BE-MUSIC?

After seeing a really good film called DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, starring Audrey "My eyes are bigger than your head" Tataou, the S.O. and popped into Kim's (her fave record store) for some late night CD shopping. Usually Kim's is a bit hipster for my taste, but last time we were there I found a flyer for the Cerati gig, so I thought maybe lightning would strike twice and I would discover something interesting. And sure enough i did, and I picked this up, which they had just gotten in:

"BE-MUSIC: COOL AS ICE: LTM are proud to present a compilation of stone classic old school 80's electro and dance cuts produced by Be Music, the tag used by all four members of New Order. The tracks were largely produced between 1983 and 1984 for release on Factory Records and Factory Benelux. Some tracks marked were co-produced by Be Music (Bernard Sumner) and DoJo (Donald Johnson, of A Certain Ratio). Nyam Nyam and the Be Music Theme were produced by Peter Hook, and Life and Thick Pigeon by Steve Morris and Gillian Gilbert. Several of the tracks, including Love Tempo, Looking From A Hilltop and Cool As Ice remain influential club classics, and have been extensively sampled and bootlegged. Several years before the great house explosion, with their own Hacienda club still empty every single night, yet way (too far?) ahead of their time, four guys and a girl from Manchester produced a whole bunch of pure sonic magic which made waves worldwide. The album has been digitally remastered and runs for 74 minutes. The set will be available both on CD and as a limited DJ friendly double vinyl set. The vinyl version will be limited to just 1000"

Well I'd be lying if I told I had ANY clue as to what the hell this was so I snagged it and am listening to it now. It sounds a bit dated, but is quite good and it all comes across as a testing ground for New Order's music around this time. There are tons of sounds and programming nuances that later appear in some of New Order's classic material from this period. It's all very electro, very 80's club friendly and very very influential. It's a fascinating document of a lost yet important period of a legendary band's career. Plus there is a cool tune at the end that Peter Hook did. Also, according to the liner notes, Johhny Marr makes an uncredited cameo on one the Sumner-produced songs, hence the early stages of Electronic!

However, this is for hardcore New Order fans or 80's club kids only. So keep that in mind...

Meanwhile, work continues on the HF website. The news section should be going up soon and we've written a very extensive "Making of THE DISTRACTED LOVER", similar to my "Making of FLOOD" over at the aggression site. I had to admit to slacking on the tunes a bit, but fear not, I'm getting back into the swing of things. Also, I have to start work on the Audio Warfare remix, and I'm happy to say, unlike most songs I remix, I quite like this tune and there is a lot of fun material in it to mess around with.

Jared is probably just back in London as I type. I don't know the results of the final day, but everything seemed to be going well. I think the artwork went into Caroline yesterday and the music has to be in on Monday. I'm going to try and call over to Cracknation this weekend for an update.

Ok, time for tea and remixing...

F