Recycle 17: Fine Time

[Link removed 20 November 2012] (64 MB)

Fine Time
Factory Records Fac 223
Produced by New Order
November 1988

Tracklisting:

1. Fine Time (12" Version)
2. Don't Do It
3. Fine Line
4. Fine Time (Silk Mix)
5. Fine Time (Messed Around Mix)
6. Fine Time (7" Edit)

1 sourced from Factory UK 45 RPM 12" single FAC 223
2 - 6 sourced from PolyGram Canada CD single 827 277-2

Notes from the restorer:

Acid house arrives, and New Order embrace it. The sleeve deserves an award for the 'most obvious drug reference that anyone ever got away with'.

I don't have much else to say about this one… I know it's a favourite of many, but I always thought it was one of the weaker tracks from the Technique album.

I didn't know that the 12" version was slightly different from the LP version until £50 Note pointed it out to me. Whether by accident or design, there are a few variations in the mix, and this version has never appeared on CD. The rest of the tracks were lifted from the Canadian CD single, which contains all the other versions. However, it has a few quirks: Fine Line and Don't Do It have their channels reversed compared to the UK 12", and all the tracks are EQd somewhat strangely, as if the release was geared for AM radio. The bass is reduced and there's a big boost in the upper mids, making it sound rather tinny. These oddities have been undone to the best of my abilities.

One of my favorites.

The band was accused of jumping on the acid house bandwagon, but considering the slick dance/rock hybrid they'd been perfecting over the five previous years, I see it more as a defining statement. Recording had commenced in Ibiza, which was a haven for European clubgoers. The band owned The Haçienda, which was finally starting to explode as a nightclub instead of a live venue, going on to become one of the greatest clubs in the world, ever. Madchester was beginning with the likes of Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses, and all the other baggy bands. Fine Time anchors them in the middle of a scene they largely facilitated, and was the perfect lead single for the album that would follow three months later.