A Re:Appreciation of Technique

New Order - Technique

Ripped from a vinyl album released on Factory Records (FACT 275) in 1989 to high resolution 24-bit lossless flac audio. New Order's final album for Factory took an eternity to arrive and whilst many now list it as a favourite, for me it was a disappointment at the time. Of the singles since Brotherhood, True Faith and Bizarre Love Triangle were classics, whereas State Of The Nation, and Shellshock were just poor. State and Shell sounded rushed and although gorgeously packed, they lacked the creativity of the others. To me, this was a warning sign.

New Order were always masters of mixing melodic indie-guitar-pop and electronics, a combination which worked really well on Low-Life and then a little less so on Brotherhood. For me, the main flaw was Fine Time, a single which for me sounds like a cobbled together and unnecessary attempt at acid house. New Order had a formula which worked well, but I have always thought Fine Time should have been just left as a single and not allowed to open their fifth long player. In contrast, Round & Round is a return to form spoilt by a 12" version which took far too long to get going, thankfully the single and album versions were left alone. Vanishing Point is just great, like a sequel to True Faith, it would have made the perfect first single. Likewise, Mr Disco is the sequel to Bizarre Love Triangle. There are five guitar tracks on the album, of which All The Way stands out head and shoulders above the rest. Run 2 was an unusual choice of single, I can only assume that the band needed to reconnect with their core following after the disappointing performance of the preceding singles. 

New Order found a lot of new fans with the success of True Faith and so for them Technique would have been their first New Order album. Hence I can understand why it features as the favourite of so many, however this grumpy old fan just didn't feel the same sense of elation as years previous when he heard PC&L and Low-Life for the first time.

A1 Fine Time

A2 All The Way

A3 Love Less

A4 Round & Round

A5 Guilty Partner

B1 Run

B2 Mr. Disco

B3 Vanishing Point

B4 Dream Attack

New Order - Fine Time

Ripped from a 12" vinyl single released on Factory Records (FAC 223) in 1988 to high resolution 24-bit lossless flac audio.

A1 Fine Time

B1 Don't Do It

B2 Fine Line

New Order - Fine Time (Remix)

Ripped from a 12" vinyl single released on Factory Records (FAC 223R) in 1988 to high resolution 24-bit lossless flac audio.

A1 Fine Time (Silk Mix)

B1 Fine Time (Messed Around Mix)

New Order - Round & Round

Ripped from a 12" vinyl single released on Factory Records (FAC 263R) in 1989 to high resolution 24-bit lossless flac audio.

A1 Round & Round

B1 Best & Marsh

Ripped from a compact disc single released on Factory Records (FACD 263) in 1989 to high quality lossless flac audio.

1 Round & Round (Seven Inch)

2 Vanishing Point (Instrumental Making Out Mix)

3 Round & Round (Twelve Inch)

4 Best & Marsh (Seven Inch)

New Order - Round & Remix

Ripped from a mini compact disc single released on Factory Records (FACD 263R) in 1989 to high quality lossless flac audio.

1 Round & Round (Club Mix)

2 Round & Round (Twelve Inch Mix)

3 Round & Round (Detroit Mix)

New Order - Run 2

Ripped from a 12" vinyl single released on Factory Records (FAC 273) in 1989 to high resolution 24-bit lossless flac audio.

A1 Run 2
A2 Run 2 (Extended Version)
B1 MTO
B2 MTO (Minus Mix)

Dreams Never Ended

New Order - Grieving In The Shadows

Ripped from a vinyl album released on Archival Records in 2013/4 to high resolution 24-bits of flac. 

I upped this 2 and a bit years ago after it first surfaced following the leak of the tapes from the 1980 New York gig. About time I re-ripped it to a better quality and include the session tracks which were ignored on the original post.

Here's the much sought after transfer from vinyl of a misplaced New Order soundboard tape from their first US tour in 1980. The actual recording itself is slightly muffled in places, likely to distorted levels or poor quality tapes used in the transfer. It is not clear as to the lineage of the recording used to make the record, or in fact it's heritage. 

The key moment of interest is the unreleased track Hour (named as such in the Gretton notebooks), but you also get to hear early versions of Procession (with what sounds like Stephen Morris on vocals), Dreams Never End, Mesh, and Truth. I do like the ghostly drum machine version of In A Lonely Place, though the final track Ceremony only evinces why drummers should avoid trying to be lead singers. Historic stuff!

A1 In A Lonely Place
A2 Cries And Whispers
A3 Hour
A4 Procession
A5 Truth
A6 Mesh
B1 Dreams Never End
B2 Ceremony
B3 Homage
B4 Truth
B5 Ceremony

Not A Totally Random New Order Single

New Order - Blue Order (Megamix)

Ripped from a 12" vinyl single released on On-USound Records (NO 5) in 1990 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio. Two New Order mega-mixes backed up with a contribution from a Glaswegian hi-nrg falsetto and his chums, released on New York bootleg label On-USound.

A1 Blue Order (Mega-Mix)
B1 Blue Order (Mega-Mix)
B2 Bonus Bronski Beats

Totally Random New Order Single No.6

New Order - Shellshock

Ripped from a rarely played 12" vinyl single released on Factory Records (FAC 143) in 1986 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio. Likely the only recorded use of the word Shellcock in the English language twenty-five years before the Urban Dictionary definition came into use.

A  Shellshock
B  Shellcock

Totally Random New Order Single No.5

New Order - Regret

Ripped from a compact disc single released on London Records (NUOCD 1) in 1993 to high quality lossless flac audio. The major league debut - I don't normally appreciate remixes but the Fire Island Mix is a joy to behold.

1 Regret (7 Inch Version)
2 Regret (NewOrder Mix)
3 Regret (Fire Island Mix)
4 Regret (Junior Dub Mix)

Totally Random New Order Album

New Order - Brotherhood

Ripped from a vinyl album released on Factory Records (FACT 150) in 1986 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio. Every little bit of surface crackle counts, but not too bad for a twenty-eight year old record. Lindsay Lohan was born in 1986, and this record is in much better shape than she is today. I have good memories of an advance cassette of this album circulating around Manchester during the early Summer of 1986 - I cannot recall if it varied much from the eventual release but I really do wish I had kept my copy.

A1 Paradise
A2 Weirdo
A3 As It Is When It Was
A4 Broken Promise
A5 Way Of Life
B1 Bizarre Love Triangle
B2 All Day Long
B3 Angel Dust
B4 Every Little Counts

Totally Random New Order Single No.4

New Order - Murder

Ripped from a 12" vinyl single released on Factory Benelux Records (FBN 22) in 1984 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio.
A Murder
B Thieves Like Us (Instrumental)

Seems Like I've Been Here Before

New Order - 1981-1981

Ripped from a vinyl EP released on Factory (US) in 1982 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio. I totally screwed this up when originally ripped a few years ago. I am now taking the opportunity to put that right.

A1 Everything's Gone Green
A2 Procession
A3 Mesh
B1 Temptation
B2 Hurt

Totally Random New Order Cock Up Volume 3

New Order - Sub-Culture (John Robie Remix)

Ripped from a scratchy and abused 12" vinyl single released on Factory Records (FAC 133) in 1985 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio. A great album track is turned into a pot of steaming pish by a legendary New York producer and Peter Saville refuses to do a sleeve as it is so bad.

A Sub-Culture
B Dub-Vulture

Totally Random New Order Single No.2

New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle

Ripped from a 12" vinyl single released on Factory Records (FAC 163) in 1986 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio.

A Bizarre Love Triangle
B Bizarre Dub Triangle

Totally Random New Order Single

New Order - The Perfect Kiss

I have been fiddling with my turntable to PC set-up since buying a new desktop last Autumn. I was never happy with the way my audio software was handling the input from my deck and aspired to finding an optimum balance between the two and thus create good quality WAV files for editing. There seemed to be one major issue which came about as a result of over compression or limiting by either my Cambridge Audio pre-amp and/or the out-of-the-box pre-installed sound processor.  The issue was a very toppy and compressed sound resulting in what I will refer to as flat-topped WAV files It has taken me three months to establish the best set-up and the answer was to dump both. If anybody else out there has pre-installed Realtek HD audio sound processors in their desk-top, dump them! They are just shite!

My test record was this classic New Order 12" single - basically because it was mastered loudly, so a perfect rip would be easy to identify. I reverted back to my old Kenwood analogue amplifier and fed it to Audacity on my PC through my moth-balled Creative 24-bit Soundblaster USB soundcard - low and behold, problem fixed!

Yesterday's Paul Haig post was the first ripped in this new method, but here for now is the rip of the New Order single which made me feel happy again. I should now revisit some of those ON-U Sound album rips which first highlighted the problem - one day I will.

Ripped from a 12" vinyl single released on Factory Records (FAC 123) in 1985 to high resolution 24-bit flac audio.

A The Perfect Kiss
B1 The Kiss Of Death
B2 Perfect Pit

For Hours

New Order - Maxwells, Hoboken New Jersey 20th September 1980

Here's the much sought after transfer from vinyl of a misplaced New Order soundboard tape from their first US tour in 1980. The actual recording itself is slightly muffles in places, likely to distorted levels or poor quality tapes used in the transfer. It is not clear as to the lineage of the recording used to make the record, or in fact it's heritage. The LP also features tracks from the Western Work demos, but we all got those in better quality from the Analog Loyalist a few years back. 

The key moment of interest is the unreleased track Hour (named as such in the Gretton notebooks), but you also get to hear early versions of Procession (with what sounds like Stephen Morris on vocals), Dreams Never End, Cries And Whispers, and Truth. I do like the ghostly drum machine version of In A Lonely Place, though the final track Ceremony only evinces why drummers should avoid trying to be lead singers. Historic stuff!

1. In A Lonely Place
2. Cries And Whispers
3. Hour
4. Procession
5. Truth
6. Cries And Whispers
7. Dreams Never End
8. Ceremony

All in high quality lossless FLAC audio.

Needle Times

Various - Funky Alternatives

We all bought this didn't we? This classic compilation brings back superb memories of the heady days of my youth. It is a bit worn out and there are many scratches on my copy, but now seems about the right time to attempt a rip. It has come out fine though the eager eared will hear the evidence of wear on a few tracks. John Peel was right, "real life must have some surface noise". As compilations go, this was immense at the time but for me at least, the concept had worn a but thin by Funky Alternatives Three. 

I ripped to 24/96 this time and then down sampled a copy to standard 16/44 for those who value their hard drive space, so you have a choice of resolutions. Enjoy!

Ripped from a vinyl album released on Concrete Productions (CPRODLP 001) in 1987 to high resolution flac audio.

A1. 23 Skidoo - Shugyosha Step
A2. Tackhead - King Of The Beat
A3. New Order - Evil Dust (Remix)
A4. 400 Blows - Needle Time
A5. Cultural Thugs - Christians To The Lions
B1. D.A.F. - Brothers (Gabis' Mix)
B2. Colourbox - Manic (Instrumental Remix)
B3. Chris & Cosey - October (Love Song)
B4. Empty Quarter - Crucial Lover
B5. Nocturnal Emissions - No Separation

Gonna Beat Them All.....

New Order and Keith Hudson

Many of us grew up listening to hissy multi-dubbed tapes of John Peel sessions. I always had an affection for New Order's second Peel, first broadcast in June 1982. The key elements of the session were they way in which the band mixed dub with electronics. The Temptation single had just been released heralding the move to a more uplifting and cheery sound, yet this session was dark, atmospheric and did more to mark the transition from the post-JD grieving into moody electronica. Live recordings from 1981 hint that the band were finding their way with early sequencers with varying results, though the impressive Belgian released extended version of Everythings Gone Green is proof that they had it sussed in the studio.

Of the tracks in the 1982 session, Too Late was the only original song not to be developed and officially released. Sketchy, stabby electronics introduce a fine song which sets well alongside other early tracks like Cries And Whispers or Mesh. Turn The Heater On is fascinating, musically naive at the time (I originally thought it was a band original) - I have always enjoyed its simple plucky bass, washy synths and dubby effects. Bernard Sumner prefers a melodica to the harmonica on the original - which works quite well. Rumour has it that the track was an Ian Curtis favourite and the cover was in his memory. We All Stand is an early version of  the track which featured on Power, Corruption and Lies. Again, New Order experiment with reggae rhythms, though a bass synth  provides the backbeat whilst Peter Hook's tight bass strings meander in his unique style. Heard for the first time in the session is a low fidelity 5-8-6 which went through a serious upgrade for the PC&L album and eventually Blue Monday. 

Listening to the session in later years resulted in me investigating the original recording by Keith Hudson. His moody and dark lyrics add weight to the stories of Curtis' admiration. If you get the chance, his LP Torch Of Freedom is worth tracking down. As a bonus, both of his recordings of Turn The Heater On are included in the archive.

Twenty Four Bit Party People

I've been keen to archive my early New Order vinyl for quite some time, but most are so well worn they will not support quality rips, so I see no point. My 1981-1982 EP is in more than reasonable condition but the mastering to vinyl seems so quiet and tinny sounding when compared to the UK originals. Whilst we all appreciate the original shoddy production on Temptation is part of it's charm, it sounds even worse when mastered badly to plastic.
So as an experiment, I decided to run the 24/96 wave files through a few extra processes prior to flac conversion. As normal I ripped to my HD as 24/96 waves using Audacity, then ran each through ClickRepair on a manual setting to remove the clicks and a little crackle. This programme runs quickly in Java but most be used with the utmost care to avoid loss of quality.
The resulting clean waves needed a little kick in the highs and lows to improve the aural experience as just plain old normalising did little to improve the sound. Har-Bal is a very useful bit of kit to amend the eq curve of each track, with the additional benefit of adding a little space to the mix, and limiting if necessary - no limiting was using on these files just a little tinkering in the higher and lower frequencies. I was very tempted to tone down the overcooked mids on Temptation and Hurt but I resisted. One trick you can do in Har-Bal is extract the EQ curve reference from one track and apply it to another. I couldn't resist using the curve from EGG and applying it to Temptation to satisfy my own curiosity - it sounded so much better, but it is not for you lot!
Please be aware, these are still far from perfect. There were issues. On Procession there is a small bump in the vinyl to the end of the track which could not be removed and it was necessary to add an additional fade over the final second or two. You can still here a few crackles in places which had to be left to maintain audio quality. There is a tiny bit of distortion on some of the highs....but this will be hardly audible to most.
I also worked on my Ceremony (green sleeve) 12", but have decided that's not for sharing at the mo. As always, high resolution audio is for listening through proper hi-fi speakers through a decent amp, not your PC speakers or even worse an iPod.

Ripped from a 12" vinyl EP released on Factory US (FACTUS 8) in 1982 to high resolution 24bit/96000Hz audio.
A1. Everything Gone Green
A2. Procession
A3. Mesh
B1. Temptation
B2. Hurt.

Your Silent Face

Before anymore of you think I've gone quiet for too long, let me assure you that there is plenty more to come on ESWA. Real life work commitments and Microsoft's desire to ensure Blogger software (and many many others) is totally incompatible with their latest browser have slowed me down, but I have been ripping and re-ripping occasionally for new posts.

I think a whole album rip of Power, Corruption & Lies will fall foul to the Warners internet police and I could do without another takedown notice. So I've ripped from my well worn and first day of release copy of PCL, one of the finest music moments of all time. Subsequent re-issues and remasters have lost the true depth of sound that the original vinyl possessed. Keenly eared listeners may notice a few surface crackles here and there, as well as a dab of EQ on a few higher frequencies to lift the proceedings, but I am pleased with how this has come out.

Ripped from an original 1983 vinyl pressing on a fairly new Soundlab deck through a Soundblaster USB external to Cool Edit to 32bits floating at 48000, then declicked, and a dab of EQ before down sampling to 16/44100.

Hear

FAC 251 : The Factory - Opening Night Giveaway CD

Last night saw the opening of Peter Hook's nightclub venture in central Manchester FAC251 : The Factory. The venue is a three floor club in what was Factory Record's final offices and is designed by Hacienda designer Ben Kelly.

Hook was joined onstage by fellow Manc musos and performed a number of Joy Division / New Order / Monaco and Freebass(?) numbers.

Given away on the night was a limited edition multimedia enhanced CD of a new Peter Hook track Tokyo Joe. The disc also features a video of the track made from recent Kevin Cummins shots of the venue.

The track itself is a typical bass driven number much akin to Hook's work with New Order & Monaco.

(Removed at Peter Hook's Request)

Life - Tell Me / Better / Optimism / Dites Moi

Life were Graham, Rita, Terry & Andy with a little help from Gillian & Steve! Their short lived career produced just two UK 7" singles (with 12" versions in Europe) and a handful of live gigs. I was lucky to see them support The Fall at The Hacienda and remember them actually being rather good, or was it that Rita was in fact rather fit, I can't really recall. ;-) From memory they performed about 6 songs as a three piece with backing tapes and a drum machine. Steve Morris worked the tape machine from the left of the stage & Peter Hook acted as guitar roadie! Andy is in fact Andy Robinson, former New Order manager, I've no clue where Rita and the rest of Life have ended up.

Here is their rather limited discography ripped from various sources: the original Tell Me 7", the Better/Optimism UK 7" , both released on Factory Records and the Factory Benelux released Dites Moi. The live track was from a 1983 demo recorded live at Brixton Fridge in 1983, it is bloody awful but I've included it for completeness.

Choose Life!

New Order - Western Works (Reel to Reel)

Whilst things get back on track on these very pages, can I encourage you all to visit the Analog Loyalist's excellent Power of Independent Trucking blog to uncover a superb New Order rarity.

1980's Western Works Demos were always the holy grail of early New Order recordings and most of us only had them as poor quality multi-generation copies. Now, following the discovery of some r2r tapes which have been professionally transferred and mastered, these tracks plus an unknown bonus recording are being made available to fans of the band.

Point your browsers here and I'll let Anaolg Loyalist explain further and you can download the lossless tracks.

Warsaw / Joy Division / New Order - Rehearsal Tapes

In January 2009, a Los Angeles internet DJ, played a tape he borrowed from journalist, Jon Savage. The tape contained unheard recordings of the embryonic Joy Divison and New Order.

Hopefully one day, these will be cleaned up and officially released, but for now these mono transfers from the radio will have to do.

1. Inside the Line - 1977 rehearsal recording at TJ Davidsons' rehearsal rooms in Manchester.

2. In A Lonely Place - 1980 rehearsal - the DJ claimed this was a 8th May 1980 rehearsal, others have hinted that it may be the first recording without Ian Curtis.

3. Homage - A 1980 recording and a very different take on the version known from the Western Works tapes.

4. Procession - A 1980 rehearsal with Steve Morris on vocals.

Re:Upped