Happy Mondays - "Hallelujah It's The Happy Mondays" CD/DVD

In their late 80s/early 90s heyday, Manchester's Happy Mondays were the leading distillers of funky, dance-edged, drug-fuelled club rock music. Mainman Shaun Ryder was notorious for being well off his rocker, and an ardent student of heroin, booze, and pills -- enough to make him (and his band of fellow partiers) tabloid fodder numerous times. The band seemed to implode as much due to their well-noted excesses as from the music scene changing (remember this was the pre-Nirvana era).

This extravagant double-disc set was recorded in 2004, at a reunion show in Barcelona, and presents all the band's hits and favorites. We get soulful, loose, laid-back (and even fittingly sloppy) versions of "Kinky Afro", "Step On", "Hallelujah", "WFL (Wrote For Luck)","24 Hour Party People", and more. Shaun Ryder is as unhinged, off-key, and slackerly as ever. Nonetheless, the sound is solid and well-mixed, so fans will definitely be pleased. The DVD I can't comment on, as my promotional copy of the DVD had a hole bored through it! (Secret Records UK)

Happy Mondays Online

Freebass - "Two Worlds Collide" CDEP

Peter Hook, former bassist for legendary Manchester bands Joy Division and New Order, has rejuvenated himself after the dissolution of New Order a few years ago. His new projects show a healthy reflection and reverence for his classic work. All but gone (thankfully) are the club dance tracks that New Order became known for in their twilight years. "You Don't Know This About Me" is a highlight, and features former Charlatans UK vocalist Tim Burgess, and is a welcome return to the stylish indie-rock roots of Hook and his Manchester mates. It's really a lovely song and compares favorably with the best of Hook's past works. Pete Wylie fronts "The Milky Way Is Our Playground", which isn't quite as effective, with some cringeworthy lyrics. "Dark Starr" is a lengthy piece of wacked sound-poetry with Howard Marks, and Hook himself fronts the dancy and New Order-like "Live Tomorrow You Go Down". Certainly a tentative EP, but a fine start for Hook's next phase, whatever it may be. (Hacienda Records/24 Hour Service Station)

Freebass site

Man Ray - "Summer 88" CDEP

Man Ray is Peter Hook's new side project revisiting the acid house days, relevant as his old label (Factory) and friend's club (Tony Wilson's notorious Hacienda) were important centerpieces of this international scene back in, oh, say 1988. These 4 cuts are low-key retro throwbacks to the disco sound of acid house - minimal rhythms, some sirens and whistles, and simple electronic melodies. The two tracks, "We're On It" and "Ways Of Making Music" are presented with 2 mixes each, and they pulse along with primitive Roland drum machines and sequences pleasantly enough. Thing is, this music is basically a novelty now. There's little of "substance" (ha, pun there) on "Summer 88". Really, it's more of a minor diversion for clubgoers and serious New Order fans. (Hacienda Records/24 Hour Service Station)