Category: Lost Albums (Page 1 of 14)

Lost Albums: HENRY BADOWSKI Life Is A Grand

3 June 2025 /

Henry Badowski emerged from punk having been briefly in CHELSEA, THE DAMNED and KING (the punk band featuring Captain Sensible, NOT the mulleted DM wearing combo who did ‘Love & Pride’!)

But the times they were a changing and the multi-instrumentalist found himself somewhere in-between the more melodic but artful form of new wave and the emerging sound of affordable synthesizers.

Summer 1979 saw the release of Badowski’s debut single ‘Making Love With My Wife’, a quirky anti-rock ‘n’ roll ode to the joys of marital sex; it later appeared alongside Gary Numan and John Foxx on ‘Machines’, a long playing showcase compiled Virgin Records of acts that used synthesizers as their primary instrumentation that also included OMD, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, SILICON TEENS and DALEK I LOVE YOU.

Issued on Deptford Fun City Records, a UK subsidiary of IRS Records co-founded by THE POLICE’s manager Miles Copeland III, it was this link that led to Badowski transferring to A&M Records for the backing that a major label could provide. “Initially my school friend James organised me joining CHELSEA, which was one of Miles’ acts” remembered Badowski, “I didn’t stay for long, but returned to the office a year later when Mark Perry (who founded the ‘Sniffin’ Glue’ punk fanzine) took me to Pathway Studio to record the ‘Making Love With My Wife’ / ’Baby Sign Here With Me’ single. Miles heard the KING John Peel version of ‘BSHWM’ and liked it. Following that, he became more involved with my situation and eventually introduced me to A&M.”

However, there had initially been scepticism about allowing ‘Making Love With My Wife’ to be included on the ‘Machines’ compilation with its explicit synthesizer association; “It was debated in the office whether or not it should be included on ‘Machines’” said Badowski, “Miles was actually against the idea as he thought I should be marketed as more ‘neo-English prog’. There was a drum machine on ‘Making Love With My Wife’ but apart from that there were no synths involved. I later added a synth noise deliberately on top for inclusion on the compilation. Silly, really!”

But while ‘Baby Sign Here With Me’ featured a Vox Continental, real drums and real instruments, the Matrix studios sessions involved an EMS AKS, Roland Promars, Prophet 5 and a Boss DR55 drum machine with an early CV/gate sequencer was used to link up the Promars and the DR55. “I’d had the EMS for a while so I was familiar with it” Badowski recalled of the recording, “I’d also had a few introduction sessions at Morley College for the basics. Linking the Promars to the DR55 was fun. I can’t remember what model the sequencer was but we got there in the end.”

Henry Badowski’s only album ‘Life Is A Grand’ was named after the English slang word meaning a thousand pounds. “A grand will always make your life easier” Badowski said, “A thousand quid would go a long way – you could buy a second-hand E-Type Jaguar or a trip to New York on Concorde. Even today, if you’ve got a grand in your pocket, you’re feeling good – life’s alright”.

Handling vocals, bass, saxophones, keyboards and percussion, this was a true solo record although former CHELSEA bandmate James Stevenson would contribute guitar and additional bass while Dave Berk and Aleks Kolkowski respectively provided drums and violin. On the opener ‘My Face’, ‘The Warm Jets’ were strong in a wonderful update of Eno’s ‘Needles In The Camel’s Eye’. Meanwhile, the quirky ‘Henry’s In Love’ provided a kind of prequel to ‘Making Love With My Wife’ but with the twist of the telling of his personal joy in the third person.

Continuing the love theme, the charming ‘This Was Meant To Be’ could have been TELEX but as much as he was enchanted by the new wave of European electro-pop, he admitted the song “was most probably inspired by ‘Funky Town’ by LIPPS INC”!

With the air of Syd Barrett, ‘Swimming With the Fish in the Sea’ saw the working relationship with co-producer Wally Brill blossom as he provided the lovely pad on ‘Swimming With The Fish In The Sea’ courtesy of a Prophet 5; by coincidence Brill had also co-produced ‘The Eyes Have It’ by Karel Fialka which also appeared on ‘Machines’

While the ‘Life Is a Grand’ title instrumental pointed to David Bowie’s ‘Low’, the ROXY MUSIC sax ‘n’ synth B-side ‘The Numberer’ written by Andy MacKay was a more explicit influence. However, like the elegant wordless album closer ‘Rampant’, both were born out of creative necessity: “I’m not a prolific songwriter and struggled with completing the quota for the album, hence the two instrumentals!”

‘Silver Trees’ had this wonderfully whimsical quality but Badowski denied that he was a hippy at heart: “I was too young to be a hippy and struggled with being a ‘punk’ and definitely rejected becoming a ‘new romantic’ despite being tarted up on the back sleeve of the LP which was not my idea!”.

Released in Summer 1981, the album did not sell as Badowski admitted: “I never promoted it, despite Miles offering to pay up to 6 people to form a band, plus offering me support slots for major tours. To be honest, I was disappointed with ‘Life Is A Grand’ as the plug was pulled when it started going over budget. The sleeve was a disaster and I lost enthusiasm. I had an idea for a sleeve involving items or life enhancing situations you could buy for a thousand pounds. It never happened and I felt pressurised into putting up with the sleeve as it became. It’s unfinished business as far as I’m concerned, but it is what it is and I’ve accepted that now”.

Despite this, his one-time band mate Captain Sensible described ‘Life Is A Grand’ as “A work of genius from start to finish”. With its very English mix of humourous surreal poetry and bouncy avant pop, Badowski looks back on what turned out to be his only album with some pride: “I think the LP managed to achieve its own identity without me specifically channelling anyone in particular”.

Over the passing decades, ‘Life Is A Grand’ would gain legendary lost album status and ultimately led to a 2025 reissue by Caroline True Records, something which has flattered Badowski: “The whole ‘cult’ thing has become a pleasant surprise and has happened over the years. I had no idea the album was so well received. I would get lovely emails from people, plus positive comments everywhere as the internet developed. I won’t even begin to speculate on how it happened. Thanks everyone, glad you like it!”

But was that follow-up to ‘Life Is A Grand’ ever a possibility? It seems not; “I had a handful of tunes kicking around but struggled to write lyrics” he lamented, “There really wasn’t a sufficient amount to justify a follow-up. I’d lost my Dad as well which slowed things up a lot. The songs that exist ‘happened’ rather than having me sit down with a quill and parchment.”

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Henry Badowski

Additional thanks to Piers Martin

‘Life Is a Grand’ is reissued by Caroline True Records as a vinyl LP (with digital album + 5 bonus tracks or CD (with the bonus track ‘Making Love With My Wife’), available from https://carolinetruerecords.com/products/henry-badowski-life-is-a-grand-limited-vinyl-bonus-tracks-download or https://ctrmusic.bandcamp.com/album/henry-badowski-life-is-a-grand

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
3rd June 2025

Lost Albums: B-MOVIE Hidden Treasures

24 May 2025 /

Photo by Peter Ashworth

“It’s nice to hear B-MOVIE are finally getting a chance to release their forgotten gems”: Matt Johnson

Comprising of Steve Hovington (vocals + bass), Paul Statham (guitar), Rick Holliday (keyboards), and Graham Boffey (drums), while B-MOVIE had already released 2 EPs on Lincolnshire independent label Dead Good in 1980, it was their inclusion on 1981’s ‘Some Bizzare Album’ compiled by Futurist DJ Stevo Pearce which put them on the wider map.

Their song ‘Moles’, alongside contributions from then-unknown bands such as DEPECHE MODE, SOFT CELL, BLANCMANGE and THE THE was one of the album’s highlights. Having previously included them in his ‘Futurist’ chart for music paper Sounds, Stevo continued his support and subsequently became manager of B-MOVIE while SOFT CELL and THE THE were also added to the expanding Some Bizzare roster.

B-MOVIE’s synth-laden new wave brought them to the attention of Phonogram Records who saw the band as their answer to DURAN DURAN and SPANDAU BALLET. While B-MOVIE could do pop as proven by their best known song ‘Nowhere Girl’, their pessimistic post-punk demeanour meant the quartet had more in common with JOY DIVISION, THE CURE and TALK TALK rather than the New Romantics. If they have a 21st Century equivalent, then the nearest comparison would probably be WHITE LIES.

Ever the shrewd operator, Stevo insisted on a 2-for-1 deal which included SOFT CELL for Phonogram to sign B-MOVIE. Marc Almond and Dave Ball got to No1 with their cover of ‘Tainted Love’ in 1981 to begin an outstanding run of a five Top3 singles into 1982, but B-MOVIE were unable to breakthrough into the UK Top40 despite releasing a trio of excellent singles in ‘Remembrance Day’, ‘Marilyn Dreams’ and ‘Nowhere Girl’.

Photo by Peter Ashworth

Stevo Pearce loved chaos but chaos ultimately destroys and the struggle for success, coupled with internal tensions led to Boffey and Holliday departing the band. Severing ties with Stevo, the album they had demoed lay dormant for over 40 years and legend had it that the tapes were under his bed. But the recordings made during this period had actually been stored in Universal Music’s huge vault. After years of enquiries and negotiations, B-MOVIE have acquired the rights back to these tapes and with their restoration, the 1982 debut LP that “never was” is now available under the fitting title of ‘Hidden Treasures’.

The fact that these recordings were shelved back in the day by record label and management politics is nothing short of criminal, but “better late than never” goes the saying and anyone who has ever been entranced by ‘Remembrance Day’, ‘Marilyn Dreams’ and ‘Nowhere Girl’ will LOVE this collection. And for those long standing fans who actually bought their records, the CD has the bonus of addition of B-sides, 12” versions and ‘Moles’ which featured some magnificent synth playing from Rick Holliday.

Those three Some Bizzare era singles need no introduction from the anti-war anthem ‘Remembrance Day’ to the anti-fame art rock of ‘Marilyn Dreams’ but one that should have been a single was ‘Polar Opposites’; although there is what is now widely accepted as the perfect take in the 1981 John Peel session version, this version on ‘Hidden Treasures’ is shorter, grittier and slightly faster in the vein of Leeds’ GANG OF FOUR. Meanwhile the jagged album opener ‘Citizen Kane’ captures that psychedelic Liverpool flavour of the times, coming over like a cross between THE TEARDROP EXPLODES and ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN.

Very different to the arrangement of the 1981 John Peel version, the intense Cold War angst of ‘All Fall Down’ with references to Ronald Reagan may capture another time, but its words are chillingly relevant again and an indicator as to why this compendium of recordings from 1981-1982 sound so on point in 2025.

‘Ice’ is feisty gem of song with a hand played synth bass battling with frantic rhythm guitars and a speedy drumming run from Graham Boffey that would have made Stephen Morris proud, while the bright synth melodies on ‘La Lune Lunatique’ mask the shadier lyrical overtones. Less post-punk and much more of a melodic electronically styled pop song, ‘Crowds’ is not that dissimilar from say OMD or A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS and points towards the more commercial sound that Phonogram had signed B-MOVIE for. But as a complete flip to that mood, the gloomy progressive drama of ‘Beginning To Fade’ makes an ominous ‘Hidden Treasures’ closer.

The CD bonus tracks include longer takes of ‘Remembrance Day’ and ‘Marilyn Dreams’ but it’s the mighty ‘Nowhere Girl’ with the extended Rick Holliday’s concert piano and synthbass intro breakdown that excels as a classic 12” version. Of the B-sides, the remix of ‘Institution Walls’ from the second of the Dead Good EPs and ‘Scare Some Life Into Me’ both capture the raw vocal anxiety in Steve Hovington’s paranoia. Meanwhile the icy drum machine laden ‘Film Music’ was Holliday’s instrumental excursion into the monochromatic Mittel Europa atmospheres of ‘The Third Man’ and ‘The Spy Who Came in from the Cold’.

While the fragmented B-MOVIE led by Hovington and Statham did release a debut album in the disappointing ‘Forever Running’ in 1985, it is the three singles from this ‘Hidden Treasures’ period that are held in the highest esteem, so much so that the American electro-rock band THE FAINT used ‘Remembrance Day’ as the basis for their own ‘Southern Belles in London Sing’ in 2004. At around the same time, B-MOVIE reformed with their original line-up and despite the departure of Holliday again in 2022, continue today.

‘Hidden Treasures’ provides the missing links to ‘Remembrance Day’, ‘Marilyn Dreams’ and ‘Nowhere Girl’, along with the context as to why for a period, B-MOVIE were judged to become the next big thing. It didn’t happen for them, but this lost album superbly restored by Roger Lyons puts them on an equal footing with many of the best post-punk synth-laden bands of the era.

Absence can make the heart grow fonder and this case highlights how despite the passing of 43 years, B-MOVIE’s music from this period really has stood the test of time.

‘Hidden Treasures’ is released as a blue vinyl LP, black vinyl LP, CD and download by Wanderlust Records on 30th May 2025, available from https://www.roughtrade.com/product/bmovie/hidden-treasures

B-MOVIE 2025 UK live dates:

Manchester Rebellion (30th May), London Dome (31st May) Brighton Prince Albert (1st June)

https://www.b-movie.org/

https://www.facebook.com/B.MovieMusic/

https://www.instagram.com/b_movieband/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
24th May 2025

Lost Albums: KLAUS SCHULZE 101, Milky Way

26 November 2024 /

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK was one of the last media platforms to interview the late German electronic pioneer Klaus Schulze shortly before his passing on 26 April 2022.

Klaus Schulze lived in his own cosmic sequenced world and his albums ‘Timewind’, ‘Moondawn’ and ‘Mirage’ are still held up as fine examples of The Berlin School. Klaus Schulze said to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK: “Every album I do is my best – everyone has its time and its own history and circumstances, though there are some albums that are more in my mind than others are! Really, when you work on something it is the latest and best you’ve ever done and so it always is my favourite record. It’s as simple as that.”

Wider interest in Klaus Schulze’s music was renewed after he worked with Hans Zimmer on ‘Grains of Sand’ on the ‘Dune’ soundtrack; “The world has finally caught up with a true pioneer” said Zimmer in 2021, “A master, an influence and influencer on countless others, still connecting us all with a deep sense of humanity and mystery”

Literally never one to sit still, Schulze left behind a vast portfolio of work including material that was unreleased for various reasons. Following up his posthumously issued final album ‘Deus Arrakis’, the poignant closing piece of which was ‘Der Hauch des Lebens’ (translated into English as “The Breath of Life”), ‘101, Milky Way’ is a real treasure from Klaus Schulze’s archives.

The album began at the end of 2008 as a soundtrack commission from a German film production company for a documentary about computer hackers. Klaus Schulze being Klaus Schulze ended up creating a complete album. The eventual documentary film ‘Hacker’ directed by Alex Biedermann only ended up using small sections of the music as a soft backdrop.

With the blessing of his estate, ‘101, Milky Way’ is now available for the first time; comprising of three lengthy pieces and two comparatively shorter ones, this previously lost album is a fitting way of maintaining his legacy. Across 15 minutes, ‘Infinity’ offers a grand sweeping ambience with occasional indigenous vocal chant samples and violin that gradually builds and then descends into a bubbly otherness. Only 5 minutes long, ‘Alpha’ recalls Jean-Michel Jarre’s more atmospheric moments.

While sequencer patterns have been notably absent so far, these drift in during the second third of the most classic Schulze of the pieces ‘Multi’; this goes on a hypnotic journey of over half an hour complete with spacey string machines, and then chattering percussive interventions and cosmic pulses for the drive into the home straight. The much shorter ‘Meta’ follows the atmospheric path over gentle rhythmic backbeat before over 18 minutes, ‘Uni’ offers a sedate intro before it bursts into a cacophony of buzzier and more jagged sounds and textures.

Some might not be so keen on the digital elements on ‘101, Milky Way’ when compared to his imperial phase albums but as Schulze said to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK: “I have spent many years fighting the various technical aspects from so many different machines that I absolutely enjoy turning on everything – and Boom, it’s all there. I certainly would not want to go back to having to tune everything… or patch my way through every single part of an analogue synth”.

A welcome release that captures the essence of 21st Century Klaus Schulze, ‘101, Milky Way’ is like a greeting from wherever he is now in the universe and fittingly continues his vast electronic legacy. No doubt there will be more to come from his unreleased archives and the man himself would approve.

In memory of Klaus Sculze 1947 – 2022

‘101, Milky Way’ is released by SPV as a gatefold double LP Edition, CD and download

https://klaus-schulze.com/

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialKlausSchulze/

https://twitter.com/klausschulze

https://www.instagram.com/officialklausschulze/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
26th November 2024

Lost Albums: LEDA Welcome To Joyland

8 June 2024 /

In 1978, Peter Baumann had left TANGERINE DREAM and pondering his next move.

He had released his first solo album ‘Romance 76’ while still a member of TANGERINE DREAM but in 1977, electronic music had changed when Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ produced by Giorgio Moroder pointed towards the future. Baumann had his new Berlin-based Paragon Studio to maintain while his next solo album ‘Trans Harmonic Nights’ was still a year off, so needed to earn some money quickly.

Inspired by ‘I Feel Love’, he hit upon the idea of doing a disco flavoured electronic record with an alluring female voice that had commercial promise. His musical collaborator in the project would be ethnomusicologist Hans Brandeis while providing the vocals was a mysterious Italian girl. While Leda has often assumed to be her name, this was never confirmed.

With his customised Projekt Elektronik modular system used during the shows featured on TANGERINE DREAM’s ‘Encore’ live album, Baumann came up with eight electronically-based sequenced songs and one instrumental for ‘Welcome To Joyland’.

The opening sequencer laden ‘Welcome To Joyland’ title song made a fine statement of intent with the vocals coming over very natural and complimentary to the sparkling electro Weimar cabaret aesthetic. With an archetypical TANGERINE DREAM styled bassline, ‘Endless Race’ took an icy journey of its own thanks to angelic vocals as if calling from the Alps while synthesized gulls boosted the atmospheric effect.

Further arpeggiated sparkles came from ‘White Clouds’ although the drumming put it into prog territory while the vocals were wispier and more child-like. The brilliantly cosmic ‘Movin’ On’ sat on a steady 3/4 time signature and the vocals even got soulful while the freeform synth solo provided by Baumann was a total delight.

Photo by Jerome Froese

Beginning in a much more discordant fashion, ‘City Of Light’ throbbed like Moroder although pointing more to his MUNICH MACHINE work with Chris Bennett rather than Donna Summer, but its Sci-Fi resonances were spoilt slightly by the recorded distortion. With pipey textures and minimal synthbass, ‘Space Ride’ offered an instrumental interlude in the vein of Baumann’s first solo record ‘Romance ‘76’. However, veering towards synthesized folk music, ‘Caroussel’ was something of an odd outlier and even brought flutes in!

In acknowledgement of ‘I Feel Love’ which had been signalling the future of pop, the mighty ‘Future’ completely aped it with enticing combination of throbbing electronics, cosmic solos and high pitched vocals. Closing with the mystical prog waltz of Stardust’, ABBA-like vocal phrasing was adopted although the backdrop of white noise waves indicated this was anything but the Swedes. Oddly though, this track had stylistic similarities to ‘Bent Cold Sidewalk’ from his former band’s long playing vocal experiment ‘Cyclone’ also released in 1978.

Clocking in at just under 34 minutes, ‘Welcome To Joyland’ was an accessible and melodic work with disco flirtations and sweet vocals but despite this, there was an esoteric quality about the majority of the songs and with a number of strong highlights, this was a far better and more appealing record than TANGERINE DREAM’s ‘Cyclone’.

But with misgivings about its perceived commercial nature, Peter Baumann took on the alias of Hacoon Mail while Hans Brandeis used the Franco pseudonym Cyril Claud for the ‘Welcome To Joyland’ credits and its release on the European multi-national label Metronome was accompanied by virtually non-existent promotion to retain a mystery and stimulate the press curiosity… however, the strategy backfired and the album flopped.

Baumann went back to making the instrumental music that he made his name with on 1979’s ‘Trans Harmonic Nights’, but he introduced a vocalised aesthetic albeit using vocoder as Moroder had done on his acclaimed Giorgio electronic albums.

‘Welcome To Joyland’ remains something of a curio in the Peter Baumann portfolio, but it is a pointer to the pop song based direction he launched on the 1981 Robert Palmer produced ‘Repeat Repeat’. It proved to be an even bigger surprise to TANGERING DREAM fans but that is another story…

‘Welcome To Joyland’ is available via Private Records on most online platforms

Text by Chi Ming Lai
8th June 2024

Lost Albums: THE OTHER TWO & You

31 May 2024 /

Following the ‘Technique’ album released in early 1989, NEW ORDER were in something of a state of flux.

Bernard Sumner had already opted for what was planned as a solo album but became ELECTRONIC after meeting up with Johnny Marr, then a free agent having left THE SMITHS. Peter Hook responded with the fittingly named REVENGE. Even the band’s manager Rob Gretton had his own adventure with Rob’s Records. But what of Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, THE OTHER TWO?

Having soundtracked the BBC’s comedy drama ‘Making Out’ and youth culture show ‘Reportage’, the NEW ORDER couple had been composing and stockpiling various sketches and instrumentals pieced together at their home studio near Macclesfield in the event of future commissions, as happened later with ‘America’s Most Wanted’.

However, following the Italia 90 World Cup song ‘World In Motion’ which was supposed to start the process towards making the follow-up to ‘Technique’, Gilbert and Morris found themselves with time to kill having turned down a film soundtrack to accommodate the now false start. ‘World In Motion’ had actually mutated from the ‘Reportage’ theme which Gilbert had mostly written, so Factory Records’ Alan Erasmus suggested that some of this stockpiled material could be released as an album.

In a 2011 interview, Stephen Morris told ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK: “They start off as these things for TV, you get really attached to them and you twist one or two of them into being songs. Some of them never turn into songs but you get persuaded by the record company or someone that you have to get a singer! So we tried to get a singer and then Gillian ended up doing it which is great, she’s really good at it.” – that singer they tried to get was actually Kim Wilde!

But when that idea never got beyond a meeting, Gilbert took on the role of lead vocalist, helped along the way with some singing lessons. The brilliant debut single ‘Tasty Fish’ released in late 1991 was superbly catchy and had The Kylie Factor. But with the ongoing problems at Factory Records, the single never made it to many shops and stalled at No41 in the singles chart.

The subsequent album which had actually already given a catalogue number of Fact 330 never got released on Factory as planned, while the couple’s attentions were turned to NEW ORDER for what was to become ‘Republic’, produced by Stephen Hague. In the fallout that came with talk of London Records buying Factory out, the iconic Manchester record label collapsed and NEW ORDER signed with London direct.

THE OTHER TWO ‘& You’ finally appeared in late 1993 on London Records seven months after ‘Republic’ and had been tweaked from its original Factory configuration by Stephen Hague. Opening with a new version of ‘Tasty Fish’, although Hague’s additional production neutered the dynamics of the original Pascal Gabriel single mix, the song still stood out, a well-deserved hit if ever there was one, but not to be.

Following it was the dancey DUBSTAR of ‘The Greatest Thing’, a joyous music statement about the power of love. Its sampled acoustic guitar lines could easily have been represented by Peter Hook’s bass and highlighted the couple’s contribution to NEW ORDER, despite some reports to the contrary.

‘Selfish’ made it three in a row for the start of THE OTHER TWO ‘& You’; rich in synthetic strings and lively but unobtrusive machine driven rhythms. Gilbert’s resigned vocal about “someone I hate” reinforced to the inherent melancholy in a fabulous song with an exquisite understated quality. On the moodier electro-acoustic strum of ‘Movin’ On’, it wasn’t difficult to imagine Sarah Blackwood and the usual cup of tea, with Gillian Gilbert’s singing lessons proving effective and highlighting her as actually the best technical vocalist in NEW ORDER.

With soundtracks having been their main compositional forte during this period, there were naturally instrumentals; the uptempo pulse of ‘Ninth Configuration’ wouldn’t have sounded out of place as a NEW ORDER B-side circa ‘Technique’, ditto ‘Spirit Level’, although the eerie interlude ‘Night Voice’ pointed more towards filmic ambience.

Meanwhile the widescreen synthpop of ‘Feel This Love’ foresaw a future Stephen Hague produced act called TECHNIQUE; a female electronic pop duo comprising of Xan Tyler and Katie Holmes, they were to name themselves after the NEW ORDER album and later morphed into CLIENT featuring Sarah Blackwood! The charming ‘Innocence’ with its lovely OMD-styled string melody embraced a subtle Italo house staccato, but closing the album was the brilliant ‘Loved It (The Other Track)’.

With its hypnotic digital slap bass and club friendly vibes, it had been composed to celebrate the opening of The New Factory, a building in Charles Street which became a white elephant and ultimately contributed to Factory Records’ collapse. Featuring cut-up speech from the likes of the late label co-founder Tony Wilson shouting “Any one of you miserable musicians want any more pills?” as well members of NEW ORDER deadpanning “Not my idea!” and “Are you sure?”, time has made the track an amusingly ironic musical document of that carefree Factory period.

Better than REVENGE but not consistently soaring to the heights of the ELECTRONIC debut, THE OTHER TWO ‘& You’ did however show that Gilbert and Morris had often been overlooked in the NEW ORDER story.

Over the following years, work continued on THE OTHER TWO’s second album ’Super Highways’. It eventually surfaced in 1999 and was perhaps less immediate than its predecessor. The realisation of their original guest female vocalist idea came to fruition with Melanie Williams from Rob Records signings SUB SUB on the excellent ‘You Can Fly’ and the very DUBSTAR sounding title track.

Gilbert sang on the lovely orchestrated electropop of ‘The River’ while there were also various experiments in drum ‘n’ bass like the mighty ‘One Last Kiss’. However, the record had been overshadowed by the reunion of NEW ORDER with their triumphant comeback gigs at Manchester Apollo and the Reading Festival in 1998.

Family matters led to Gillian Gilbert departing NEW ORDER before the guitar heavy ‘Get Ready’ was released in 2001. The void left the band in a much tenser masculine environment and the sad untimely death of Rob Gretton in 1999 left the now well-documented conflicts between Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook without a referee.

Fast forward to today, Gillian Gilbert is back in NEW ORDER and the electronics have returned in style on 2015’s ‘Music Complete’ released on Mute Records. “I’m on all the best records” she amusingly quipped to Q magazine on her return. And now, THE OTHER TWO ‘& You’ gets a well deserved reissue, revamp and reappraisal on Rhino.

But if NEW ORDER hadn’t made a return in 1998 and THE OTHER TWO had been able to be a full-time occupation, could they have been as successful as DUBSTAR or SAINT ETIENNE? “No, we’re completely the wrong kind of people!”, Stephen Morris said adamantly. “I’ve tried but it never works… we’d never be popstars!”

‘THE OTHER TWO & You’ is reissued by Rhino in CD + digital formats, vinyl LP available exclusively at  https://store.neworder.com/gb/new-order/the-other-two/

https://www.facebook.com/TheOtherTwoOfficialMusic/

https://twitter.com/The_OtherTwo

https://twitter.com/gillian_gilbert

https://twitter.com/stephenpdmorris

Text by Chi Ming Lai
31st May 2024 reworked from an article originally published 29th February 2020

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