10 Must-Hear Highlights From New Order’s ‘Brotherhood: Definitive Edition’ Box Set

10 Must-Hear Highlights From New Order’s ‘Brotherhood: Definitive Edition’ Box Set

Shellshock (AOR Version)

Bridging the gap between New Order’s third album, Low-Life, and the release of Brotherhood, Shellshock was issued as a standalone single in March 1986. It cracked the UK Top 30 and did significant business in the US, where it featured on the soundtrack to John Hughes’ high-profile coming-of-age movie Pretty In Pink. Loosely inspired by co-producer John Robie’s R&B hit One More Shot (released under the C-Bank moniker in 1983), the original version of Shellshock is a sleek, club-friendly affair. This previously unreleased version retains the song’s dancefloor appeal, although it’s marginally more polished and features an additional verse, some alternate lyrics and a brief call-and-response passage between Bernard Sumner’s guitar and Peter Hook’s bass.

Paradise (Robert Racic Remix)

Rather like the much-missed Avicii, Australian musician Robert Racic was a highly talented DJ and record producer who died far too young. Prior to this tragedy, though, Racic had become influential within his country’s electronic and house music scene, and he even notched up Top 10 hits on Billboard’s dance chart, thanks to his involvement in the songs Greater Reward by Severed Heads and Freemason by Boxcar.

With such an impressive pedigree, Racic was a natural choice to provide a New Order remix, and he did an excellent job in reimaging Brotherhood’s strident opening track, Paradise, keeping much of the song’s framework intact while ramping up the song’s inherent drama – not least through the addition of some thunderous timbales. Its inclusion in the Brotherhood: Definitive Edition box set is a major boon, as it was only previously available in Australia on the 12” edition of True Faith.

As It Is When It Was (Japan Demo)

Such was New Order’s work rate during the mid-80s that they were already amassing material for Brotherhood when Low-Life was being released, in the early summer of 1985. While the band visited Japan to play some shows in Tokyo that May, they also booked time in the city’s Denon Studios to lay down demos of several new songs. The Brotherhood: Definitive Edition includes a version of State Of The Nation recorded during this session, but it’s the work-in-progress take of As It Is When It Was that’s particularly arresting. Featuring both Bernard Sumner and Gillian Gilbert on guitar, the song’s arrangement is already in place, and the tension as it swings from slow and languid to fast and fraught is palpable.

Bizarre Love Triangle (Stephen Hague 12” Remix)

New Order’s greatest hit that never was, Bizarre Love Triangle remains a confirmed fan favourite that has inevitably leant itself to a slew of remixes. Arguably the best known of these, by Shep Pettibone, appeared on the group’s 1987 compilation, Substance, and that version still broadly informs the way New Order perform the song live today. The Brotherhood box set includes a remix by True Faith and Republic co-producer Stephen Hague: a dreamy reworking which retains most of the track in its original form, it beefs up the beats and makes Hook’s bass louder and dirtier – none of which is a bad thing.

Salvation Theme

Thanks to the various controversies surrounding US televangelists Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker in the mid-to-late 80s, such practice was a hot topic in the news media of the day. As a result, US filmmaker Beth B made a satirical comedy called Salvation!, released in 1987. With hindsight, even though the film starred a young Viggo Mortensen and (intriguingly) Exene Cervenka, from LA-based punks X, its soundtrack was arguably more interesting – not least because it featured a clutch of hard-to-source tracks from New Order and Cabaret Voltaire. Happily, New Order’s contributions are all included among the extras in the Brotherhood: Definitive Edition box set, and they’re all worthy of attention, not least Salvation Theme: a delicate, if relatively brief, instrumental workout which recalls Low-Life’s similarly cinematic Elegia.

Skullcrusher (Full Length)

Another Salvation! soundtrack highlight, Skullcrusher has an ominous title and music to match. Dark and claustrophobic, and driven by Peter Hook’s cyclical basslines and Stephen Morris’ spinning toms, this intense instrumental workout sounds like a cousin of the brooding Murder, the single New Order released through Factory Benelux in 1984. It’s a reminder of just how good a guitar-driven band these electronic pioneers can be when the mood takes them.

Touched By The Hand Of God (Salvation Version)

Though issued through Factory Benelux/Les Disques Du Crepuscule in Europe early in 1988, the Salvation! soundtrack featured one spin-off UK single in the shape of Touched By The Hand Of God – a Top 20 hit in the group’s homeland late in 1987. The song was remixed for single release by Arthur Baker (who had previously helmed New Order’s 1983 hit Confusion), but the new Brotherhood box set includes the song’s original mix. Slightly slower, it’s notable for the more prominent placing of both Hook’s bass and Sumner’s guitar.

Let’s Go (Salvation Version)

Of all New Order’s songs, Let’s Go arguably has the most labyrinthine of histories. It was originally performed live as an instrumental during the mid-80s, but it became a more complete song with vocals during the Low-Life sessions, and was even briefly considered as a replacement for that album’s The Perfect Kiss.

In the end, however, New Order re-recorded it for the Salvation! soundtrack. A version including a rough vocal is believed to exist, but it’s as an instrumental that it appears in the film. That take – an energetic guitar-driven workout propelled by a suitably melodic bass motif from Hook – is also the one that’s included on the Brotherhood: Definitive Edition box set… but that’s not where the story ends. Let’s Go was re-recorded once more, in 1994, with completely different lyrics and new production by Bernard Sumner and Arthur Baker. That version appeared on one of the UK and European CD releases of the band’s 1963 single and, later, on the Retro box set. In the US, it became the opening cut on The Best Of New Order.

Sputnik

Sputnik is the last of New Order’s Salvation! soundtrack contributions to make it to the Brotherhood: Definitive Edition release, and it’s arguably the most interesting of them all. An extremely filmic piece, it’s much more in keeping with the kind of dreamy soundscapes their Salvation! cohorts Cabaret Voltaire were then working up for their mid-80s classic The Covenant, The Sword And The Arm Of The Lord, and it also recalls the atmospheric music Carter Burwell was composing for New Order’s Factory labelmates, Thick Pigeon.

Blue Monday ’88 (Michael Johnson 12” Remix)

As well as being a multiple Grammy Award winner and one of the most influential musicians in the world, Quincy Jones also owned Qwest, the Warner Records subsidiary that New Order signed with in North America. Jones was also a confirmed New Order fan, so it’s no surprise that he would want to remix one of their tracks, which he duly did – reshaping the legendary Blue Monday as Blue Monday ’88, with help from engineer John Potoker.

Jones’ Blue Monday ’88 remix supplied New Order with a UK No.3 hit and also topped Billboard’s dance chart in the US, but the band’s long-time engineer Michael Johnson also weighed in with his own Blue Monday remix during this same period. Now included among the extras in the Brotherhood: Definitive Edition box set, Johnson’s lesser-known Blue Monday remix finally gets its due. Extremely tidy, it gives Bernard Sumner’s vocals more space to breathe, and there’s a little more funk in the grooves.

Buy ‘Brotherhood: Definitive Edition’ here.