We Never Compromise

Mancunian artist LoneLady has released a cover of New Order's 1981 B-side Cries And Whispers. Her sound and aesthetic are partially rooted in those early 80s New Order records and Manchester's spirit of those times- her last album was inspired by walking round the concrete and streetlight spaces underneath the Mancunian Way (a section of elevated motorway that skims the southern edge of the city centre). I don't always like covers of New Order songs but this is a keeper.

  

The original was one of two B-sides on 1981's Everything's Gone Green single, a song that skipped the group forward several paces, the moment when they combined rock and dance for the first time on disc and the last time they worked with Martin Hannett. The two songs on the flipside- Cries And Whispers and Mesh- were mislabelled on the disc and then again on Substance, causing confusion for years. One listen to this song, the synth sounds at the intro, the skittering rhythm, Barney's bleak vocal, Stephen's metronomic drumming and the swell of keyboards towards the end, should convince anyone that New Order were a class apart from around this point onwards and for most of the 80s.

Cries And Whispers

Landscapes

Back in 2015 Lonelady released an album of skeletal funk, inspired by the dead zones around the city centre and partly recorded under the Mancunian Way (a concrete flyover that skirts the southern fringe of the city centre). I'd forgotten about it until someone played this on BBC 6 the other day and was reminded how good it sounded- viciously trebly guitar part, hissing cymbals and 1981 bass. Lonelady is Julie Campbell, singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist.

(I Can See) Landscapes

There will now follow a short break in transmission at Bagging Area. I'm away now for a few days, taking an end of August trip down south. See you at the end of the week. Be good.

We Start Over

It's Christmas Eve- I haven't got anything planned to be happening here for the next few days and I don't expect to be blogging again until the 28th or thereabouts. I hope all of you have the Christmas you want, whatever you're doing, wherever you are and with whoever you're with. I'll leave you with this...

My end of year list had a couple of omissions that I thought I should cover. The first was LoneLady who I just completely forgot about- the album Hinterland is full of sparse early ACR style guitars and bass, a record inspired by the spaces underneath the Mancunian Way.



The other was this single called We Start Over from Steve Cobby complete with a gorgeous vocal by Trudie Dawn Smith. Steve Cobby appeared in my albums of the year list but this single is rather special too and it slipped my mind.



The remix by Apiento and Lx is what I am calling deep chug. Guaranteed to have arms waving in the air and the hugging of strangers on New Year's Eve. See you in a few days.

Hinterland

Downstairs in the room where the records are I've been playing Ultramarine, Orbital, The The, That Petrol Emotion, Dot Allison, Joy Division and New Order and The Wedding Present recently. That's probably obvious from what I've been posting. In the car and on the move I've been listening to three new albums- Moon Duo, Mugwump and LoneLady, which have all worked well shuffled up together.

LoneLady's been getting some press and rightly so. Her second album Hinterland has just come out (on Warp) and is a funky affair- early 80s Manchester sounds and tone (New Order, ACR, Factory, empty nights at Hacienda before anyone went), some skittering guitars and a love of concrete. She's from Manchester and some of this record feels like a walk around underneath the Mancunian Way at dusk. Austere but with a lightness of touch too.

Hinterland

This is the video for Bunkerpop, filmed in a concrete World War II bunker near Hull. I can almost smell it.