Cool As Ice / Twice As Nice

In these two years the always excellent LTM (Les Temps Modernes) has given us two CDs collecting some of the best releases produced for Factory Records (and connected labels) in the early and mid 80s by New Order members (under the name Be Music), legendary New York DJs Arthur Baker and Mark Kamins, and Donald Johnson of A Certain Ratio. These compilations alone justify the very name of the label, these songs have remained mostly a rarity for connoisseurs of the scene, and yet they sound, more than modern, like hidden gems from the future.
You hear it from the explosive start of COOL AS ICE, 52nd Street's Can't Afford To Let You Go, a lost electro masterpiece we now rediscover thanks to LTM. The fact these compilations take their titles from one of their few but wonderful singles is just appropriate. They've been one of the less popular Factory bands (except some cult status in the American dance club scene), and moving to Virgin later didn't help their career, but their songs tower above everything else on these albums. People can have a weird taste, and you see it from todays charts. In my world, 52nd Street have kicked Madonna off the number 1 of the mainstream charts (though they actually came earlier).
There's also the seminal Looking From A Hilltop by Section 25 (formerly a great post punk band as well), cited by many house and techno pioneers as an influence, and tracks by Quando Quango (with guests like Johnny Marr from The Smiths and Simon Topping from A Certin Ratio), the band of Mike Pickering, future Hacienda DJ and leader of M People, Marcel King (formerly of Sweet Sensation) and Paul Haig (from post punk cult heroes Josef K).
Top rarities come from the deliciously weird Thick Pigeon (formed by Stanton Miranda and future movie soundtrack composer Carter Burwell), Life, a band formed by Andy Robinson, then already a New Order crew member and now their manager since Rob Gretton's death and there's even the Theme by Be Music (actually New Order's Peter Hook on this track).

You may wonder how LTM can better such a compilation. Well, wait until you've heard TWICE AS NICE. Again the amazing, breath-taking masterpiece comes from 52nd Street. I've thought they couldn't have made a better song than Cool As Ice for years, and here I've discovered the absolutely perfect electro funk of Look Into My Eyes (produced by Johnson of course), the best funk track ever, trust me, yes even better than anything by the fantastic ACR. That beginning when the fat groove made of fabulous bass and percussions with keyboards blasts on the thin guitar is worth the price of the CD alone (which is cheap anyway, but you know what I mean). And that's the fifth song, the compilation has another awesome start with their own Express, something between the classic funk of the 70s and the house funk sampling of the late 80s. In other words, a timeless futuristic classic.
In those times Mark Kamins was producing Madonna (never forget she did excellent electro stuff like Everybody before moving into straight successful pop) and Cheyne, who even was supposed to release Into The Groove, but things went differently so here we have Call Me Mr. Telephone from an obscure singer who had a rather similar voice as well.
You can hear New Order's Bernard Sumner practicing his guitar for Low Life on Shark Vegas' wonderful You Hurt Me and Royal Family And The Poor adding electro to their frightening dark but charming post punk.
Quando Quango appear on this CD as well, with tracks which make you wonder how could they sound so ahead of their times. You'd believe me if I told you they were released in 1989, and I'm talking about a decade when four years meant a huge evolution, unlike these conservative (when not reactionary) times. More artists returning from the first compilation are Marcel King, Thick Pigeon, and Section 25 (with the fantastic Sakura, blending deep punk bass with frenzy sequencers), while New Order appear as a full band with the extreme futuristic electro terror of Video 586 (this is a 6 minutes 'edit', the original is 22 minutes...), a gloriously minimalistic and experimental track which was a turning point in their evolution towards Blue Monday.
Of course both CDs are absolutely recommended.
Be Music page on LTM, for more info, tracklists and purchase orders.