Forty Minutes Of Fac

In the 1980s Factory Records was the best record label in the world. Based on Palatine Road, a stone's throw from where I grew up, managed as a Marxist art project, bankrolled by New Order and home to a bunch of sullen, wilful experimental artists who famously signed no contracts and owned all their music, it put out record after record, almost none of which were hits. Today's mix is a small selection of the magnificence that came out of Factory in the mid- 80s (deliberately leaving out New Order), a period where the combined talents clustered around the table at 86 Palatine Road produced such life affirming and ground breaking music. 

Forty Minutes Of Fac

• Cabaret Voltaire: Yashar (John Robie Remix)
• Quando Quango: Genius
• Stockholm Monsters: All At Once
• Section 25: Looking From A Hilltop (Megamix)
• Marcel King: Reach For Love
• A Certain Ratio: Mickey Way (The Candy Bar)
• Durutti Column: For Belgian Friends

Yashar (John Robie Remix) by Cabaret Voltaire is Fac 82. Cabaret Voltaire released just this single 12" for Factory. 

Genius by Quando Quango is Fact 137. Quando Quango were formed in Rotterdam by Mike Pickering with Hillegonda Rietveld and Reinier Rietveld with former ACR singer Simon Topping joining on percussion. 

All At Once by Stockholm Monsters is Fac 107. Stockholm Monsters are the best band to come out of Burnage. 

Looking From A Hilltop (Megamix) by Section 25 is Fac 108, released in 1984, and still sounds like the future. It was produced by Donald Johnson of ACR and Bernard Sumner of New Order as Be Music. 

Reach For Love by Marcel King is FBN 43, released in 1985, and should have been number one in every country in the world. Also produced by Bernard Sumner and Donald Johnson. 

Mickey Way (The Candy Bar) by A Certain Ratio is Fac 168 from 1986. It was also on the album Force, ACR's last album for Factory (Fact 166). 

For Belgian Friends is by Durutti Column and first appeared on A Factory Quartet, Fact 24, in 1980 and then on Valuable Passages, a Durutti Column compilation from 1986 Fac 164. Donald Johnson plays drums. Vini Reilly is one of the true geniuses to be found on Palatine Road during the period. He still lives nearby. 

You Can Walk Or You Can Run

Joy Division yesterday, New Order today. New Order in the 1980s were as good as it got, a pioneering, chaotic, independent, wilful, sullen and joyous collision of rock music and dance music, defiantly and stubbornly holding out in Manchester. Their run of singles from Ceremony to True Faith is almost perfect, and distinct from their albums from the same period (Movement to Technique, also containing multiple moments of perfection), a band who saw singles and albums as separate entities. The decision to carry on after Ian Curtis' death saw them edge forward nervously, unbalanced and unsure but embracing new technology and a new sound with a reluctant singer and temperamental equipment. The tensions in the group pulled them apart eventually but they produced some moments of absolute magic- Ceremony, In A Lonely Place, Procession, Everything's Gone Green, Dreams Never End, Temptation and Hurt, Your Silent Face, Ultraviolence, Leave Me Alone, Age Of Consent, Blue Monday, Thieves Like Us, Lonesome Tonight, almost all of Lowlife (Love Vigilantes, Elegia, This Time Of Night, Subculture, Sunrise, Face Up), The Perfect Kiss, Bizarre Love Triangle, bits of Brotherhood, True Faith, 1963, all of Technique... I once tried to pull together ten New Order songs for an ICA at The Vinyl Villain and I couldn't even cut it down to fifteen. 

In March 1986 they appeared on The Tube to perform their then new single State Of The Nation. I don't think State Of The Nation would be anyone's favourite New Order single, it feels like a bit of a stopgap, lacking in flashes of brilliance that the band were capable of previously, caught between the effervescence of the Lowlife era songs and the imperious splendour of True Faith. This performance on The Tube though is magnificent and demonstrates that even when they weren't quite at the very top of their songwriting game, they were still better than almost everyone else.

Across the front, three people who don't look like they should be in the same band- Bernard in his Next jumper and bleached jeans, spikey hair with shaved sides, still unable to play guitar and sing at the same time (this is not a criticism- New Order were better when he couldn't do both simultaneously). Gillian standing completely still, big hair and bright green top, electric guitar. Hooky in pre- acid house/ pre- Viking rock god smart clobber, probably from Commes des Garcons or similar, hair slicked back, bass at the very front of their sound. Stephen half hidden at the back, hitting syn drums and real kit, banks of synths around him, head nodding away as he plays metronomically. Even on a weaker song, they are superb and you don't want to take your eyes off them.

State Of The Nation was originally called Shame Of The Nation. When the group toured Japan the promoter of one of the gigs told them that the young Japanese women who followed groups around from venue to venue were 'the shame of the nation'. This phrase became the chorus of the song but changed to 'state' because to sounded better when sung. The song was recorded in Tokyo in April 1985 which possibly explains the slightly under par nature of it, recording while on tour between gigs and burning the candle at both ends. 

The B-side of the single had a different version, retitled Shame Of The Nation, recorded with producer John Robie (as two previous singles had been, Shellshock and the new version of Subculture). The main difference is the backing vocals, very much a Robie touch. This version was recorded in bursts between October '85 and April '86, in Manchester, New York and LA, which again may explain a lot. It's bright and toppy, aimed at the dancefloor but too soon to be soaking up the new looser, acid house sounds that would change dance music (and then guitar music) a couple of years later. 

Shame Of The Nation

Shadow Of Fear

If you're after a dystopic album to soundtrack your life-and given the state of the world why wouldn't you?- then you could do a lot worse than the new release from Sheffield's post- punk pioneers Cabaret Voltaire and the new one, Shadow Of Fear. The Cabs are now the vehicle of one man, founder and multi- instrumentalist Richard H. Kirk, who recorded the nine songs at the famous Western Works studio in his hometown. Whether it is really Cabaret Voltaire without long standing but now departed partner Stephen Mallinder is open to question I suppose but we'll let that pass. At first having read a couple of reviews and an interview I thought Shadow Of Fear might be a bleak and oppressive listen, impressive but not an album to return to very often but that isn't the case and while it's definitely ominous and industrial it's got dance rhythms and textures and some glints of light among the shade. Mechanised drums, sampled disembodied voices, dashes of acid, some fuzzy, distorted guitars and basslines and layers of noise. It's urgent and has an energy and shows the sixty- four year old Kirk still has something to say and still has the tools to say it with. 

Back in 1983 Cabaret Voltaire released Yashar, a12" single on Factory. Yashar and the John Robie remix on the B side is one of the peaks of Factory's early 80s (and that's a crowded field). A record very of its time and ahead of it too. 

'There's 70 billion people on earth'

'Where are they hiding?'

Yashar

Yashar (John Robie Mix)

I Like Walking In The Park

New Order's Lowlife album of 1985 remains a career highpoint, as a full studio album only really matched by 1989's Technique. Lowlife is a perfect synthesis of rock and dance, Hooky's metallic bass and the synths and Stephen's metronomic drums all vying for space, matched by Barney's growing confidence as a singer. The nervy early steps, getting to grips with technology, finding a way out after Ian's death, the experimentalism of Power, Corruption And Lies, and the increasing boldness of Temptation, Thieves Like Us and Blue Monday led to Lowlife.

The penultimate song is Subculture, a peak on an album that features several other peaks, songs like Love Vigilantes, The Perfect Kiss and Elegia. In October 1985 the group released a single version of Subculture, a version remixed by John Robie. Robie was a fixture on the 80s New York electro club scene and turned in a version of Subculture which it is fair to say splits opinion. His remix is aimed squarely at clubland, the shonky vocal of the album version replaced by a new one (for the record I love the shonky, all over the place vocal of the album version, the ways it works against and with the synth riff, massive sound and glittering production). Robie's version is much more electronic, added some female backing vocals and then layering more and more sounds. Some people hate it. Peter Saville refused to design a sleeve for it.

In 1986 a new mix of Sub-culture appeared, one song on a four track 7" single given away with Record Mirror magazine (a now long defunct British music magazine). As well as the new exclusive mix of Sub-culture were songs by Raymonde, Hipsway and The Adventures. Robie got the credit, mistakenly or otherwise, but this new remix was by Joseph Watt, a member of the Razormaid! a remix service who worked out of San Francisco in the 80s to produce exclusive versions and edits of songs for subscribers (usually DJs). I'm guessing that the Watt remix came via Robie. It leans back to the Lowlife version with the synth riff and bassline, adding harder drums and percussion. Hooky's bass runs are centre stage before the vocals come in, alternating with extra keyboard parts, building for several minutes before we even hear Barney. When he does come in his voice is harking back to the album cut, detached and human, a bit exposed, singing the words apparently inspired by the groups visits to Skin Two, a London fetish club- tied up in chains so tight, being unable to shaft without someone else, having to submit, it having to hurt you a little bit. A dissonant pumping synth sound comes in and the sound toughens up again, pitched somewhere between the Lowlife song and Robie's single remix.

Sub-culture (Exclusive Remix Record Mirror)

In 2017 New order played a series of shows at the old Granada TV Studios on Quay Street as part of the Manchester International Festival, organised by Dave Haslam. They went back through their catalogue to play songs they'd not played for years and to make it more interesting/difficult for themselves recruited some young musicians from the Royal Northern to form a synth orchestra. The famous synth riff on Sub-culture was played originally slowed down and then sped up for the recording. The group, minus Hooky of course, marvelled at these young geniuses who could not only play the riff but at the correct speed too. Taking from both the Lowlife and Robie versions it's pretty magnificent, despite the absence of the most distinctive bass player of the 1980s, and the wall of synth players is visually and sonically great. The video won't embed but you can find it here.

Cabaret Voltaire 'Yashar' (John Robie Mix 1)

Cabaret Voltaire were a pair of serious, doomy, Sheffield men who made serious, industrial, doomy, scary, sinister, electronic, bass heavy music in the late 70s and early 80s, and then forged early house/electronica. Records like Sensoria and Nag Nag Nag have regularly been held up as influential. On last year's BBC4 Synth Britannia programme they came across as likeable, down-to-earth blokes who liked a pint and a bit of Ballard. In 1982 they released this on Factory- Yashar (Fac 82 Fac fans). It's a spooky record with a Cold War-ish vocal sample ('There's 70 billion people out there, where are they hiding?'), mixed in with Eastern drones and early drum machines. On the B-side of the 12" John Robie remixed it, doubling the length, and adding synths and that early 80s Fact-ness, to send it in the direction of the dancefloor. Although most dancefloors in most clubs at the time would clear pretty quickly once it got going I would imagine. Brilliant record, and although I could be corrected on this, an early example of the art of the remix.

02 Yashar (John Robie Mix 1).mp3