Gone with Cap'n Barney sailing the good Electronic ship, me hearties. Bunbury Cup racing today, pissed down ina nd out.

Electronic and Monaco equally so I'll refrain from voting.

Monaco released my favourite side project album overall (Music For Pleasure) but Electronic had two superb albums (1 & 3) plus some great b-sides in between. Monaco circa 1997/8 were at the top of their game but began to falter after an average(ish) second album then everything abruptly fizzled out when New Order reformed. Electronic had a fairly consistent run of quality across their career with only Raise The Pressure sounding a bit laboured and overproduced but even it had some great tracks. I'm a big fan of Twisted Tenderness so for me they ended things on a high.

Revenge I always took with a pinch of salt because their album just seemed like an excuse to go gigging rather than make lasting music though the Gun World Porn EP is a hidden gem. State of Shock is one of the finest songs of any side project and the first "classic" of the Hook/Potts partnership. I'm pretty ambivalent towards The Other Two, admittedly they did some good synthpop type stuff but a lot of their material was tough to get really excited about. Super Highways wasn't a bad record though, if you were lucky enough to actually find a copy at the time...

I'd file Bad Lieutenant with Electronic for obvious reasons; it was a decent album but perhaps not as strong as the stuff Bernard did with Marr a decade earlier. I think after a decade of guitar driven tracks the fans were starting to get bored of the lack of variation in that sound. The gigs were great fun though (Paris!).

The only one I really didn't take to was Freebass; the name, the concept, the hype... bits of the EP was listenable but the LP was er, not.

Edited by user 14 March 2013 11:20:29(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Electronic by far. Their first album is nothing short of a masterpiece.
Monaco's debut also had 1 excellent song.

ELECTRONIC + BAD LIEUTENANT

The Durutti Column : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrZn1FHtRY8

The did a few gigs together as well, which were amazing, including more tunes they wrote to play live, but didn't record.
Damn musicians making music for pleasure... = ;87)

I'd say Monaco's MFP is my favourite side proj album, probably because it was the most Newordery thing we'd had since Regret.

The rest of Mr Hook's output fails to get anywhere near this peak again.

Barney's Electronic (&BL) output has been consistently better than the other stuff from Mr Hook.

And I just love the Other Two, even if their 'solo' output doesn't eclipse the others'.



It was an easy decision to vote for Barney & Electronic though, because as good as the music on MFP remains, the man is sadly diminished in my eyes.

Monaco and Electronic, can't split the two, both would have been better if they were new order though.

I listen to Electronic waaaaaaay more than any other of the side projects. I was just thinking the other day that many of their BSides are even better than some of the other side project works.

That's not a bad shout.


I listened to all 3 Electronic albums back to back the other day and really enjoyed them all - even remembering most of the lyrics.


Great music.

RTP is my favourite electronic album. There is an excess of cheese here and there, but with a bit of tweaking it could easily have been a sequel to Technique.

I hated Twisted Tenderness to begin with, but after a few listens I grew to love it; probably joint second with the first album for me - if that makes any sense.

They like making music more than they like working together?

Some great stuff on that list that people should check out if they haven't already; love the NIN mixes.

The one big surprise for me there was "Crossing the Border" which I've always loved, despite not liking much else by Martland (he seems to be big on good ideas, but small on emotions normally).
Anyway, dug out the CD, and sure enough, Steve Morris has his name amoungst the musicians! I'd never noticed.