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« on: November 24, 2019, 02:20:37 PM »
New Order ‘The Peel Sessions’ 12” - picked this up yesterday, almost exclusively for one song. Most days I’m not much of a New Order fan. Some days I’m really not a fan at all. The music is almost always on point, and I gotta give it up for their influence on the UK acid house scene, but for some reason it almost always comes off as kind of limp to me (not least of all because of the vocals), especially in comparison to their previous incarnation, which is an unfortunate and reductive, albeit inevitable disservice to them, and yet here we are. Maybe it’s the weather, but I’ve been really deep in the “bombed-out industrialized UK dub” zone lately (Sherwood, RH Kirk, F Lizards, Mad Professor, et al) and the aforementioned main draw lone track really scratches that itch. A cover of Keith Hudson’s “Turn The Heater On”, in the hands NO, the Jamaican gem becomes a cold, grey (“e” for British English) mid-energy dancefloor zoner that because of the previously mentioned oft-unfavorable vocals feels much more plaintive and yearning than the original. The following track, “We All Stand” feels very much of a piece with its predecessor, with some very minimal instrumentation and Jamaican-indebted riddims. I don’t know if they were just in a subdued mood during the Sessions, but the two originals on the b-side feel much slower than their studio counterparts. That or I just haven’t listened to them in a while. Or both. Either way, after the lead off ersatz reggae haze of the a-side, they sound great. It helps that it’s only an EP, rather than a full album. Like 2018’s string of Kanye-produced releases, the strength here lies in the brevity.
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