Our delve into the Creation Records archive proved surprisingly worthwhile (for us, at any rate), and we soon found ourselves turning our gaze to a similarly maverick and misunderstood label, Factory.
Aided severely by the two excellent "Fac Dance" compilations on Strut, we always knew it would be possible to put a good-looking tracklist together. What we *didn't* realise is just how many Factory releases, many of which we'd never heard before, were truly outstanding. Not just New Order and Joy Division, not even just those bands that usually get mentioned as Factory bridesmaids (Durrutti Column, A Certain Ratio, Section 25, Stockholm Monsters et al). For one of the big differences, it seems, between Factory Records and Creation Records is that some of the "oddities" on the former label are amongst its best releases of all.
Aided severely by the two excellent "Fac Dance" compilations on Strut, we always knew it would be possible to put a good-looking tracklist together. What we *didn't* realise is just how many Factory releases, many of which we'd never heard before, were truly outstanding. Not just New Order and Joy Division, not even just those bands that usually get mentioned as Factory bridesmaids (Durrutti Column, A Certain Ratio, Section 25, Stockholm Monsters et al). For one of the big differences, it seems, between Factory Records and Creation Records is that some of the "oddities" on the former label are amongst its best releases of all.
Unlike the underwhelming "official" Creation retrospective, the official Factory 'best of', "Too Young To Know, Too Wild To Care", is not at all shabby. Nonetheless, we really think that the tracklisting below is even better, to be honest is a total *belter*.
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1. Joy Division "Disorder"
"The only band that's ever mattered". That's according to no less an authority than Keris Howard, you know. We don't - by any stretch - consider the fantastic foursome's discography to be without blemish, and there are times when we'd accept that Ian went somewhat over the top with the words (they remain the only band in our record collection to have used "conquistador" in a lyric), but nonetheless there are a multitude of truly great Joy Division songs. Even apart from the obvious killer tunes like "Dead Souls", "Atmosphere", "Transmission" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart", we've always especially loved "The Sound Of Music", "The Only Mistake" and this, the opening tune from their first long-playing salvo, "Unknown Pleasures". There are so many self-styled moody Joy Div. copyists out there, but none can hold a candle to the real thing, to the band (and Martin Hannett's) ever-nuanced exploration of post-punk atmospherics.
2. Meat Mouth "Meat Mouth Is Murder"
"They think we're really cute / But they fancy bIG*fLAME". Come on, what's not to like? Two gobby Mancunians trying to be the Beastie Boys, assisted not only by a boombastic drum machine but by the considerable trebly axe talents of Greg O'Keeffe, late of bIG*fLAME, and a song that dissolves into drunken chanting not far removed from at least one mix of New Order's "Confusion". The title track here, as well as "Guilty Feet (Force Fed Meat)" on the B-side (now guess which bIG*fLAME track that samples), are bold, brash, thoroughly disorganised and draped in sweet, sweet feedback, and that makes this still one of our most fondly-treasured Factory 45s. Is this a good hip-hop record? God, no. Is it a good record? Hell, yes.
3. Marcel King "Reach For Love"
4. 52nd Street "Can't Afford To Let You Go"
Two of the very best singles Factory ever released, without question, yet they didn't even graze the charts. This was particularly ironic given that in 1974 Marcel King had featured on a bona fide UK no.1 single, as 16-year old singer of Sweet Sensation. "Reach For Love" was his 1985 attempt to make a solo comeback, and it's uplifting, soulful and sleek, yet now stands in bitter contrast to his own life, despoiled by various misfortunes before he died tragically young, still in his thirties. "Reach For Love" sounds like a great lost sixties soul song put to a clinical, dancefloor-friendly '80s beat. It still stirs us. moves us, every time.
In contrast, fellow Mancunians 52nd Street managed to build up quite a catalogue: they just never broke through as they should have done. But "Can't Afford To Let You Go" is exceptional, six minutes of endless electro joy, one of the high-water marks even from the often-stellar Bemusic production team (Bernard Sumner and Donald Johnson's frequently rather impressive sideline) celebrated on two excellent LTM compilations, "Cool As Ice" and "Twice As Nice".
Two of the very best singles Factory ever released, without question, yet they didn't even graze the charts. This was particularly ironic given that in 1974 Marcel King had featured on a bona fide UK no.1 single, as 16-year old singer of Sweet Sensation. "Reach For Love" was his 1985 attempt to make a solo comeback, and it's uplifting, soulful and sleek, yet now stands in bitter contrast to his own life, despoiled by various misfortunes before he died tragically young, still in his thirties. "Reach For Love" sounds like a great lost sixties soul song put to a clinical, dancefloor-friendly '80s beat. It still stirs us. moves us, every time.
In contrast, fellow Mancunians 52nd Street managed to build up quite a catalogue: they just never broke through as they should have done. But "Can't Afford To Let You Go" is exceptional, six minutes of endless electro joy, one of the high-water marks even from the often-stellar Bemusic production team (Bernard Sumner and Donald Johnson's frequently rather impressive sideline) celebrated on two excellent LTM compilations, "Cool As Ice" and "Twice As Nice".
That these should both be remembered as classics is perhaps by-the-by, now. The bigger crime is that so many of us who were alive to Factory bands at the time (by dint of New Order, The Wake, the Railway Children, even James) didn't show love for this stuff at the time. Perhaps if we had, then it would have been Marcel King and 52nd Street later clogging up the singles charts, instead of the Happy Mondays and the other "little brats" of 'Madchester'.
5. Kreisler String Orchestra "Frolicsome Finale"
Yes, a string orchestra and yes, as some of you will have spotted from the title, this is the last movement of Benjamin Britten's Simple Symphony. For, starting with FAC 226, the album from which this is taken, every Factory catalogue number ending in a "6" would be devoted to the new Factory Classical arm. Tony Wilson, who drove this expansion into 'high culture', deserves every credit: we can readily imagine Wilson listening to this in his infamous Jaguar, and feeling immensely proud that it was coming out on his label.
Factory Classical was curated, however, not by Wilson but by John Metcalfe, who was a member of the Kreisler String Orchestra as well as founder of the Duke String Quartet, who would deliver their own rather neat Factory album. We reckon that Metcalfe's labour of love has proved to be one of the most successful and durable things about the whole Factory empire, especially as the releases paid the usual attention to detail and design (the KSO sleeve, like many of the others, features a blurry Trevor Key cover shot set within in a smart and plain Peter Savile package, and puts many 'proper' classical labels to shame). The album is dominated by Britten, the centrepiece being his Varations on a Theme by Frank Bridge, but also features tunes by Brahms and Zoran Eric. Only the rather pretentious sleevenotes let it down.
6. Fadela "N'Sel Fik"
Another song that simply *has* to feature on any Factory "best of". Paris-based Chaba Fadela dealt in Algerian raï music, of all things, but regardless of genre this radiant single absolutely shimmers with quality, as Fadela exchanges sultry glances and songlines with her then-husband, Cheb Sahraoui (the title apparently means "you are mine"). As far as I can tell "N'Sel Fik" was a complete one-off in terms of the Factory catalogue, but perhaps that helps it pack such a punch in 2013. Truth be told it tends to the over-produced side of things (my understanding is that although FAC 197 was licensed through Attitude Records of Paris, Mike Pickering remixed it a little first) but when a song is this fine, and its vocal execution so pristine, that feels a tiny criticism.
7. John Dowie "Acne"
Factory's first vinyl outing, the "Factory Sample" double single, saw comedian John Dowie share the hallowed company of the Durrutti Column, Cabaret Voltaire and some local misfits called Joy Division. Only through LTM's "Arc Of Hives" calculation have we finally been able to get hold of Dowie's early material for Factory, but we're very happy to have done so. First track of three on his side of the double 7", poem-to-music "Acne" sounds weirdly like lost Essex legends Grinder, or perhaps John Cooper Clarke backed by Jilted John's backing band. Terrifically enjoyable, and a firm poke in the eye to all those wanting to have Factory down only as high-art aesthetes, or miserabilist purveyors of raincoat rock.
8. Erik Satie "Sylvie"
This is culled from the Satie collection, performed by Music Projects London, that combined his "Socrate" cantata with a number of his short song pieces, thus taking in a broad sweep of material composed between the 1880s and the 1920s. "Sylvie" is from a trio of songs ("Trois Melodies", naturally) composed in 1886: sung gorgeously by the soprano Eileen Hulse, the songs are becalmed splendour personified, and possibly our favourite tracks on the whole collection.
9. Miaow "When It All Comes Down"
10. The Wake "Gruesome Castle"
11. Revenge "7 Reasons"
Three great Factory pop singles here, showing that even by the second half of the 1980s it wasn't all extended 12"s or experimentalist noodling. It's oft-forgotten that Miaow were on C86, and even their output on Factory is overshadowed by the entertaining anecdotes about Cath Carroll's later solo album and how the recording budget of that helped put the financial skids under the label. But "When It All Comes Down" is smart, jolly, and as well-assembled as you'd expect from someone who moonlighted in Julian Henry's marvellous Hit Parade.
Next, the wonderful Wake: great as their doomy gothic early salvos were, "Gruesome Castle" is a delicious later EP track, which laid the foundations musically for the hop they later made to Sarah Records as the decade turned. Eventually, of course, their song "Joke Shop" (on the "Make It Loud" album on Sarah) would provide their considered retort to their later work having been so neglected by Factory, their entertaining unburdening of anti-Wilson angst. When Caesar sang "When he released / Our four-track EP / It could not be found / In the Megastore", this is the record he was referring to.
Three great Factory pop singles here, showing that even by the second half of the 1980s it wasn't all extended 12"s or experimentalist noodling. It's oft-forgotten that Miaow were on C86, and even their output on Factory is overshadowed by the entertaining anecdotes about Cath Carroll's later solo album and how the recording budget of that helped put the financial skids under the label. But "When It All Comes Down" is smart, jolly, and as well-assembled as you'd expect from someone who moonlighted in Julian Henry's marvellous Hit Parade.
Next, the wonderful Wake: great as their doomy gothic early salvos were, "Gruesome Castle" is a delicious later EP track, which laid the foundations musically for the hop they later made to Sarah Records as the decade turned. Eventually, of course, their song "Joke Shop" (on the "Make It Loud" album on Sarah) would provide their considered retort to their later work having been so neglected by Factory, their entertaining unburdening of anti-Wilson angst. When Caesar sang "When he released / Our four-track EP / It could not be found / In the Megastore", this is the record he was referring to.
Peter Hook's Revenge are severely under-recognised, having produced some sparkling New Order-ish pop songs falling not that far short of his later, and far more successful, days with Monaco. We've cheated slightly in that this version of "7 Reasons" is not the one from their "One True Passion" LP but the superior 'demo' version once previewed on Snub TV and now available on LTM's excellent, extended "One True Passion" reissue. A little like "Love's Going Out Of Fashion", it's a song that seems to just teem with different melody lines as roving guitar bass and keyboard hooks snake sublimely around each other. For all the flak that Revenge got at the time, it needs to be said that a few of their tunes ("Surf Nazi", "Televive", "The Wilding" and the single, "Pineapple Face") are better than anything that New Order managed to come up with after 1990.
12. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark "Electricity"
... And maybe Factory's first great pop single? Some of the rebranded OMD's later crimes against music can make you forget just what a breath of new wave fresh air they initially were. This, their one single for Factory, is a worthwhile reminder that for the first few hits the Joan of Arc-obsessed electronic pop pioneers really shone. It's also, of course, a welcome early example of the environmentally-conscious pop single.
13. Rolf Hind "Andante" (from McMillan, Piano Sonata)
London-based pianist Rolf Hind recorded two albums for Factory and "Country Music", the second, revealed an eclectic line-up that looked a little unpromising on paper, but which actually worked surprisingly well. Rolf, to our ears, is a bit of a show-off, and someone who likes to really pound the keys, but nevertheless he does a grand job of introducing us not only to rustic laments from Bartok and Janacek (the latter's "In The Mists" being particularly thoughtful and rewarding) but also the wayward modernism of Michael Finnissy's "Come Beat The Drums And Sound The Fifes" (sounding nothing like it's title, it is exhilarating, if not entirely easy on the ear) and the delightful opening brace of songs from Percy Grainger (again, "Mock Morris" and "Shepherd's Hey" may not bode well as titles, but the music is very pleasant and not at all kitsch-folky). This track, however, concludes James McMillan's "Piano Sonata": the complete sonata makes for difficult listening, but in this closing section the themes comes together melliflously and it bathes the ears in reassuring warmth.
14. ESG "Moody"
It's surprisingly hard to put together a decent squad of footballers whose surnames are exact matches for songs by half-decent bands. "Thorn" (MBV), "Flowers" (Galaxie 500), "Ferdinand" (Felt), "Comfort" (the June Brides), "Amoroso" (Blueboy), "King" (UB40), "White" (the Field Mice), "Kiss" (Age of Chance / some American bloke), "Kennedy" (the Wedding Present), "Walcott" (Robert Forster): that sort of thing. With the club chairman, inevitably, being "Flashman" (the Would-be-Goods). So it is ever welcome that this song introduces Paul Moody into the fray.
Turning back to reality, ESG were three sisters from the streets of New York who released just the one 45 on Factory. "You're No Good" was the A-side, and perhaps the sassiest and most instant of the three songs, but last track "Moody" is slyer, cuter, funkier: the lyric may be somewhat repetitive, but the way it's sung is *delectable*. Ahead of their time with their "new wave breakbeat funk", ESG would later get plenty of props from the 90s' hip-hop community.
15. Indambinigi "Zimba"
Another of those records that seems to have slipped out unnoticed, and thus another victim of Factory's refusal to promote its wares, at least in any conventional sense. This collaboration between Steve Lima and Karl Denver (the arch-yodeller back in the public eye following a hook-up with the Happy Mondays and a recast solo version of his big hit "Wimoweh") was an accomplished contribution to the label: its tribal polyrhythms are accompanied by lush, dance-oriented modern production to create an impressive Euro-Afrique meld.
16. X-O-Dus "English Black Boys"
Wow. And still the classics come! Almost totally forgotten, this is one of the very earliest Factory singles and to our minds a competely seminal record. X-O-Dus were a roots reggae band from Manchester, and this 12" proved to be their only output, but really, it is *outrageously* good. Not only is the record political, pointed and proud (in the manner of the great Bristol roots bands of the time, Black Roots and Talisman, as well as the more famous Birmingham acts like Steel Pulse and UB40), with X-O-Dus singing about what it is to be black, to grow up in Britain and to hear the National Front calling for repatriation but, with Dennis Bovell at the controls, the dubby production and closing instrumental section sound stunning. Indeed, some of this sounds so gloriously *dislocated* that you can almost imagine that Martin Hannett had a hand in proceedings (as an aside, dub was actually known territory to Hannett, who produced Basement 5's "Immigrant Dub", for example). "English Black Boys" is a shade over ten minutes long, but every second is a joy. (Plus, there's something a little "Jah War" about the bassline). The B-side, "See Them-A Come" is nearly as strong, and you can track both down these days (as with so much of this stuff!) via the crucially dependable LTM. Haunting, and quite beautiful.
17. Robin Williams "Elegie"
FAC 236 was an album from oboist Robin Williams, featuring Britten's Six Metamorphoses for solo oboe as well as works from Hindemith and Lalliet, but this is its opening song, the first part of Francis Poulenc's Sonata, and it's warm, louche, almost jazzy, with Julian Kelly's piano to the fore. I've always felt a little sorry for oboists, because whilst we all go crazy for a nice bit of cor anglais from time to time, the poor old oboe is constantly overlooked. We like to think that this helps to redress the balance.
18. New Order "Dreams Never End"
Still only one way to finish, we're afraid. New Order were our favourite band on the globe at one point, and we religiously bought their every record until at least 1990 or so. It's easy to forget, given that many New Order fans we meet now seem to be complete idiots, that between 1981 and 1986 NO were surely one of the best bands in the world, and that even between 1986 and 1990 there were no shortage of near-divine moments. Hand on heart, I suspect my favourite NO track remains "Ceremony", but that's such a *ridiculously* all-conquering song that to include it here might have relegated everything else to supporting status, which is really not the intention.
So, "Dreams Never End": notable not just for being the first song on their first album, "Movement", its crisp introduction still lights up the room, and we will need a lot of convincing that it isn't one of their very finest songs. (Fans of obscure New Order tracks, the sort who recognise "Let's Go" or "Best & Marsh", may wish to note that we very nearly went for "MTO" here: a subtle, deep house-tinged instrumental found on the B-side of their "Run.2" single that's right up with the pantheon).
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You can hopefully see from this that the late Anthony H. Wilson deserves great respect, possibly more than he ever got, for the canon that Factory left behind. If only pop mythology didn't draw the label's successes quite so narrowly.
