An indie music blog featuring forgotten songs, out-of-print classics, leaps in music and indie cover versions alongside new tracks and newer bands making new music. Sometimes it's new indie alternative music that sounds a bit like old indie alternative music. Indie music. Indie alternative mp3s. Indie mp3 downloads. Post Rock downloads. Shoegaze mp3s. Free mp3 downloads of rare tracks. Factory. 4AD. Too Pure. Creation. Temporary Residence. Post-Rock. Jazz. Electronica. Unclassifiable. etc.
Almost Deep House smooth, this Fire Island remix really suits the laid-back, slightly melancholy feel of 'Regret'. Junior Boys Own's mastery gives the track some space and more propulsive beat but leaves the song pretty much intact, save for extended the instrumental coda.
Funnily, this is a more 'Balearic' sound than that of famously Ibiza-influenced 'Technique'.
It's all got a bit messy in New Order land but this track from the '24 Hour Party People' soundtrack can hold its head up against former glories courtesy of some production magic from The Chemical Brothers.
A gleaming, chrome-plated synthesis of alternative rock and dance with no bobbins lyrics, glorious propulsive beats, Barney's trademark guitar and some fine bass runs from Hooky.
Listening to some classic Inner City reminded me of this gleaming but fluttering makeover of New Order's 'Round And Round'.
Inner City's Kevin Saunderson stretches the track out adding flickering sequencer and percussion lines to extrapolate the dance side of the New Order equation.
Obviously, the proximity of Joy Division to A Certain Ratio in the Factory family suggests connections and comparisons. However, this really is like euphoric, loose-limbed take on Joy Division's post-punk.
'Do The Du' is lithe and sexy like a peephole overcoat, betraying the love of Northern Soul that would see them cover 'Shack Up'. However, it also has an angularity that places them in the post-punk egg of the musical Venn Diagram and leads us to the flat voweled funk of New Fast Automatic Daffodils.
This Peel Session version has a roughed-up edge and added looseness compared to the strictures of the album version. Twitch along.
A classic in the mould of One Dove's awesome 'Morning Dove White' album or the Saint Etienne of 'Kiss And Make Up'. Echoes in the sugary pop refractions of Korallreven.
Cute instrumental from Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr.
Delightful instrumental business hidden away on the back of a remix 12" of 'Getting Away With It'.
Very much in the US Crime Series Incidental Music genre - lots of big room piano and puttering percussion. It's what The Smiths could have become if Johnny Marr had been let loose... And Morrissey could stand dance music.
Filmic, epic beauty from 1987 Durutti Column album.
I think it was actually the sleeve - which is truly beautiful - and the label that persuaded me to buy this album. My awe of Factory told me that I should probably like The Durutti Column but it was a long time before I tried some.
'Arpeggiator' was the first thing I heard - the opening track of the album - a Windham Hill ambience drifting across the urgent, staccato drum machine and, of course, guitar arpeggios.
Poised and correct for the most part, cello cutting an austere shape across the track, it builds until a distorted, disruptive bass-y guitar comes in, tripping off skysoaring guitar.
Papa M-ish Joy Division cover. Perkily morose, if that's possible.
Kings Of Convenience bring out the drum kit to add a level of procession to this Joy Division cover. It has the feel of David Pajo's Papa M material, acoustic-based country post-rock gothic balladry. Quite a narrow genre really so it's nice to hear someone else rising to the challenge...
The song is based around a springy, cubic acoustic guitar pattern that takes on the main riff, set against the crisp, pure vocal. The drums and rolling bass add structure and some beautiful reverbed and distorted guitar make burst into life and make it a truly great cover. Sacrilege or otherwise.
Nice cover of the 'Power, Corruption and Lies' classic.
The stand-out track from the current Mojo covermount CD see Destroyer deliver a lovely cover of this early New Order gem.
Interweaving lines of guitar give way to a calm verse that has a slight Postal Service vibe to it. The intensity builds with the guitars coming back in, spiralling off into infinity.
Cheeky instrumental out-take from the 'True Faith' era. Used as a link between tracks on the Substance VHS.
I'm having something of a New Order renaissance at the moment (Renaissance - maybe that'll be the name of their next compilation...)
'The Happy One' was used a link between the videos on the VHS version of 'Substance'. If memory serves, there was a video snippet reminiscent of the 'True Faith' single cover and then it was used over the credits at the end.
It's barely a song, more of a sketch with no vocal and coming in just shy of three minutes. However, it's quite irresistible and Hooky gets all soppy with a chirpy bass melody (hence, 'The Happy One') over one of Stephen and Gillian's 'Making Out' type incidentals.
Just staggering stuff. New Order at their majestic, silvery finest.
I bought this New Order 7" in the bargain bin in WH Smith way back when. That's hard to believe for a number of reasons, not least because I can hardly believe it could have been 25 years ago.
Mind you, the idea of a piece such monumental poise and indie alternative beauty being available in the bargain bin also smacks of unreality. I guess it was only because the size of their ultra-hardcore fanbase was enough to launch them into the upper reaches of the charts for a week before they fell rapidly the next. Probably because they'd played the song shambolically live on Top Of The Pops.
Anyway, WH Smith's loss of margin was my gain as this seven-inch had 'Shellshock' on one side and an edited instrumental of 'Thieves Like Us' on the other.
'Thieves Like Us' glides, serenely on cushion of stately synths, sequencers burbling away and Hooky's bass picking out a trademark melody. The overall effect is of an uplifting rush, airborne, looking down over the harsh beauty of the city below. Like you're flying over Hackney in a Learjet.
As with the rest of the 'Bummed' album, it's the point where the Mondays' vibe was firmly in the organic, Krautrock, groove marathon camp. The moment before Paul Oakenfold's sequencers took over and Madchester began, leaving behind the more organic dance/rock hybrids of New Fast Automatic Daffodils et al.
Heavily-delayed guitar and sweet melodies in this US indie-pop supergroup (sort of).
Dive is a Brooklyn side project (Beach Fossils, Smith Westerns) due to be released on the pretty reliable Captured Tracks label - Wild Nothing and Blouse have been reported herein previously.
'Corvalis' is the b-side of the upcoming single and it delivers cascades of tumbling, delayed guitar melodies over what sounds like a stand-up JAMC drumbeat and some oozing flute-y synths. 'Sometimes' is more New Order-y with an icy Factory blast underpinning the woozy, multitracked vocals.
Stately, austere Post Rock cover of Joy Division's stately, austere Post Punk classic.
Codeine dealt in the slowest of the slow in Post Rock terms, releasing a handful of records in the early 1990s on Sub Pop. (NB. For me, the 'Barely Real' EP is a must-have.) Their songs oozed across the vinyl, catching you out with their almost hesitant poise.
The idea of Codeine covering one of Joy Division's most funereal moments makes you think that the track is going to reach a kind of absolute zero musical state, its atoms ceasing to oscillate. They don't play it like that though, instead it's a processional but respectful reading that stands alongside Low's version of 'Transmission' from the same cover album.
It's a much more skeletal version than the original's warm, comforting wash, finding a respectful but alternative angle which occasionally pauses, as if to reflect on the words' portents. Some bare, gently over-driven guitar wraps it up.
Respectful dancefloor tweaking of 'Everything's Gone Green' by Cicada from the 7" set of 'Waiting For The Siren's Call' singles.
Certainly more respectful than the latest compilation, 'Total', which features unreleased track 'Hellbent'.
Cicada add a tight, propulsive tech house groove to underpin the New Order original. A little reverb on the guitar and bass lines helps them add edge to the metronomic groove and the synths sit nicely against the track.
Towards the end the synths adopt a melody line that apes 'Blue Monday'. Not sure what that's about but it's a decent remix.
A new New Order track unearthed to help shift the latest version of their greatest hits. This time a single CD compilation across both Joy Division and New Order. Quite how you summarise the best of those two bands on one CD is beyond me.
From the sound of it, it's an outtake from 'Waiting For The Siren's Call' but it's nice to hear something new from them. I don't think it'll happen again.
'Total: From Joy Division to New Order' tracklist:
01 Joy Division: Transmission
02 Joy Division: Love Will Tear Us Apart
03 Joy Division: Isolation
04 Joy Division: She's Lost Control
05 Joy Division: Atmosphere
06 New Order: Ceremony
07 New Order: Temptation
08 New Order: Blue Monday
09 New Order: Thieves Like Us
10 New Order: The Perfect Kiss
11 New Order: Bizarre Love Triangle
12 New Order: True Faith
13 New Order: Fine Time
14 New Order: World in Motion
15 New Order: Regret
16 New Order: Crystal
17 New Order: Krafty
18 New Order: Hellbent
LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire toured the US in 2007 and put together a split 7-inch to celebrate. Arcade Fire cover 'Pouree de Cire, Poupee de Son' (France Gall, written by Serge Gainsbourg) on the other side.
LCD Soundsystem focus on Joy Division's 'No Love Lost' and turn in a taut, straight-edged monster. Focused and sharp as steel, burbling synths are added amongst the steely Gang Of Four guitar strang. James Murphy does his best Ian Curtis impression, whilst the rest of the band add call-and-response vocals.
