Cuttings

Mancs again THE OTHER TWO SUPERHIGHWAYS London ★ ★ ★ New offering from New Order duo FIVE eventful years have elapsed since Steven Morris and Gillian Gilbert delivered their debut collection of mellifluous but somewhat anodyne disco-pop. New Order split and regrouped. Bernard Sumner found acclaim with the occasionally sublime Electronic. Peter Hook exorcised his past with Revenge and Monaco. Dance music evolved almost beyond recognition. And now the self-effacing duo are back with another collection of, ahem, mellifluous but somewhat anodyne disco-pop. Ho hum. It’s 1992 again. Welcome to the placid house revolution. Ironically, the most obvious reference point here lies not in Steven and Gillian’s illustrious past but rather with Dubstar, the armchair electro-pop trio sometimes dismissed as pale New Order copyists. Not such a damning comparison in the grander scheme of things - Dubstar can be classy operators when they try - but hardly inspired parameters for two members of

Electronic Revenge! Barney's had his fling, Hooky's struck out alone and now the other two have become... THE OTHER TWO! Stuart Maconie corners New Order's home-loving half, Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris, and discovers they're playing happy families with the, erm, other two again. Duo-zone: Kevin Cummins Rob Gretton, mercurial manager of New Order and all-round 'character', returns from the bar with the round. Tomato juice for your diligent journalist, earnest pint of bitter for Stephen, vodka and tonic for Gillian. Stephen takes up a sip of bitter and I reflect, as you do, on those immortal words of Flaubert: "Be regular and ordinary in your life, like a bourgeois, that you may be violent and original in your work." Stephen toys with his lighter, Gillian nibbles her salt'n'vinegar crisps. Regular? Yes. Ordinary? On the surface, extremely. Bourgeois? Well, they do own a farm. Violent? I doubt it. But original? Oh yes. Stephen Morris

TWO LIMITED THE OTHER TWO The Other Two And You (London/All formats) "IT'S HARD to go back after ten or 11 years and start again.. unless someone commits suicide." - Stephen Morris, 1993. Nobody died so The Other Two might live, thankfully. So it was inevitable that the duo's long-delayed debut was never going to pulsate with the same sulky splendour as New Order, the same brooding sense of magic and loss, the same cliff-edge emotions and internal scars... But if shot just the lack of ghosts hovering over 'The Other Two And You' which denies it mystique and grandeur. There's the sheen of married thirtysomething contentment which even masterful co-producer Stephen Hague cannot entirely erase. There's the palpable lack of tension with Bernard's petulance and Hooky's laddishness erased from the equation. Then there’s the striking contrast between these dinky electro grooves and the billowing stormclouds of 'Republic', like a

LOVED IT AND LEFT IT Can you shed some light on 'Loved It (The Other Track)' from the debut album by THE OTHER TWO (pictured below). On first listen it sounds like just another instrumental with clever speech samples but I can definitely hear various quotes from Bernard Sumner, Hooky, Stephen, Gillian, Rob Gretton and Tony Wilson, such as " It was a big mistake", "How's it been hanging?', "It was the chairman of the board', "Not my idea" and "Any of you miserable musicians want any more?' plus a few others. My guess is that it's an obituary to Factory, possibly even to New Order. Am I right? Mark McNaughton, Rame Cross, Penryn, Cornwall According to those closest to New Order, the speech tracks stem from Channel Four's Play At Home , a series featuring bands in their 'home' environments — the Bunnymen at Liverpool Cathedral, New Order at the Hacienda etc.  Far from being an obituary to Factory, the com