I haven’t posted a New Order track in nearly five years. What the fuck happened to me, man? I used to be cool.
New Order
True Faith-94
True Faith-94 (Radio Edit)
True Faith-94 (Perfecto Mix)
True Faith-94 (Perfecto Radio Edit)
True Faith-94 (The TWA Grim Up North Mix)
I bought 23 new wave and synth-pop CD singles this weekend.
There was a sale. I’m a weak man.
Sadly, much of what I purchased cannot be shared here because its all shockingly in print now. It amazes me still how much obscure and formerly hard-to-find stuff is being re-released now compared to when I started this blog 14 goddamn years ago. Remember how I could just go to a record store, snag a shitload of Depeche Mode 12″ singles (on the cheap) and end up posting a dozen or so remixes that had all fallen out-of-print? Those days are long gone. I bought several Depeche Mode singles at that sale. I have to double-check to be sure, but it would appear that all of the remixes on all of them are now easy to find on iTunes, special edition re-issues, and even on streaming services. The same goes for the Erasure stuff I picked up. I grabbed the first four EBX singles collections that the band put out several years back. Now all of those are available for listening online, as well as several digital-only sequels to the series (Boo to digital only!).
But you know what prominent new wave/synth-pop band continues to fuck up their legacy by keeping a large swath of their 12″ singles and CD single exclusive tracks out-of-print? That’s right, New Order. They’ve certainly gotten better. Pretty much all the remixes from their past few albums are online now, as are prominent remixes for more popular tracks like “Bizarre Love Triangle” and “Confusion.” But songs like these, the 1994 remixes “True Faith” are still MIA (the main ’94 remix was included on The Best Of New Order but that album is now out-of-print in most territories). For some reason, most of the remixes to “World In Motion” are online though, so who the hell knows why which tracks make it online and which don’t, its certainly not an issue of quality.
And these are really good remixes! Of a really good track! None of them are too drastic, they’re not pure dancefloor mixes that take away the vocals or hooks. They’re all really recognizable as remixes of “True Faith,” an all-time banger of a track if you ask me. I could get that hook stuck in my head for days and I wouldn’t complain. If I had anything negative to say about these cuts, it’s that they don’t do enough to deviate from the source material. But hey, I guess if it ain’t broke, why fix it?
I wonder how many discs it would take to properly re-release every New Order remix. How big would that box set be? It would have to be dozens of discs, right? I guess that’s why it’ll never happen. They’re far happier dishing this shit out piecemeal (with plenty of overlap so we end up buying a lot of the same music multiple times over). Oh well, a guy can dream.
Probably more New Order next week. Or a batshit stupid synthesizer album. I guess it depends on my mood that day.
I am VERY happy to see New Order here again! And I won’t tell a soul if you upload some of the best Depeche Mode’s remixes you found in that sale! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thanks for the music!
I don’t know if it’s because of all the issues with their catalog after the original Factory label shut down or what, but yes, hunting old New Order versions is really difficult. The guy who ran The Power of Independent Trucking blog had his own site dedicated to a remastering series of all the original New Order singles and their various permutations, though he only posted them in 256 variable aac (basically iTunes+, which is great) and the site is long gone now. If you want that, drop me a line. I’ve also got three unused versions of Blue Monday 88, though they’re not that terribly different from what was released.
True Faith-94 (Radio Edit) sounds like -87 to me. Granted, I have not heard a radio edit from that year (New Order = 12″).
However, it’s a great track and I thank you for posting.