The Other Two - The Other Two and You / Superhighways - Factory Benelux - CD
Formed of New Order's husband and wife team Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris, The Other Two followed Bernard Sumner's Electronic and Peter Hook's Revenge with a self-deprecating moniker, yes, yet emerged a little more credible and body-confident than at least one ex-member's foray into side-projects.
As you might expect, both of these '90s albums show a few tell-tale signs of ageing, not least because much of the material here is straightahead electronic pop driven by the evolving technology of the time and when stripped of the other associated New Order ingredients - Hook's ankle-deep bass and Sumner's guitar flashes - neither shows a great deal of weight.
However, don't be deceived. 1993's The Other Two and You features three bonafide stonecold pop belters in singles Tasty Fish, Selfish and overseas pop nugget Innocence. Echoing Saint Etienne and Dubstar, Gilbert's slight but angelic singing acts as a perfect foil for the knockout punches of melodies and rhythms - quite how Selfish didn't break the Top 40 Singles Chart is anyone's guess.
There is a darker more intense side to Morris and Gilbert's oeuvre though - head to the druggy, clubby Ninth Configuration for Moroder on acid, while the filmic Night Voice harks back to theirs and New Order's penchant for instrumentals missing a film. Curio promo track Loved It sees sampled dialogue from an old Channel 4 documentary about Factory Records merged with spikey break-beats and housey synths - it's a shame it was confined to just CD back in the day. Of the attendant remixes included here, the absolute primer here is the That Pop Mix of Selfish, beautifully reconstructed by Farley and Heller.
Second album Superhighways appeared some six years later on London Records and features some heavyweight soulful hollering by Melanie Williams on You Can Fly and One Last Kiss, while Gilbert's silky tonsils suit the more laid-back melancholic numbers such as the euphoric title-track and The River. Ethereal near-instrumental Voytek and the rolling d'n'b flavoured The Grave once again represent the more rewarding soundtrack-flavoured side of The Other Two, while the remaining songs on Superhighways breeze past like typically inoffensive late '90s pop, of which Unwanted is perhaps the most charming.
In addition to these expanded reissues, Factory Benelux are offering The Other Disc, a worthy collection of more recent hard-hitting hedonistic collaborations with Manchester tech-heads Factory Floor and the unreleased gem Satisfied. Head here for details
Formed of New Order's husband and wife team Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris, The Other Two followed Bernard Sumner's Electronic and Peter Hook's Revenge with a self-deprecating moniker, yes, yet emerged a little more credible and body-confident than at least one ex-member's foray into side-projects.
As you might expect, both of these '90s albums show a few tell-tale signs of ageing, not least because much of the material here is straightahead electronic pop driven by the evolving technology of the time and when stripped of the other associated New Order ingredients - Hook's ankle-deep bass and Sumner's guitar flashes - neither shows a great deal of weight.
There is a darker more intense side to Morris and Gilbert's oeuvre though - head to the druggy, clubby Ninth Configuration for Moroder on acid, while the filmic Night Voice harks back to theirs and New Order's penchant for instrumentals missing a film. Curio promo track Loved It sees sampled dialogue from an old Channel 4 documentary about Factory Records merged with spikey break-beats and housey synths - it's a shame it was confined to just CD back in the day. Of the attendant remixes included here, the absolute primer here is the That Pop Mix of Selfish, beautifully reconstructed by Farley and Heller.
In addition to these expanded reissues, Factory Benelux are offering The Other Disc, a worthy collection of more recent hard-hitting hedonistic collaborations with Manchester tech-heads Factory Floor and the unreleased gem Satisfied. Head here for details
