New Order + Liam Gillick: So It Goes review – Euphoric Manchester elegy

Ambitious and joyous work to remind us that New Order are best behind the synthesizer

∑(No,12k,Lg,17Mif) So it Goes
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Artist: New Order + Liam Gillick
Genre: Pop
Label: Mute

This live recording of the band's performance on Stage 1 of Manchester's Old Granada Studios for the Manchester International Festival in July 2017 (aided by visual artist Liam Gillick, composer-arranger Joe Duddell, and a 12-strong synthesiser ensemble) reminds us that New Order are at their most potent when behind the synthesizer and sampler.

The results are ambitious and ultimately, joyous; a reimagining and rebuilding of much of their material from throughout their career, both the familiar and obscure.

Work such as guitar-led Who’s Joe, and Dream Attack (which come early in the record) might be the weaker end of their legacy, but when they move in to the slow-moving Ultraviolence, they have never sounded better.

By folding in Joy Division work – Decades, In a Lonely Place, and the strident, urgent Disorder – we are reminded of their DNA, and the late, great Ian Curtis, and Tony Wilson, who haunt this record.

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By the time we reach the equally euphoric Bizarre Love Triangle and Plastic, it is clear that this is a particular kind of Manchester elegy, a prayer not only for the living, but the dead, their past and their future.

Siobhán Kane

Siobhán Kane is a contributor to The Irish Times specialising in culture