New Order's recycled labour of love

Image via Wikipedia

New Order's manager Rob Gretton (RIP) had a wonderful idea a couple of years back - release all the Factory-era new order singles on CD in a whopping great boxset. Call it "Recycle" and it'll be awesome. The powers that be instead released a boxset called "Retro" and it was just ok (especially if you got the limited edition 5th disc!)

Fast forward a few years and Warner re-issue the New Order Factory-era albums on CD with bonus discs full of "great stuff". However, a few fans in the know, audio technology-wise, realised how badly Warner screwed up yet another batch of releases by their favourite band and decided to take action.

Thus, the fan-led Recycle project was born. Basically it's an mp3 blog featuring the original idea of Gretton's "Recycle" project - the 22 Factory released singles in all their glory. There's also a Flickr photostream of sleeves you can print off and fold correctly to give you the entire experience that Warner has denied you.

Popping over to the blog, you get a real understanding of how much blood, sweat, and tears can go into a project if you really really care - something no record label does much of these days any more. Reading the liner notes for each of the releases on the blog, you get an understanding that this isn't just a case of copying tracks from a 12" or CD, the guys putting this project together are METICULOUS to a fault. The latest "hiccup" related to not being able to find the correct mix of Bizarre Love Triangle. This put the whole project on hold while VINYL copies flung themselves around the world, ready to be ripped, cleaned up and edited by the guys putting the project together.

If you're a New Order fan, you owe it to yourself to check out what these guys are doing. It's awesome when you find people who know what they're doing and put it to good use.

My hat is off to them.

Celebrate the pursuits

Having been directed there, I've been perusing the blog called Music Is A Virus. For all intents and purposes they seem to exist solely to turn people on to new music - albeit long forgotten music, but new to most people.

In my search, among the Curve and Ned's Atomic Dustbin entries, I can across one for Canada's highly underrated cult act The Pursuit Of Happiness.

These guys are - or were - bloody brilliant and "Love Junk" was a cracker of a debut album, followed up quickly by the sex-soaked "One Sided Story" (I offer the lyrics to "Food" as way of justifying my claim).

The Music Is A Virus blog offers a taster MP3 for each album/act they feature and the track on offer for "Love Junk" is the band's debut single "I'm An Adult Now", an ode to not wanting to get old but accepting the fate and age that life throws at us.

A site like this is what the internet is all about, creating awareness of the oft overlooked and in the Canadian music, that can be quite a bit.

As a prominent Canadian once said, "Don't judge us by Alanis, Celine and Bryan Adams. We actually produce good music as well."

Update: I offer, as way of example, the track "Lovers In A Dangerous Time" by Bruce Cockburn as an overlooked Canadian classic from 1984.