Technique (album)

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>

This article is about the album. For other uses, see Technique (disambiguation).
Technique
File:New Order Technique.jpg
Studio album by New Order
Released 30 January 1989
Recorded 1988 at Mediterranean Studios, Ibiza; Real World Studios, Box
Genre
Length 39:32
Label Factory
FACT 275
Producer New Order
New Order chronology
Brotherhood
(1986)Brotherhood1986		 Technique
(1989)		 Republic
(1993)Republic1993
Singles from Technique
  1. "Fine Time"
    Released: 28 November 1988
  2. "Round and Round (remix)"
    Released: 27 February 1989
  3. "Run 2"
    Released: 28 August 1989

Technique is the fifth studio album by the English rock band New Order, released in 1989 via Factory Records. Partly recorded on the island of Ibiza, it incorporates Balearic beat and acid house influences into the group's dance/rock sound.

Technique was the first New Order album to reach number one in the UK charts. "Fine Time", the first single lifted from it, reached number 11. Remixed versions of "Round & Round" and "Run" were also released as singles. John Denver's publishing company filed a lawsuit, alleging that the guitar break in "Run" too closely resembled Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane".[4] The case was settled out of court. An instrumental version of "Vanishing Point" was used on the BBC series Making Out.

Music videos were produced for the three singles.

In 2008 the album was re-released in a Collector's Edition with a bonus disc.

Music

Ian Harrison wrote in the liner notes of the 2008 Collector's Edition: "It's arguable that Technique is more a clear split between rock and electronic dance than Brotherhood was [...] While 'Fine Time', 'Round and Round', 'Mr Disco', 'Vanishing Point' and 'Dream Attack' sit in the latter category, [...] the vocal songs ['All the Way', 'Love Less', 'Guilty Partner' and 'Run'] with guitars are infused with a similar sensuality."[5] Bernard Sumner reflected, "We were in this position of being known for this dance-electronic sound and it would have been daft to have just stopped doing it. That was the nature of the time. The way I saw it was we were still writing band music as well, so we'd reached a compromise."[5] Peter Hook joked that the album was "an epic power struggle between the sequencers and me. I was resisting it valiantly, because I still wanted us to be a rock band."[5]

Sumner also wrote all of the lyrics himself, and Harrison suggested that the band recording on the island of Ibiza heavily influenced the sound and lyrics of the album, as while there the band became fascinated by Balearic club music.[5] Gillian Gilbert recalled, "We had Mike (Johnson, engineer) with us, so there was always somebody doing something, but it was the beginning of us not being together in the studio when we were doing things. It was like, 'oh you do your drums today, and I'll do the vocals tonight...' The songs were sort of there but there were huge chunks missing. You'd leave blocks and say, 'will you fill that in? I'm off now.'"[5] The band had chosen to record in Ibiza at Hook's urging after a series of records made in 'dark and horrible' London studios.[6] Morris described the sound of the Balearic beat clubs on the island they began to visit as 'mad! They'd put an acid record on and then the next one would be a Queen one—it was schizophrenic, really. It’d be something really Spanish and then something really daft. It was a really odd mix but it all seemed to make sense when you were there. I don’t why that was. Maybe because we were all a bit out of our brains."[7]

Following four months spent in Ibiza (with the album '20% complete', according to Sumner), the band shifted to Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios to finish recording, which Sumner referred to as a "much more sober atmosphere".[5]

Echoing a sentiment also expressed by Harrison, Hook remarked, "I think Technique sounds fantastic. It really does, considering it's not an Ibizan dance record. I think it catches a summer sound really brilliantly."[5] Stephen Morris mentioned that the album had an "end of term, last day of school feel about it".[5] Harrison posited that Technique represented "New Order's commercial zenith" and that it paved the way for other bands to "blend rock and dance [... ,] predicting club music's chart takeover in the '90s."[5]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4.5/5 stars[2]
The A.V. Club B+[8]
Blender 4/5 stars[9]
Los Angeles Times 3/4 stars[10]
Pitchfork Media 9.2/10[11]
Q 5/5 stars[12]
Rolling Stone 3/5 stars[13]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide 4.5/5 stars[14]
Uncut 4/5 stars[15]
The Village Voice B+[16]

Technique received generally positive reviews from music critics upon its release. In a contemporary review, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice stated that the album was a "lot franker and happier (hence smarter) than Depeche Mode" and that the band had "lightened up".[16] Ira Robbins of Rolling Stone wrote that Technique "delivers a solid blast of sonic presence with immaculate playing" and called it a "surprisingly inviting album from this generally reserved outfit".[13]

Technique has since garnered critical acclaim in retrospective reviews. John Bush of AllMusic referred to the album as "another classic record" by New Order and stated that their "instincts for blending rock and contemporary dance [had] resulted in another confident, superb LP".[2] Spin magazine's 1995 Alternative Record Guide cited Technique as New Order's best album because it represented the perfect synthesis of the band's abilities as a punk-influenced rock band and as synthpop pioneers.[17] In reviews by both The A.V. Club and BBC Music, the album was referred to as New Order's "last truly great album".[8][18] Keith Gwillim of Stylus Magazine contended that New Order "may have made better records, but none of them defines them, sounds so quintessentially like what they were always reaching for, quite as well as Technique."[3]

Tom Ewing of Pitchfork Media labelled the album as "magnificent" in 2008 and stated that Technique "takes the easy interplay and full-band sound of Brotherhood and drenches it in good Ibiza vibes".[11] However, he criticised the Collector's Edition bonus material as containing only "listless B-sides and instrumentals, and merely functional remixes".[11]

Technique has been listed by several publications as one of the best albums of the 1980s and of all time. In 2006 Q magazine placed the album at No. 21 on its list of the "40 Best Albums of the '80s" and NME ranked the album at No. 122 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" in 2013.[19][20]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by New Order except where indicated. 

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Fine Time"     4:42
2. "All the Way"     3:22
3. "Love Less"     2:58
4. "Round & Round"     4:29
5. "Guilty Partner"     4:44
6. "Run"   New Order, John Denver 4:29
7. "Mr. Disco"     4:20
8. "Vanishing Point"     5:15
9. "Dream Attack"     5:13
2008 Collector's Edition bonus disc
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Don't Do It"     4:34
2. "Fine Line"     4:45
3. "Round & Round"     6:52
4. "Best & Marsh"     4:32
5. "Run 2" (extended version) New Order, John Denver 5:26
6. "MTO" (Minus Mix)   5:27
7. "Fine Time" (Silk Mix)   6:19
8. "Vanishing Point" (Instrumental Making Out Mix)   5:12
9. "World in Motion" (Carabinieri Mix) New Order, Keith Allen 5:52

Personnel

  • Bernard Sumner – vocals, guitars, melodica, synthesizers and programming
  • Peter Hook – 4 and 6-stringed bass, electronic percussion, synthesizers and programming
  • Stephen Morris – drums, synthesizers and programming
  • Gillian Gilbert – synthesizers and programming, guitars
  • New Order – production
  • Michael Johnson – engineer
  • Richard Chappell – assistant engineer
  • Aaron Denson – assistant engineer
  • Richard Evans – assistant engineer
  • Trevor Key – cover design
  • Alan Meyerson – mixing
  • Peter Saville – cover design

Chart positions

Album charts
Chart (1989) Peak
position
Australian ARIA Albums Chart[21] 25
Canadian RPM Albums Chart 28
German Media Control Albums Chart[22][23] 25
New Zealand RIANZ Albums Chart[24] 11
Swedish Sverigetopplistan[25] 23
Swiss Albums Chart[26] 15
UK Albums Chart[27] 1
UK Independent Albums Chart[28] 1
US Billboard 200[29] 32
Singles charts
Single Territory/Chart (1988/9) Peak
position
"Fine Time" UK Singles Chart[27] 11
"Fine Time" US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play[30] 2
"Fine Time" US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales[30] 3
"Fine Time" US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks[30] 3
"Round & Round" UK Singles Chart[27] 21
"Round & Round" US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play[30] 1
"Round & Round" US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales[30] 6
"Round & Round" US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks[30] 6
"Round & Round" US Billboard Hot 100[30] 64
"Run 2" (limited release) UK Singles Chart[27] 49

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Q August 2006, Issue 241
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Note: User must define 'Quicksearch' search parameter as "New Order".
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 30.4 30.5 30.6 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Preceded by
The Legendary Roy Orbison by Roy Orbison
 UK number one album
11 February 1989 – 17 February 1989		 Succeeded by
The Raw and the Cooked by Fine Young Cannibals
Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Technique_(album)&oldid=1533773"