Day 0639 - Technique

New Order "Technique" (1989)

So the book lines this up as one of the founding pillars of the acid house movement... now if I knew anything much about that movement, it might help me assess or have a deeper understanding of the album.   As it is, I don't know much about the genre/movement, but I still enjoyed this as a workable blend of dance music elements, with new-wavey synth pop.

The band went to work on this, their 5th album, in Ibiza and ended up having an extended holiday, taking in the local dance culture.  According to the book they came home with 12 rhythm tracks and a guitar solo rather than an entire album, but had successfully managed to filter the Ibiza feel into their music.  

This would be New Order's second-to-last album before a nearly-decade long break.

Day 0561 - Low-life

New Order "Low-Life" (1985)

Following the death of singer Ian Curtis, Joy Division reformatted themselves into New Order (with the addition of keyboardist Gillian Gilbert).   The band's sound was a bit more synthy, and maybe more pop than the post-punk neuroses of Joy Division. 

It's hard to know if they would have still eventually evolved in this direction had Curtis lived.  Whatever the case, this is an enjoyable, largely synth pop-rock album, but there are moments of harsher and less compromising sounds, including the moody synth epic "Elegia".