New Order - Technique

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.