsure about 'best band of all time', but it's easy to see why 'Technique' is so highly praised. The consistently strong songwriting, and a clarity in the production that its predecessor 'Brotherhood' lacked (even though I understand some might find the murky production of 'Brotherhood' part of the charm of that record). Those throbbing DX7 basslines, augmented by Peter Hook's unique bass sound. It's probably the New Order album that features the least amount of lyrical clunkers, and I think this was the record where Bernard Sumner truly became a good singer. His voice on the earlier albums was a bit all over the place, although at the same time arguably more expressive - but his vocals here are just sublime, IMO.

On the first Electronic record Sumner showed how much he'd learned from this album.

I'll admit, I haven't heard the first Electronic record aside from the singles ('Getting Away With It', 'Disappointed', 'Get The Message') which I really really liked. I have heard 'Raise The Pressure', though, which I didn't like at all.

You must listen to that first record immediately.

You must listen to that first record immediately.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, October 28, 2011 1:04 AM (18 seconds ago) Bookmark

Noted Ned, will get a hold of it ASAP! Enjoyed your write-up of 'Brotherhood' in the 'Brotherhood' thread, btw!

The Best album evahhh

crikey yeah Electronic wipes the floor with Republic or Brotherhood IMO.
it's fantastic in places. this is one of those places

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ahvctVWv18

also here's a nice B side which james 'LCD' murphy is very fond of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD6-bMRJJZY

I was singing the first track of Electronic's first album in the shower this morning. Great record, don't think it hits the heights of Technique though.

I will stick up for "Raise the Pressure", some nice breezy pop songs on that record. Holds some good memories for me too.

also here's a nice B side which james 'LCD' murphy is very fond of

Wait -- really? Awesome!

it's a great b-side regardless of james murphy

going on a downloading spree, this sounds strangely very modern!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HXXIsgZZkg

I'm very fond of the "Feel Every Beat" b-side "Second to None" – as good as any album track. Love all those synths over the outro.

Love that 808 State remix, dayo.

I've given the first Electronic album a listen as per Ned's recommendation and it is indeed great, of the tracks I hadn't heard before I really enjoyed 'Tighten Up' especially. I guess what prevented me from checking it out was I'd heard 'Raise The Pressure' and thought "hmm... maybe the singles were the best thing about this collaboration", and thus avoided going back and checking the first one out. I'm glad I eventually did. I don't think it gives me the 'lift' that 'Technique' does, but I found it to be a much, much more solid album than 'Republic', easily!

got plenty of love for Republic but anyway - "Some Distant Memory" is the true hidden gem on that first Electronic album (the oboe part!)

I'm finally starting to get Technique---"Fine Time" is a weird opener, I think, jagged & herky-jerky, not anthemic, not particularly melodic: it never brings me into the album. It would work fine as a side 2 track album (I don't mean on *this* album, I mean in terms of the album pacing I prefer). But if I kinda don't pay attention to that opening, "All The Way" gets things started just right.

But yeah, the first Electronic album is a classic, as are the remixes & b-sides.

o_O I think "Fine Time" is ALL anthem and melody!

maybe I'm too young

much too young

o_O I think "Fine Time" is ALL anthem and melody!

― he carried yellow flowers (DJP), Friday, October 28, 2011 3:17 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

Completely agree! And as a statement, it can't be beaten either.

"Fine Time" is also a ridiculously great album starter, one element after another continually built up to create the full song -- it's notable that one of the most stereotypical New Order elements, Hook's bass, is the last thing to appear after everything else, almost like it's the sudden new anchor to the song that slams everything else back into an overall context.

abs.

That's precisely right, re: Hook's bass on the track. The curious thing is that until it kicks in, I don't find myself missing it!

also "All the Way" is my least favorite song on the album by some distance; I generally skip it

haha yeah that's great. maybe what's going on is that I love NO firstly as a rock band & only secondly as a dance band? Both elements are there in all their best work, but "Fine Time" forefronts the dance side & "All The Way" forefronts the (folk) rock side.

That's fair enough. When it comes to their 'dance' side, I think 'Fine Time' is one of their best... I definitely prefer it to stuff like 'Shellshock' and 'Confusion'!

I vividly recall unwrapping the Technique cassette and listening to the opening track on the drive home. It was stunning, thrilling, unexpected. Still my favorite album of all time. Electronic's debut is in my top 5. Rewound Tighten Up so many times I'm surprised the tape didn't break.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPIoEr_ubEg

Fine Time sampled nicely in this track.

I had forgotten how effective the 1-2 closing punch of "Vanishing Point"/"Dream Attack" is; I actually almost never listen to this whole album front to back these days so playing the whole thing is a fresh experience all over again.

"All The Way" was for a long time my favorite song. I'd never heard a "confessional" song with a bass track so muscular.

xxxpost:

Listening to Neil Tennant singing about driving his car 'bloody well' on 'The Patience Of A Saint' brought a smile to my face! Great electronic snare sound on that track as well.

I'd like to put forward the opinion that if you removed Bernard Sumner's vocal from 'Guilty Partner', and got Martin Hannett to produce the backing track, you'd have the makings of a Joy Division track.

but why on earth would you do that?

because it would sound murky and forlorn and awesome?

("Guilty Partner" is one of my faves off of the album)

but it already sounds murky, forlorn, and awesome!

it sounds crisp, forlorn and awesome

well, it's my least favorite song: the chorus is meh. But that massive synth wash at the end (and more thrusting Hook bass).

'Guilty Partner' is one of my favourites from the album as well, the moments where the chorus kicks in are so powerful for me.

I'm unsure about 'best band of all time'

They're in a toss-up with two other bands for me. Lean towards them, mostly.

yeah Guilty Partner was always my least fave track; sticks out too much. oddly enough i was present when they played it live for the first time ever! didn't like it any more after that though either.

xpost

What are the two other bands?

When my roommate first played this for me in high school, I absolutely hated it. I couldn't stand the synths and could barely get past the first track. It was only about twenty years later that I realized how unbelievable the songwriting is and that the balance between the synth stuff like Vanishing Point and Hooky acoustic songs like All the Way is just about perfect. My favorite LP of theirs by some distance.

I find a lot of New Order's charm stems from the fact that it orbits "best band of all time" almost entirely by accident, and certainly barely by design.

Yeah. Well put.

What are the two other bands?

My Bloody Valentine and Roxy Music (and sometimes also The Jesus and Mary Chain and Pulp)

crikey yeah Electronic wipes the floor with Republic or Brotherhood IMO.

oh hell no

"got plenty of love for Republic but anyway - "Some Distant Memory" is the true hidden gem on that first Electronic album (the oboe part!)"

was just going to say this; my favorite song on the album, beats several NO songs for me as well. I think the first Electronic album certainly beats Brotherhood/Republic/Get Ready/Sirens.

I knew ILE was home when I discovered six years ago the "Some Distant Memory" love.

some distant memory is also a favorite of mine. the electronic album is the best thing sumner was ever involved in, in my opinion. absolute masterpiece.

I found a sealed LP copy of Technique at an antique store last week!

I played Technique on LP over the Christmas Break. It's still my favorite album.

RE: Electronic, did those who would be interested get the great Greg Wilson edit of Getting Away With It? it's 11mins long!

never heard of that Greg Wilson edit, where can I hear it?

?

There's a .wav on Wilson's Soundcloud, along with extensive sleevenotes: http://soundcloud.com/gregwilson/electronic-getting-away-with

Friend of mine just got this vanity plate (Technique's catalogue #)

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/541319_10100638086042477_1700186350_n.jpg

Bummed I didn't think of it first.

some distant memory is also a favorite of mine. the electronic album is the best thing sumner was ever involved in, in my opinion. absolute masterpiece.

― zingzing, Sunday, January 1, 2012 6:30 PM (9 months ago)

Can't agree with the second and third sentences but otm x 1000 on the second.

?

*the FIRST that is

Spotted a one-line mention in this months Mojo that New Order are about to go back into the studio to work on an "electronic" album. I assume the style, not the side project.

Bernard has most of an album written with Stuart Price producing. Wonder if any of that will turn up on this as New Order rather than the solo project.

why did my mind briefly think you'd said 'stuart murdoch' and actually start wondering what that would be like

still have very distinct memories of buying this on cassette at a strip-mall record store in 1989.

in los angeles IIRC

I remember buying this on cassette from the local indie shop and not even realising it was released. To this day I still don't know if I got it early.

And then I proceeded to play it at least once a day for months.

Repurposing a post above in part, plus other stuff, and...

http://thequietus.com/articles/14359-new-order-technique-review

I have probably said this upthread somewhere, but this album coincided with the height of my New Order obsession (& drugs intake) and I even had a dalmation named Barney at this point and I used to sing "you got class, you got style, you got... SPOT technique!" at him.

(lovely dog but he was totally vicious and there was p much no one in the local scene he hadn't bitten, in the end)

Will read yr take when I'm on a laptop again, Ned.

Thanks. I figured loading in a specific bunch of SoCal context/content was the way to go to give this an anchor, especially for a UK-based publication.

Very nice. Technique was the first NO album I ever got. I've heard the ones before it but haven't yet ventured past that point. But right now I feel like Technique was where they were able to at least minimize the band's weak points (the singing and the production) for long enough to make the classic album they'd always been capable of. I noticed the same thing as you, it is a surprisingly brisk listen - I don't think the album is too short by their standards (about 40 minutes isn't it?) but it does play very much like a "greatest hits".

I already new before I read Ned's piece that it was going to be one of my favourite pieces of writing about music ever, but it exceeded expectations and made me feel 25 years younger. Thanks!

Well, thanks very kindly for that indeed!

It also made me realise that it was 25 years ago today that I walked into my local indie shop and saw it on the shelves, not realising it was out - in fact thinking it was out the following week - and buying it in cassette and taking it home to listen to on repeat. The following months I listened to it at least once daily, not really knowing anything about the band, trying to construct an idea if them from the Saville artwork and what I'd decoded from Substance. Every button was pushed. I wanted 12" singles for all 9 tracks. This music is in my DNA

25 years.

*wibbles*

*gibbers*

*quakes*

*is unable to cope*

But yeah, I accidentally image-bombed myself with this, this morning, so I'm just going to leave this here and pretend we're both still that young.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/8b5fd149acfc8a058ddede50527868b1/tumblr_n06iv6oPkk1rjw8sqo1_1280.jpg

Turning point album for me. Personal Top 10 4eva.

Then Play Long reaches New Order at long last: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/new-order-technique.html

Loved that write up, thanks.

It also made me listen to Bummed again

Random New Order question that doesn't seem appropriate for any particular thread or worthy of creating its own so I'll use this one dedicated to this remarkable album.

Does anyone know who the person was who actually did the inscribing of hidden messages on the New Order vinyls in the 80's?

I'm surprised, I must admit, that Sumner didn't write lyrics by himself before this album. Guess this explains why they're so much sharper here than usual.

Is this the one that seemed from ... self-medication?

Every album was.

Maybe I'm thinking of "Republic?" There's one album where Sumner supposedly set a regiment of maybe ecstasy to help him break his lyric writer's block (which lol lyric's block with this guy), not recreationally but almost medicinally. Maybe it was the second Electronic record? I can't remember.

In the 1990s, he took part in some BBC documentary about the effect of Prozac on creativity. I remember him talking about how it cured his writer's block. Maybe that's what you're thinking of?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RDCHhULhN0

The second Electronic album.

Aha, that's it! Technique was the divorce album. Love was the drug I was thinking of.

Raise the Pressure, by no means a masterpiece but under-rated I think, Forbidden City is lovely

That second Electronic album has some decent moments on it, but it's mostly dull, IMO - there's about 2 or 3 tracks I'd keep, but even then...

I'd go as high as maybe 6 if you include some b-sides from that album, but Raise the Pressure is pretty poor overall. Bizarre that the vinyl is so expensive on the 2nd hand market.

I remember those Prozac articles. If anything they were harbingers of the often bland rock pop that was to come for New Order for ages.

Does anyone know who the person was who actually did the inscribing of hidden messages on the New Order vinyls in the 80's?

Here's the description from Peter Hook's New Order bio:

"The run-out groove messages were our way of tantalising the listener with a little puzzle or lyrics from the song that was coming next, inspired by Porky Prime Cuts, a mastering plant in London. Porky (George Peckham), a record cutting engineer, was famous for scratching little missives into the run-out groove of his mastered records".

Ha, yeah... I've got a lot of records that were mastered by Porky Peckham, they usually have 'A Porky Prime Cut' in the run-out groove. His cuts were top notch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrSL6f3NMmY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ11hvuiHbQ

These guys could be brilliant live. They could also be dismal.

They could also be dismal.

The performance of "Run," for starters. I can't tell if the sound people mixed Hook's bass too high, or if Gilbert didn't know her guitar part. At best I'll say it's February and they're still getting to know the new material.

That was exactly what made me post that.

I think you're onto something with the idea of new material. I saw them in 85, touring for Low Life, pretty well into the tour. One of the three best shows I've ever seen. The next year, they came to town for Brotherhood. Fucking awful. I also think Barney in particular was/is very picky about the sound system.

the "run" performance" just sounds like a terrible mix, everything except the bass and vocals is drowned out

And most of all...

Happy 35th.

Happy birthday to the greatest album ever recorded.

Annnd here's Ned's 30th anniversary piece published a decade ago: https://thequietus.com/articles/14359-new-order-technique-review