FTA: New Order's 'Technique' | A Quick Look at the Band's Seminal 1989 Record
On their fifth release the dance rock pioneers hit their peak
Good Morning!
Today we’re taking another quick look at ‘Technique’ by New Order as it takes on Billy Joel’s Storm Front on Day 29 of the Best Record of 1989 Challenge.
There’s not much point in burying the lede here; this lookback won’t come close to being objective. If you’ve been with us for more than a few weeks, you know my love for this band and are keenly aware that On Repeat Records could devolve into a New Order fan page at any moment.
That said, this record is a massive achievement for the band at a time when not much else was going right for them-certainly not internally, anyway. To put something out amidst so much strife and financial pressure alone would be worth noting. That it is some of the best work they’ve ever produced makes it all the more remarkable.
Most people will remember March 24th, 1989, as the date the Exxon Valdez ran aground. I remember walking to the closest shopping mall to get tickets to see New Order.
That was the closest Ticketmaster outlet, and I was probably halfway down the street before my mom had even finished giving me permission. With the benefit of hindsight — and now being a parent myself — I now know what a huge leap of faith this must’ve been for her. We lived in the suburbs, and she was giving the green light to an (almost) 14 yr. old to ride the bus across the metro area to see a band she heard nonstop but didn’t know.
I suppose on some level you just know when to let your kids leap.
The band was on the road supporting their 5th studio album, Technique, and it came out when I was in junior high. The record was one of the bright spots in an otherwise blah era for me.
If Low Life is a show at an intimate venue, Technique is a sweaty rave filled with strobe lights and ecstasy. Indeed, the record was partly recorded in Ibiza with the band off their rockers. Technique is firmly rooted in the sounds surrounding them in their new environs. They choose the sunny locale at Hook’s insistence after a run of recordings made in “dark and horrible” London studios. The band decamped for Ibiza, hoping the change in scenery (and menu of drugs) would have the same positive effect that New York had had for them years earlier.
It worked…sort of…
After four months, the band only had ‘Fine Time’ and a couple of other tracks recorded to show for their time on the island. Declaring their holiday over, their label called them back to the UK, where they finished the record at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios.
We had expected to hear a lot of acid house music when we got to Ibiza because that had taken off in Manchester two to three months before we left, but we didn’t – we were hearing something called Balearic Beat,” Bernard said. We were actually disappointed at first because we were really into acid house, and what we heard, this Balearic Beat, was this crazy mash-up of styles and really commercial-sounding but there was also some really good stuff. By the end of our time there we were really influenced by it.
Their time in the sun may seem unproductive on the surface, but it had left an indelible mark on the group’s sound.
Fine Time is an acid-house Balearic Beat classic. Round and Round1 is pop perfection and saw decent airtime on MTV.
Run is credited to not only New Order, but also (*checks notes) John Denver?!
Yes, really. Denver sued the band, alleging that the guitar riffs were lifted from his Leaving On a Jet Plane. The case was settled out of court, with his name subsequently added to the credits.
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We could do a track-by-track breakdown, but the short version is this: Technique feels like the band's most honest record. Whether that’s down to the drugs or the Balearic sun, I don’t know. In the end, I suppose it doesn’t matter.
Perhaps more importantly, it is economical. Listening to it, every note has its place, and there is nothing extraneous. It's both a dance record and a pop record—in other words, a New Order record—but listening to it, there is a discipline that sets it apart from the band’s previous work.
The songs themselves are compact; the sequencers nailed down— there is no 9-minute version of anything on this LP. By this point, the band had also mastered the art of shifting between pop and dance tracks.
On Brotherhood, a distinct boundary exists between the two (literally- the styles each have their own side on the album). There are no guardrails here; the band makes segueing between styles look easy.
All of that is well and good, but why is it my number 1?
Technique was really the first record by the band that I found on my own. Yes, I knew them. Yes, I’d heard almost everything they had recorded up to that point. But this was different; I’d learned of its release on my own and gone and bought it with my own money.
No hand-me-downs from friends' older siblings or songs clipped from mix tapes. You always remember your first…
Good records always take you somewhere special. Thirty-five years later, Technique still does that for me.
Listen:
New Order | Technique, 1989
Click the record to listen on the platform of your choice.
What are your thoughts on this record? Do you have any favorite tracks or memories associated with it? At 35, does it still hold up? Share your thoughts in the comments!
As for Storm Front, aside from it never having a chance going up against New Order, it’s not good. I might be the only one that likes “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” but even that’s just one song on a totally dour record. “Go to Extremes” is a nice bit of pop, I guess. The rest just feels like Joel mailed it in. No thanks.
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I DJ'd hell out of this album when running the Communion night at the Limelight from 1990 onwards. Fine Time, and Round and Round, in various mix form, got plenty of dancefloor love. Who they did tour with on this album? 808 State I believe, I seem to remember them playing Meadowlands... obviously I could check on setlist.fm but that would ruin the fun. You probably don't want to know I saw them in 1981 do you? Great album, did not seem desperately out of place to me, everyone I knew in the UK was on acid and ecstasy and booking flights to Ibiza. It felt like the last great rush of youth culture... Cheers!
nothing after PCL is worthwhile