New Order: Bernard Sumner (vocals, guitar); Gillian Gilbert (keyboards, synthesizer); Peter Hook (bass); Stephen Morris (drums, background vocals).
Composer: New Order .
Audio Mixer: Alan Meyerson.
Recording information: Box; Ibiza, Spain; Mediterranean Studios; Real World Studios.
Following the critical dismissal of their previous record, BROTHERHOOD, New Order was at something of a crossroads in their career. TECHNIQUE (1989) found them back in favor as antecedents to a pair of oddly related trends: songs about the British tradition of holidays in Spain, and acid-house music. The first of these trends was adopted by everyone from Blur to the Pet Shop Boys. As for the second, while vacationing in Ibiza, a Spanish island in the Mediterranean, the band was impressed by a fleeting dance style then prevalent in the clubs there. TECHNIQUE was the band's own take on that sound, and eventually, this adaptation became one of the touchstones of acid-house music.
The album is an effective mix of strange, sampled sounds (something at which the band had always excelled), propulsive beats, and Bernard Sumner's ever-improving vocal style. "Fine Time," "Round & Round," and "Mr. Disco" are New Order at their most assertive, while "All the Way" and "Love Less" show their more pop-oriented side. The album's standout track "Run" sounds as though the band had rediscovered the power of simple bursts of guitar, with searing solos cutting into the smooth beats.
Professional Reviews
Q (9/93, p.97) - 5 Stars - Indispensible - "...[TECHNIQUE] is the soundtrack for the cynical summer of love...good times never felt so good..."
CMJ (1/5/04, p.26) - Ranked #19 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1989"
Q (Magazine) (p.122) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "New Order's final '80s album made their previous four seem like preliminary sketches....[A] masterpiece."
Mojo (Publisher) (9/01, p.86) - "...As well as being the pinnacle of their joyously cathartic pop-techno, TECHNIQUE was also Bernard Sumner's finest songwriting hour..."
NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #42 in NME's list of the `Greatest Albums Of All Time.'
Blender (Magazine) (p.66) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "They bid a graceful farewell with 1989's TECHNIQUE, paying tribute to the Ibiza acid-house club scene they'd made possible."
Record Collector (magazine) (p.101) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "TECHNIQUE not only embraced the burgeoning acid/rave scene, but became as much a defining album of the time as The Stone Roses' debut from the same year, 1989."
