Before the books, movies, documentaries, exhibitions and rebirth of a city there was (of course) the music. Some of it great (some not so much) but all of it was undeniably Factory Records...
CD1 covers the early years of Factory from 1978's A Factory Sample (FAC2) through to Section 25's 'Dirty Disco' from Always Now (FACT45c). Despite the 14 or so different bands featured on CD1, the music has a cohesive feel thanks to Martin Hannett's production - all deconstructed drums that don't sound like drums any more, prominent bass lines, guitars that shimmer like shards of broken glass and sparse synth textures that give everything an otherworldly feel...
The highlights are the Joy Division songs (especially 'Transmission' and 'She's Lost Control'), the original version of OMD's 'Electricity' which is quite charming in its lo-fi quirkiness (apparently OMD hated it and promptly left Factory), the primitave samples and arpeggiated guitars of The Durutti Column's 'Sketch for Summer' and Factory's only reggae release 'English Black Boys' by X-O-Dus. Also good are the two Section 25 songs (especially 'Girl's Don't Count') and it's interesting to follow A Certain Ratio evolving from Joy Division sound-alikes to white funksters over their three featured songs... In the meantime, Joy Division had become New Order and the poignant 'Ceremony' is also a more than worthy inclusion towards the end of the first cd of Factory 1978-92...
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