HERC's Mix: (Unidentified) Substance

In 1988, New Order released a John "Tokes" Potoker remix of their most influential hit as "Blue Monday 1988" in the Spring. Even "The Beach", the original B-side from "Blue Monday", got a fresh remix along with a new title: "Beach Buggy". Quincy Jones had the insight to sign the band to his record label, Qwest Records, for distribution in the United States in just prior to the release of Low-Life in 1985. The "Blue Monday" remix, released barely five years after the original, went on to top the US Dance and Club Play Charts.

"Fine Time" hit the clubs for the 1988 winter holiday season and represented the further evolution of New Order's sound in keeping with the sounds of house and acid-house popular during the late Eighties.

Their next album, Technique, was released in January 1989 and in addition to "Fine Time" also featured the singles "Round & Round" and "Run 2", a radio friendly remix of the album track simply titled "Run".

New Order's next single, "World In Motion" featured members of England's FIFA World Cup football team as was credited to Englandneworder. It remains the band's lone chart-topper on the UK charts. Around this team the members of New Order recorded New Order-ish sounding music in two splinter groups: Bernard Sumner teamed up with former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr as Electronic (which has released three albums so far) while Peter Hook formed a project called Revenge (who released one studio and one live album). 

In April 1993, New Order regrouped and released "Regret" followed in May by its parent album Republic. Three other singles were spun off of the album: "Ruined In A Day", "World (The Price Of Love)" and "Spooky". Newlyweds Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert released the debut album by their side project The Other Two late in 1993.

1994 saw the release of another singles compilation, (the best of) New Order and like its predecessor, Substance, the band tweaked its catalog a bit by including new mixes of several songs (noted by the inclusion of "-94" in their titles). Unlike Substance, however, they chose to include the 7" single mixes rather than extended 12" mixes on (the best of) New Order. As a result, only one song appears in identical form on both albums: "Thieves Like Us". To further complicate matters, the US version of (the best of) New Order featured several different tracks than the International release.

With the success of (the best of) New Order and no new recordings coming from the band itself, they commissioned remixes of New Order hits and paired them with previously released 12" versions and released the package as (the rest of) New Order. (See what they did there?) The 10 track disc clocked in at a full eighty minutes, the maximum capacity of standard compact discs and for three years it was the longest commercially available CD you could buy. Yet another radical remix of "Blue Monday" - this one entitled "Blue Monday-95" - was released as a single from the album.

"Crystal" was the band's first original song in more than 8 years when it was released early in August 2001. The video reportedly inspired an up and coming Las Vegas band to name themselves The Killers after seeing the name written on a drum played in the video. Although "Crystal" had been gifted to another artist who recorded and released it first, New Order reclaimed it and made it the first track on their upcoming album. That album, New Order's seventh studio release, Get Ready, had the misfortune of being released two weeks before the 9/11 tragedy. The songs on the album were more rock oriented while the album's cover, as well as the artwork for its singles, feature model Nicolette Krebitz. 

Other singles released from Get Ready include "60 Miles An Hour" and "Someone Like You". In 2002, yet another singles compilation, International, was released in several countries outside of the United Kingdom. It included a new track, "Here To Stay", featured on the soundtrack of the film 24 Hour Party People.

Later that same year, a New Order box set, Retro, was released. Each of the four discs - individually titled Pop (hits), Fan (deeper album cuts), Club (remixes) and Live (concert performances) - has tracks selected by prominent fans. Initial pressings of Retro, like the one here at The Hideaway, feature a bonus fifth disc of rarities.

Morris and Gilbert now had two young daughters and after recording Get Ready, Gillian quit the band to focus on her family and was replaced by Phil Cunningham. The band's first album with Cunningham was entitled Waiting For The Sirens' Call and it was released in March 2005. In addition to the title track (the only album title track ever recorded by New Order), three other singles were spun off the disc: "Krafty", "Jetstream" and "Guilt Is A Useless Emotion". The latter three all hit the Top 3 on Billboard's Club Play chart and the album hit the #1 spot on Billboard's Top Electronic Album chart. According to interviews with the band at the time, they recorded enough tracks at the sessions for Sirens' to release a follow-up album down the line. 

Later in 2005, the band released yet another compilation, a double disc set spanning their entire career simply titled Singles. The 31 track collection features nothing but 7" single or radio edits. In 2007, bassist Hook revealed that New Order had broken up despite Sumner's repeated denials. Sumner finally stated in 2009 that there would be no more New Order albums. (He was kind of right.) He formed a new band, Bad Lieutenant, with Cunningham and Jake Evans and they released an album.

June 2011 saw the release of TOTAL: From Joy Division To New Order featuring five Joy Division singles and 13 New Order tracks including the previously unreleased "Hellbent". Later in 2011, New Order reunited with Gilbert - but not Hook - and played three one-off shows. One of those shows was recorded and released as Live At The London Troxy. Short tours of South America, Australia, and New Zealand followed in late 2011 and early 2012. New Order is scheduled to play during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The playlist below is an original HERC's Mix, (unidentified) Substance, covering the years 1988-2011.