Sunday Samples 43
It’s been a while since I dipped into the group of bands circling around New Order. Easily one of the best side projects is Electronic: Bernard Sumner’s collaboration with Johnny Marr, formerly better known as the guitarist from The Smiths and currently member of Modest Mouse. They only had a couple hits when they first came out back 1991 — including one which got most of its airplay on the soundtrack to the movie Cool World — but Marr and Sumner quickly sank back into their previous projects.
Since then there have been two more albums, each with its own distinctive sound: 1996’s poppier Raise the Pressure and 1999’s harder-rocking Twisted Tenderness. None of this excellent work caught much notice in the United States since by that time the stations which had formerly played progressive/alternative acts like New Order and The Smiths had moved on to “rapcore” and other such higher-selling mainstream music. Still, the seeds are there of both Marr’s rock influence on Sumner’s later writing for New Order and Sumner’s influence on Marr’s later writing in his various projects.
But for now let’s go back to their self-titled debut album, 1991’s Electronic, for a collaboration with Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys on “The Patience of a Saint”
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