Cuttings

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION BERNARD SUMNER has been speaking to The Maker about the new Electronic album, his use of Prozac to cure a supposed case of ”writer's block”, the future of New Order and ”Touching From A Distance” - the new book by the late Ian Curtis’ wife, Deborah. Bernard contacted The Maker from the studio in Manchester where he’s recording the new Electronic album with Johnny Marr and former Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos. Sumner and Marr have been recording for the last 15 months and have 14 tracks knocked into shape. Twelve of them will be on the next Electronic album which, Bernard says will be out either just before or just after Christmas. There will be a single in September, possibly called Forbidden City”. Sumner was quick to scotch stories that he had taken the wonder drug Prozac to overcome a severe case of writer’s block. "The first I heard about it was when l read about it in the press and it’s simply not true he told The Maker. It appears that

ELECTRONIC KICK HAC! ELECTRONIC MANCHESTER HACIENDA “WE FOUGHT the law and we won” smirks Barney and the Hacienda heaves a sigh of relief which erupts into an almighty cheer. Tonight is a time for uneasy celebration, the free tickets are stamped with the word ‘Thanksgiving’, there’s glasses of champagne on the door and once more the floor is ram-jammed with party people. After months of biting their nails, the Hacienda can smile again and relax. On certain occasions Manchester feels like it has to be Madchester, and there is a mass gathering of the clan. Gone are the days when pop stars should be heard but not seen and tonight you can’t move more than three people without tripping over an Inspiral. The music mafia are out in force, from old partisans to fresh young blood, celebrating the Hacienda's resurrection. The Hacienda, once an empty abattoir that no one knew what to do with and more recently host to a scary phenomenon called ‘dance music', has been snatche

THE MOD COUPLE ELECTRONIC Electronic ( Factory/All formats ) IT'S PROBABLY not actually meant to be ironic that 'Electronic' opens with Barney Sumner declaring, "My name is not important" but it is ironic, a bit. After all, we have turned full circle to the days when rock thought it was maths and that if you put one bloke from a good group in with another bloke from another good group, you got a group that was twice as good. As a rule, natch, what you got was a bloody awful group and Supergroups were outlawed by the World Government and anyone who had worked with Eric Clapton was hanged. But now we have Electronic and wow! they are good. Even though the mere facts that Johnny Marr can play the guitar better than Morrissey and Sumner used to be in a group with someone from Revenge do not immediately cause anyone sane to shout "Hurray! Popular music is safe forever!", 'Electronic' turns out to be very good. Perhaps playing the jangly gui

PRESSURE FLOP! ELECTRONIC Raise The Pressure [Parlophone/All formats] THE MOST disappointing facet of the entire Euro '96 footie malarkey — apart from the rampant xenophobia displayed by our ever-hospitable tabloids — was the manner in which the supposedly classier sides, rather than providing us with jaw-dropping entertainment, simply cancelled each other out. Holland against France was a priceless example, as some of the continent's best players were so familiar with the opposition's style and technique they struggled to inspire themselves, let alone any possible audience. Enter Electronic, enter Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr and enter a world of potentially wibbling wonderment, wherein the man from The Smiths and the bloke from New Order huddle together once more within the basement of barminess to indulge in a spot of electrified alchemy. And slide me down the banisters on one of Mrs Miggins' finest Spam flans if 'indulge' isn't the key word

Out of Order! Electronic Raise The Pressure (Parlophone) OH, THE eulogies that greeted Electronic’s landmark debut in 1990. Somehow, ‘Electronic’ seemed to be exactly what the world was waiting for. Boasting New Order’s left-field synth-pop smoothness and the instantly recognisable jangle of Johnny Marr's heroic guitar, it skipped into our hearts on a roll of sharp dance beats. It was in other words, perfect pop. Perfect for a world then in the fevered grip of indie-dance crossovers. Six years on, nothing has changed - except the world. ‘Raise The Pressure' still offers plenty of perfect pop moments, but these are emphatically not of the moment. Four years in the making, ‘Raise The Pressure’ blithely strolls along from dance-pop ditty to dance-pop ditty, oblivious to the revolutions in electronic music ignited by the likes of jungle and trip-hOp. Where before, Barney Sumner's synthesised strings and simple, house-y rhythms sounded clean and bright, they now trig