Cuttings

FACTORY FLAW THIS FRIDAY. IAN BROWN PLAYS MANCHESTER WITH SUPPORT FROM ALL CORNERS OF THE MANC MUSICAL HERITAGE INDUSTRY. BUT, ASKS MADCHESTER DENIERS' BLOG FUC51. ISN’T IT TIME THE CITY GOT OVER ITSELF? When people say “Manchester”’, many immediately think of its musical legacy: a romantic, wistful notion of slate grey skies pelting down with rain, melancholic romantics in trenchcoats listening to Unknown Pleasures for the 51st time that day. And if it’s not these imagined industrial dreamers, then the other Manchester image that dominates is one of Oasis-esque thick-skulled lads bowling about in loose-fit jeans, out on the scam and skinning up cheap hash. Of course, such stereotypes are not true of a place as diverse and great as Manchester. However, Manchester can be its own worst enemy and this is how our blog FUC51 was bom. By sheer fluke, we rolled it out just as Peter Hook opened a temple to Manc revivalism in the old Factory offices. The nightclub, Fac25l, is ostensi

BENELUX INTERIORS VARIOUS ARTISTS Factory Benelux Greatest Hits  (Factory Benelux) I'M TRYING not to condemn this package out of hand, but it’s hard to be happy with it. It’s intended as a bargain bucket for the year’s six Benelux singles and seems an honest gift, a reasonable set, a lively parcel. But as an album it lacks either intrigue and diversity (it takes no chances) or a solid, fluent consistency; neither full of theme or following fun: the worst of both worlds. We can expect (DEMAND!) more from all of these (Quando Quango, 52nd Street, ACR, Cabaret Voltaire, The Wake and Stockholm Monsters). The hottest ‘hit' here is 52nd Street with the sleek, fleet class of ‘Cool As Ice’. With a crystal-sharp grace and crisp precision, ‘Cool As Ice’ shows Quando, ACR and Voltaire the door in no uncertain terms. It shifts and shimmers, glides off with the prize, twice as nice as the others. Against such breezy ease and swiftness, Quando’s ’Love Tempo’ is a mild, mundane, unforg

FLICKERING SHADOWS  (Ikon FCL, 60 minutes, £14 — mail order from Ikon FCL, 86 Palatine Rd, W. Didsbury, Manchester M20 9JW) CERTAINLY no danger of Ikon being accused of selling out to commercial interests with this release. It's a collection of nine short films originally shot on Super 8 by one Ivan Unwin, a man enjoying the support of the Arts Council in his recondite artistic endeavours. As with Ikon's weighty William Burroughs double pack, "Flickering Shadows" is resolutely self-referential, defying easy access and daring you to be dismissive. There are at least some very brief clues supplied to what's going on in Unwin's brain on the insert — "Bunker Protection For Mr Capital MP" is "A Government test film, recording the consequences of eating dehydrated food with festive over indulgence". There's this bloke, see, who stuffs himself with Ryvita plastered with tomato ketchup while growing an artificial turkey to hideous proport

ACR: 'Mickey Way (The Candy Bar)' ( Factory ) Not so gritty these boys, but no couch potatoes either. Having as good as slouched through a laidback Latin phase, only to return with the crushingly swell 'Wild Party' single of last year, ACR (F.A.B.) seem to have come good again with this frilly, uptempo dance number. When I was a little younger A Certain Radio (we used proper names in those days) were one of the most influential bands around; everyone except the school caretaker wanted to be obscure funksters with short trousers and (even) shorter hair. They’re certainly not so fashionable these days, but the remaining Ratios seem pretty content just to chisel out their own groove in their own sweet way. 'Mickey Way (The Candy Bar)' is from the forthcoming 'Force' LP. It's maybe reminiscent of Colourbox's roaringly uplifting 'Unofficial World Cup Theme', but here they're all hand-made sounds. There's no singing of any s

OUT OF THE GRAVEYARD, INTO THE BALLROOM A CERTAIN RATIO The Old & The New ( Factory ) IT'S A MIRACLE that they're still with us, surviving the flak and the sorry neglect; eternally, it seems, walking in the shadows of Factory front-runners; never quite deathly enough to match Joy Division or as perfectly synthesised as New Order. Feel free to see this as a purely mercenary offering from Factory, but, as 'The Old & The New' bears witness, ACR have mined their own spiritual seam since '79; untainted ( I tell you ) by label-mates or contemporaries. Okay, so it's not a barrel of laughs, but nobody said it was going to be easy. I concede that 'Do The Du', 'And Then Again' and 'Thin Boys' may present bleak, bass-fired, mortal pictures of collapsing bedsits ( never Curtis copyists, they co-existed with the great man), but somehow ACR's structures - weird conurbations of funk, jazz, soul, avant garde - consistently hook yo

A CERTAIN RATIO: Wild Party ( Factory ) Whoopee! A Certain Ratio are wearing their party hats again: this means lots of reverb on the drum machine, plenty of chorus on the slap bass and deadpan voices intoning something very important.

YOUNGISH, GIFTED AND FAC • They brought us Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays, James, the Hacienda, hypothetical menstrual egg-timers and, erm, Shark Vegas. They invented labels with attitude, artiness and street suss. They gave TONY WILSON the opportunity to shout his mouth off about anything . They are FACTORY RECORDS, and IESTYN GEORGE salutes them Don’t you just hate Factory Records? That pretentious, pseudo-streetwise bastion of self-congratulation fronted by Anthony H Wilson, a man who has remained completely untainted by modesty throughout his 14-year reign as self-styled media assassin? Well, not really. The problem with Factory is that, unlike the other labels in this series of Little Cred Rosters , it’s played an incredibly active role within its native community. Creation can continue to release all the Biff Bang Pow! concept singles it desires and 4AD has all the power in the world to issue wooden boxes with cute mini-CDs housed within - the joy of run

See also -  https://mycuttings.blogspot.com/2019/05/1989-07-01-nme-factory-catalogue.html

This article subsequently given its own catalogue number, FAC 227