From The Hip [FBN 33] | Section 25

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Section 25 \ From The Hip [FBN 33 / CD]

Factory Benelux presents a special 30th anniversary edition of From The Hip, the pioneering 1984 electro album by cult Factory Records group Section 25, produced by Bernard Sumner.

Recorded in 1983, From The Hip was the band's third album for Factory and the first to pursue a more accessible musical direction, thanks largely to the influence of new members Jenny Cassidy and Angela Flowers. Embracing state of the art Roland electronics, Section 25 graduated from barbed post-punk to smooth electronic pop, much of which prefigured techno and house styles, and spawned an enduring club/dance hit in Looking From A Hilltop (Megamix).

From The Hip was recorded at Rockfield by Bernard Sumner of New Order, falling between their classic albums Power Corruption and Lies and Low-Life. It would be the only time that Sumner produced an entire album for another artist. The iconic cover art is by Peter Saville and Trevor Key, and employs the cryptic colour-coding favoured by the Factory design director at this time.

The original 1984 album appears on Disc 1 along with bonus tracks including both 12" versions of Looking From A Hilltop, as well as singles Dirty Disco II, Beating Heart and Back To Wonder. Disc 2 features a raft of previously unreleased material, including a 1984 BBC radio session, five tracks from the original album demo in 1983, a re-boot of Hilltop produced by Stephen Morris of New Order, and a brand new recording of Reflection by the current iteration of the group.

The extensive liner notes include text by Vin Cassidy, Angie Cassidy, Bernard Sumner and Jon Savage. Six panel tri-fold digipack with 12 page booklet, including previously unseen images by Steve Farmery.

A remastered 3xLP vinyl set was issued for Record Store Day 2021 (17 July drop) in a limited edition of 800 copies. Housed in a deluxe trifold sleeve, each disc is pressed in a complementary colour: orange, blue and silver. This is now sold out.

2xCD tracklist: (disc 1)

1. The Process
2. Looking From a Hilltop
3. Reflection
4. Prepare to Live
5. Program For Light
6. Desert
7. Beneath the Blade
8. Inspiration
9. Looking From a Hilltop - Restructure (FAC 108)
10. Looking From a Hilltop - Megamix (FAC 108)
11. Dirty Disco II (FBN 45)
12. Dirty Disco II (Premix)
13. Beating Heart - 12" remix
14. Back To Wonder - 12" version
15. Beating Heart - 12" version

2xCD tracklist: (disc 2)

1. Looking From a Hilltop (BBC Session)
2. Reflection (BBC Session)
3. Warhead (BBC Session)
4. The Process (demo)
5. Looking From A Hilltop (demo)
6. Prepare to Live (demo)
7. Reflection (demo)
8. Desert (demo)
9. Program For Light (demo)
10. Looking From a Hilltop (Stephen Morris Mix)
11. Reflection (Young Image)

3xLP tracklist: (RSD 2021)

A1. The Process
A2. Looking From a Hilltop
A3. Reflection
A4. Prepare to Live
B1. Program For Light
B2. Desert
B3. Beneath the Blade
B4. Inspiration
C1. Looking From a Hilltop (Megamix)
C2. Another Hilltop (Stephen Morris Mix)
D1. Crazy Wisdom
D2. Dirty Disco II
D3. The Guitar Waltz
D4. Bad News Week
E1. Beating Heart (Remix)
E2. Back To Wonder
E3. Sakura
E4. Slinky
F1. Looking From a Hilltop (BBC Session)
F2. Reflection (BBC Session)
F3. Warhead (BBC Session)
F4. Program for Light (Outernationale Mix)

Available on 2xCD, digital (MP3 or FLAC). Digital format follows 2xCD tracklist. To order please first select correct shipping option (UK, Europe, or Rest of World) and then click on Add To Cart button below cover image. Digital copies are supplied via link by email.

Or, you can order with the option of tracked shipping from our friends at Burning Shed (click here to order)

Reviews:

"Pioneering electro outing in 1983. From the Hip by Blackpool's post-punk and electronic melding Section 25 was produced by New Order frontman Bernard Sumner. It's era-defining for the club power of Looking From a Hilltop, Inspiration, Program for Light and Reflection, although its hard to pick a highlight when every track is a beauty. This limited edition vinyl version serves up the original LP as well as singles from 1982 to 1986 including Sakura, as well as lost electronica gems such as live track Slinky. Throw in a BBC session and you really do have it all. 4 stars" (Record Collector, 09/2021)

"What a discovery this will prove to be for the uninitiated. As prescient and way ahead of its time as they come, this landmark 1984 album saw Bernard Sumner revitalise Section 25 with a thrilling injection of proto-house, New York electro and European coldwave. A reminder of just how exciting dance music could feel - Program for Light surely provided The Chemical Brothers with a fevered template for Hey Boy Hey Girl, and sounds as thoroughly electrifying now as it must have done back then" (Electronic Sound, 7/2021)

"Lost classic from Factory's early-80s love affair with Roland synths and European electronica. The Blackpool quintet are captured at their anthemic, psychedelic electro best by producer Bernard Sumner. Bonus BBC session tracks. Four stars" (Mojo, 06/2014)

"For a short while in the early Eighties Larry Cassidy put Poulton-le-Fylde on the map, as the band for formed with brother Vincent became Factory's great white hopes. Updating their sound from angular post-punk to futuristic electropop, Looking From a Hilltop remains a splendidly icy slice of early synthpop; the Megamix version is an intoxicatingly spaced-out expansion, and the Stephen Morris remix on CD2 reached full techno wig-out mode. The new version of the floaty Reflection is also a gem. This 30th anniversary edition comes with added demos and radio sessions thrown in" (Classic Pop, 06/2014)

"Perfect Peter Saville sleeve for a perfect Factory outing. On From the Hip Section 25 wrote songs with a more electronic sound while good friend Bernard Sumner took over production duties. This 2xCD reissue is a bells and whistles affair, boasting pre-mixes and remixes, as well as vital demo takes of most of the songs, revealing just how SXXV arrived at the final result. From the Hip was as good as anything New Order were doing at the time - a neglected classic that sounds as fresh now as it did 30 years ago" (Record Collector, 06/2014)

"Blackpool post-punks ditch raincoats and embrace electro. Recorded using state-of-the-art Roland drum machines and synths, Section 25 found their feet on From the Hip. It's Bernard Sumner producing, but little here actually sounds like New Order. Indeed the transcendent Looking From a Hilltop still sounds like nothing else - a proto-acid-jam with keening vocals from Larry Cassidy and Jenny Ross, it was a club hit in New York and picked up by radio in Chicago, a city incubating it's own House style" (Uncut, 07/2014)

"Includes the skyscraping phantom-funk of 1984's still-incredible Looking From A Hilltop (Megamix)" (The Wire, 04/2013)

"This massively influential album from 1984 saw the Cassidy brothers work with producer Bernard Sumner to incorporate the electro beats and synth atmospheres of New Order's Power, Corruption & Lies into Section 25's doomy post-punk world view. Packaging for the new Factory double vinyl edition is top notch" (Mojo, 08/2012)

"From The Hip saw Section 25 emerge as a new band with a new mandate, as half the album's songs prominently featured electro-funk drum machines and brightly-hued synthesizer leads. Looking From A Hilltop smuggles in a spiky machine rhythm from Kraftwerk under billowing layers of keyboards. Other aspects of the song now seem prescient: In Looking From A Hilltop (Megamix), a minimally reworked single version of the album cut, a squelchy, resonant bass line lies wriggling deep in the mix. A year later, Chicago's disco scene would be reborn as acid house thanks to this technique's telltale squirm" (The Pitchfork 500, 2008)

"Sounds resolutely modern even now, like the precursor of house and techno. From The Hip is the group's masterpiece" (The Wire, 06/2002)

"So ahead of the game that no-one knew how to play it" (Record Collector, 05/2010)

"Although the former Blackpool guitar band's pulsating Looking From A Hilltop became an unlikely hit in New York clubs, their Bernard Sumner-produced electronica experiment was initially ignored. However, sampled by Orbital and The Shamen, From The Hip's trance states and 303 drum machines now sound like an accidental prototype for techno" (The Guardian, 11/2007)

"Lovingly repackaged... Unveils the band as a spiked synthetic pop unit of considerable merit" (Melody Maker, 01/1992)

"Interesting forays into ambient textures and also an instant club classic in Looking From A Hilltop" (Record Collector, 11/1998)

"Beautifully pale and wan" (Q Magazine, 08/1999)

"This is the gleaming, future-dwelling SXXV" (Uncut, 08/2000)

"Section 25 moved from guitar psychedelia to US clubland darlings with the seminal Looking From A Hilltop single in 1984. Synthetic sound might be commonplace today, but in the 80s it still had the power to shock, and shaped our perception of what pop music could be" (Record Collector, 12/2013)

"Looking From A Hilltop is the most important electro record of the early Eighties" (Boomkat, 02/2007)