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New
Order
Back To Mine
label: dmc
released: 11.05.02
our score: 3.5 out of 5.0
buy
it: here
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In the early
80's post-punk movement, Joy Division reigned supreme. However,
it was out of their ashes that New Order was born, giving birth
to some of the most utterly cool new wave dance and rock tracks
ever to grace the airwaves. Over their 20-odd years of music making,
New Order have become synonymous with the evolution of modern
dance music, and have become somewhat of a fairy-godfather to
the electronic music scene.
Still, although
their more popular songs were heavy on the dance and light on
the rock, a comprehensive listen to what New Order's done with
their time shows just how varied they really are. And even more
so, it begs the question of "just where in the hell did they
get their influences?" The latest edition in DMC's Back
to Mine series does a bit of work to answer this question.
For those
unfamiliar with the Back to Mine series, it's a collection
of albums featuring music chosen and mixed by some of the larger
names in the field of electronic music. Originally started as
DJ-Mix compiliations of blissful chill-out, it has over the years
become more of a soapbox for artists to spout out where their
influences came from and to almost fight to see who can come up
with the "coolest" compiliations.
New Order's
entry finally pushes the series completely out of the downbeat
mix-album genre, and into the "these are our influences and
who we think are cool" mix-album genre. Surprisingly, unlike
Orbital's confused Back to Mine release, New Order's shines
as a revival of a somewhat failing series.
Sure, the
album doesn't mix and flow like Groove Armada or Faithless's entries,
but what it does do is cover some of the extremities of modern
and classic music and truly explore how they can all come together
to still be part of the same general idea. Frankly, anyone
who can go from Captain Beefheart to Missy Elliot in three steps
knows music. And the inclusion of Velvet Underground's "Venus
In Furs" and modern rock's new classic "M62 Song"
from The Doves is the biggest jump in rock history, albeit one
of the most relevant.
The inclusion
of Mantronix's "Bassline" and the sublime dance-ecstasy
of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" (the Patrick Crowley
Mix) and others help cover the dance realm, making this also the
most danceable of the Back to Mine releases.
Yet it's songs
like Cat Stevens' "Was Dog a Doughnut" and the sublime
eccentricity of Roxy Music's "In Every Dream Home a Heartache"
that really show where New Order really came from.
No, it's not
a chill-out disc. But it's also not all that fast-paced or rocking.
It's definitely the strangest of the Back to Mine discs,
but it's also one of the best. And hopefully it will breathe a
bit of new life into a dying concept.
28-Oct-2002 4:27 PM
If you
liked New Order - Back To Mine...
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