New Order - Technique

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.

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