The Line can loosely be described as instrumental prog rock. A niche genre demanding high standards of musicianship but Rozich and Brailsford make a decent fist of it.

A fairly heavy riff with enough changes of pace to keep it interesting all tied together with some virtuoso fretwork.

On the more staccato title track 'The Business' there is a more choppy (again heavily distorted) guitar. This time the soloing duties are shared between guitar and keyboard and the unusual time signature gives the track a jazz rock feel.

Working remotely betwixt Thailand and California must certainly serve up some challenges, but the effort is worth it and it's difficult to find any ready comparisons which is always a good sign. If i could attempt any kind of analogy it would be an aural assault from King Crimson's heavier side combined with the more experimental work of Rush and yet when you listen to 'When One Turns to Two' there are shades of Camel and Floyd.

3.5/5

http://www.reverbnation.com/#/rozichandbrailsford

 

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In an over increasing sea of indie and pop glam, from across the Atlantic comes a full bodied falsetto vocal pushed UK debut single that tones down the frivolity a little, adding a key tinkered pop-rock push, ‘Oh Lord’. Foxy Shazam opts for lyrical snap, choral impetus and sheer enthusiasm. It gives freshness to this parade of the flavour of the Polyphonic Spree meeting Dexy’s Midnight Runners, interrupted in parts by Heather Small and Freddie Mercury.

This four minute plus expansive excuse for a hearty potential anthem, possesses the ability to captivate with boldness and strike you with a tale extolling the virtues of loyalty. This outfit has potential.

www.foxyshazam.com

Rating: 3.5/5

 

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‘Nervous Grin’, weeps wallows and soothes from its acoustic base to open up a foraging, well thought out full length. A lot of soul-searching, acoustic weaving and nostalgia is crammed into just over two minutes, but it sets the tone and pace perfectly for what is to follow. It is a poignant reminder of the reflective tendencies of this New Zealand via Cornwall, wandering muso. The acoustic base is the firm foundation for the low to mid-tempo projections of Joseph, as the theme of love’s ability to leave you feeling lost and helpless is revisited several times over, but most strikingly in the rising folk strained, ‘An Orchard For An Apple’. 

Poetic longing hangs over and out of ‘As Always’:

  “I tipped the waiter, ate my share, forgave the years that took me there as always.

    Told the longest joke in the shortest way.”

Here, Joseph shows his craft at being the proponent of the plight of the thinking man. A King Creosote gloss coats the melancholy and acoustic whining. ‘A Fool Of Us All’, contains a country folk twang that’s spurred on by a haunting harmonica, as this hard-wearing songster begins to seep into your psyche.

What is most striking about this stirring album is that despite the fact that each one of the tunes has an epic force and feel. There’s snappiness to the delivery and brevity to the points made by the sincere Joseph, about life and humble existence. With the mystical Dylan-esque, ‘Keep On Strolling’ being a case in point.

The harmonica hounds out a woe-begotten intro to the lacklustre, blues laden and wholly instrumental delve, ‘Cavemen , Yellow, an Ordinary Life’. A deeper and meaningful Paul Weller touch is tagged onto the mundanely meandering ‘Glance Across The Street’, keeping the intrigue levels rising.

Ruarri Joseph combines poetry, a serious edge and a soothing acoustic touch to impressive effect throughout.

www.myspace.com/ruarrijoseph

Rating: 4/5

FEAR OF MUSIC marks the transition between the angular Art School sound and a more funk inspired path.While this album is not as seminal as REMAIN IN LIGHT in a commercial sense, it charts a new course for the band. Stark and insistent, the tunes mix minimalism and future-shock with an unbelievably tight rhythm section over which Byrne (almost drone like) delivers biting and passionate lyrics. "Life During Wartime" through to the urban desperation of "Cities" and the agnostic “Heaven”. A common stylized thread marks the album apart as one which often needs to be enjoyed in its entirety to appreciate its full majesty.

 

This is post-modern, danceable pop with an edge. A post-punk masterpiece which still sounds fresh 3 decades later. It's a much plagiarized sound (Razorlight - yuk found success by ripping off most of the latter day Talking Heads output from this album onwards)

Although Byrne is the true wizard, the unconventional rhythm section of Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz cannot be underestimated.

Fear of music reached number 29 in the US album chart and number 33 in the UK.
It was released on vinyl in 1979 and re-released on CD in 1984. The expanded and remastered version was released in 2006.

 

Ken Foster

 

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A controversial choice for our 100 seminal albums perhaps, but we've never really felt like bandwagon jumpers and i remember being mystified by the negative reviews at the time of its release.

I love everything about this album from the matt blue futurist cover to the heavyweight vinyl used in the manufacture. Oh! sure I can understand the difficulty that the band have in revisiting it. After all it was obviously part of their grieving process at the time. The guilt, despair and regret is worn on their collective sleeves and heightened by Hannett's trademark dark and atmospheric production.

I have 2 copies of the vinyl artifact. I NEED two. One could get damaged or scuffed. I have no record player.

I'm using the CD re-issue (the remastered and expanded one from 2008) for this review. It's a horrible compressed affair that doesn't do justice to the original. It still sounds great.

I remember being at a party in Burnage, Manchester on the first day of it's release. Joy Division, The Cure, Magazine and Bauhaus were played followed by Movement in its entirety. Everybody thought it was dark and logical. It was accepted as another iconic Factory release, there was no euphoric reception, there never was in Manchester in the early eighties. Music mirrored your lifestyle, it was an accompaniment like a dreary walk home form work in the rain. BUT it spoke to us more than anything coming out of the sanitised south. David Lynch rather than Guy Ritchie if you will.

Perhaps lured into a fresh sounding safety zone by the glorious Ceremony single, critics expected a leap forward from JD but it was too early and the Hannett influence cannot be underestimated. Perhaps more important than any of the band members of the time, this was Martin's album.

Dreams Never End:
One of the best ever intro's to a song (along with Procession) and perhaps a false premise on which to start the album with such an uplifting riff. So, against conventional wisdom i'm going to come out and say i really enjoy Hook's vocal on this track. Like Ceremony (which was only given a single release), it is an isolated pointer to the future direction of the band.

Truth:
With truth the dark zone is entered and the haunting melodica/keyboard intro reaches into the souls of the band. The death rattle percussion a perfect reflection of the mood at the time:

"Oh, it's a strange day
In such a lonely way
I saw some children dance
I watched my life in a trance
And the people around me
Seemed so glad to be here
Will my time pass so slowly
On the day that I fear?"

Senses:
Again an unmistakable Hannett intro with panned percussion, the guitars sound like they have been recorded in a bathroom some distance away. Sumner takes over vocal duties and at least reflect the mood of the music. The last minute of this song has a glorious swirling keyboard crescendo.

Chosen Time:
A more upbeat intro with a sublime refrain, the lyrics are in my mind an obvious ode to Curtis:

One day it's now or never
To stay at home
Sometimes the dreams are better
One thing you hold
Believe that all these changes
Keep me alone
What brought the last reaction
I'll never know

ICB:
Forever reported as an acronym for 'Ian Curtis Buried', I don't think the band have ever owned up to this. The lyrics are strangely similar in style to those penned by Curtis, so I don't think it's out of the question to suggest they may in fact be Curtis lyrics.
Again the trademark Hannett experimentation, the track gets up a nice head of steam without ever reaching the heights of Senses.

The Him:
Probably the 'Eternal' of the album the track has more of a haunting melancholy than some of the other tracks which is some feat.
Stephen Morris is all over the kit in true JD style.
"Small boy kneels, wandering in a great hall
He pays pennance to the air above him
White circles, black lines surround me
Reborn, so plain my eyes see
This is the reason that I came here
To be so near to such a person

I'm so tired, I'm so tired"

Doubts Even Here:
Continuing the dark almost lifeless quality of the album Doubts has a sorrowful bass line and sees Sumner singing much deeper. The section where Gillian Gilbert recites over Sumners vocal is paradoxically a high point of the album.

Denial:
Attempts to finish the album off on a high but Hannett is having none of it. His heavy treatment of the vocal and string synthesizer sound soon brings it into line with the prevailing mood.

"Here I am in a house full of doors but no exits
In a light that is grey like the stain on my windows
All of this is a gift, such a painful companion
Inside of me"

There is such beauty and tragedy in these songs. I suppose it reminds me of a time and place but i can still listen to it after so many plays and be enraptured completely. No album will ever sound the same and significantly it marked the parting of ways between the band and Hannett.

Ken Foster

 

Movement reached number 30 in the UK album chart. Catalogue number was FACT50. It was re-issued by London Records in 1993 and then again in 2008 as a collecter's edition with bonus tracks.

 

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Don't expect the usual remix album with Retrofit. The tracks have been extensively reworked and even more recent songs like Garageland have had a complete makeover.

Even i was confused as the 1st two tracks (Looking form a Hilltop and The Process) have had their names incorrectly labelled digitally, so although the cover is correct itunes will tell you different.

Beth's electronic leanings are certainly to the fore and this is essentially a dance remix collection. Some of the parts (on e.g Dirty Disco) sound vaguely similar to Electronic (the Sumner/Marr collaboration) and the band are firmly back into 'From The Hip' territory.

I'm far from being an expert on these matters but the (very nice) cover detail has a TR808 drum machine circuit visual, so the album does have a Ronseal-like credibility.

Interestingly, some of the older songs like Girls Don't Count and New Horizon may now appeal to a completely new (and younger) audience with their retro cool uber rhythms. New Horizon in particular has some Kraftwerk motifs (The Model?) during the intro before picking up on the established riff albeit electrolysed.

 

The tour-de-force is the Stephen Morris almost techno style reworking of Hilltop 'Another Hilltop', which pretty much squares the circle of their New Order/JD collaborations. If this version doesn't make you want to dance, nothing will.

 

For the last 3 years S25 haven't put a foot wrong and even in adversity seem to come up with the goods. Even the music press like them, but rather than bask in the belated acknowledgement of their seminal role in the development of the northern cultural music revolution in the eighties and later contribution to the electro dance evolution they are, instead, breaking new ground once again.

Section 25 have entered into the unknown. The yellow brick road is laid before them and I sense they are almost unconsciously following in the footsteps of their own success. If that sounds odd, get this album and you'll see what I mean.

 

4/5

 

 

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