Various Artists:
New Order presents Be Music:
Factory Benelux:
3xCD/2xLP/DD
Out Feb 17 2017
With the recent and excellent Music Complete album perhaps reaching a wider audience than expected, it now seems as good a time as any to revisit and re-evaluate New Order's extra-curricular activities away from the drugs, in-fighting and classic records. Thematically, this beautifully presented and detailed curation concentrates on the four original member's efforts behind the mixing desk console, rather than peering at the back of it through a studio partition.
Be Music (or B Music) was basically the band's incognito production moniker applied to the credits of a few dozen singles, albums and remixes issued chiefly by Factory, but also sibling label Factory Benelux and Brussels buddies Les Disques du Crepuscule. With a few exceptions, most of them have been gathered here as part of a triple-CD box set that rivals and arguably improves upon the 2009 Factory Communications set and Strut Records doubles.
This trio of discs dispenses with chronology, music style and even band-member preference - thus on disc 1 you get hypnotic techno-disco throbbers like Section 25's hypnotic Looking From a Hilltop, Nyam Nyam's Moroder-esque Fate/Hate and heavily-sequenced Cool As Ice from 52nd Street alongside the sprightly pre-rave Security by The Beat Club and the swooning honeyed vocals of tragic lost soul-boy Marcel King (both sides of the untouchable Reach For Love, no less). On disc 2, more recent reworkings with Ladytron's Marnie (a cracking Morris rework of The Hunter), Factory Floor, Tim Burgess and Fujiya and Miyagi line-up next to the quirky Thick Pigeon and dreamy Life while disc 3 is offcuts vs outtakes that all sound as accomplished as you would expect their original creators to be.
Across the whole collection there's a positive trademark that cuts through, be it Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris' tendency to replicate the minimalism of Kraftwerk, Reich, Moroder and, naturally, New Order, Peter Hook's penchant for driving things home via a bassline or two or Bernard Sumner's propensity to colour in the gaps with washes of synth and brutal drum patterns. It's all about a desire to create, reassemble and experiment with not only other people's artistic endeavours but also their own. Here was a bunch of geeks learning their craft with Sumner even building his own synths - the DIY ethos of punk lived on, at least for a few more years.
The whole set turns full circle when the final pair of spellbinding tracks pump into earshot. Section 25's Sakura appeared as an unassuming b-side on an otherwise patchy EP but its rattling, portentous chatterfunk signalled Factory's intent to 'get on one' without relying on New Order's stand-alone name.
The other track, New Order's Video 586, was written as the Hacienda's soundtrack on its opening night, and was pre-Blue Monday, pre-Power Corruption and Lies and possibly pre-Temptation and sounds to this day like a strung-out and narcotically-fuelled I Feel Love for the break of dawn and the end of days. How the superclub's soundsystem coped with it, I'll never know but one listen back to Factory Floor's gritty pin-sharp Real Love confirms the undeniable lineage between the generations.
Sadly there's no room for two further excellent Be Music projects - Stockholm Monsters' Party line and Section 25's Crazy Wisdom - but there's more than enough to start the discovery ball rolling. Detailed sleevenotes and aesthetic Matthew Robertson design also make this a must-have for New Orderphiles and pop-heads alike.
10/10
New Order presents Be Music:
Factory Benelux:
3xCD/2xLP/DD
Out Feb 17 2017
Be Music (or B Music) was basically the band's incognito production moniker applied to the credits of a few dozen singles, albums and remixes issued chiefly by Factory, but also sibling label Factory Benelux and Brussels buddies Les Disques du Crepuscule. With a few exceptions, most of them have been gathered here as part of a triple-CD box set that rivals and arguably improves upon the 2009 Factory Communications set and Strut Records doubles.
This trio of discs dispenses with chronology, music style and even band-member preference - thus on disc 1 you get hypnotic techno-disco throbbers like Section 25's hypnotic Looking From a Hilltop, Nyam Nyam's Moroder-esque Fate/Hate and heavily-sequenced Cool As Ice from 52nd Street alongside the sprightly pre-rave Security by The Beat Club and the swooning honeyed vocals of tragic lost soul-boy Marcel King (both sides of the untouchable Reach For Love, no less). On disc 2, more recent reworkings with Ladytron's Marnie (a cracking Morris rework of The Hunter), Factory Floor, Tim Burgess and Fujiya and Miyagi line-up next to the quirky Thick Pigeon and dreamy Life while disc 3 is offcuts vs outtakes that all sound as accomplished as you would expect their original creators to be.
Across the whole collection there's a positive trademark that cuts through, be it Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris' tendency to replicate the minimalism of Kraftwerk, Reich, Moroder and, naturally, New Order, Peter Hook's penchant for driving things home via a bassline or two or Bernard Sumner's propensity to colour in the gaps with washes of synth and brutal drum patterns. It's all about a desire to create, reassemble and experiment with not only other people's artistic endeavours but also their own. Here was a bunch of geeks learning their craft with Sumner even building his own synths - the DIY ethos of punk lived on, at least for a few more years.
The whole set turns full circle when the final pair of spellbinding tracks pump into earshot. Section 25's Sakura appeared as an unassuming b-side on an otherwise patchy EP but its rattling, portentous chatterfunk signalled Factory's intent to 'get on one' without relying on New Order's stand-alone name.
The other track, New Order's Video 586, was written as the Hacienda's soundtrack on its opening night, and was pre-Blue Monday, pre-Power Corruption and Lies and possibly pre-Temptation and sounds to this day like a strung-out and narcotically-fuelled I Feel Love for the break of dawn and the end of days. How the superclub's soundsystem coped with it, I'll never know but one listen back to Factory Floor's gritty pin-sharp Real Love confirms the undeniable lineage between the generations.
Sadly there's no room for two further excellent Be Music projects - Stockholm Monsters' Party line and Section 25's Crazy Wisdom - but there's more than enough to start the discovery ball rolling. Detailed sleevenotes and aesthetic Matthew Robertson design also make this a must-have for New Orderphiles and pop-heads alike.
10/10