Could Cheryl Cole's new single sample Operation Blade (Bass In The Place)?

All us pop fans are pretty much balancing on a knife edge right now, leaping at any precious morsel of information regarding Cheryl Cole's much anticipated third album. After all, she's been working on it a while, so the hopes are high that it'll mark a real high water mark for the former X Factor star's career and top her previous two efforts.

Turning to Twitter to tease fans with a possible snippet of lyrics from a new track, Cheryl revealed:

'You know it turns me on when the beat starts dirty dancing.. The way it calls to me I can almost feel its rage.. La da da da da Dum Dum. Bass in my face, put the bass in my face, put the bass in my face, put the bass in my face.'

Now, all this might be nothing much in particular, but maybe.... just maybe... it could be that she's sampled that grand old dance classic Bass In The Place, also known as Operation Blade (the track samples the Pump Panel Remix of New Order's Confusion, as featured on the original Blade movie soundtrack).

Of course, being the massive New Order fans that we are, the prospect that Cheryl might have sampled New Order (however indirectly) is all rather exciting. And either way, the Operation Blade track is a bit of a 'tune', and this gave us an excuse to post it.

Will we finally hear New Order's sessions with Xenomania?!

To put things simply, New Order are pretty much my favourite band of all time. If there's one other band they share that honour with, it's Girls Aloud. So the thought of finally getting to hear the fabled sessions conducted by New Order with Xenomania is positively off the scale of amazingness.

Xenomania's work with those other synth-pop giants of the 80s, the Pet Shop Boys, resulted in one of the best albums of 2009 in Yes, so the prospects for something truly special are high. I've always thought Girls Aloud's epic Untouchable sounded like a New Order out-take anyway.

So what exactly is happening? The agreement to release seven songs from New Order's final album Waiting For The Sirens' Call was reached by all the members of the band, including Peter Hook - now, we don't know for certain these seven songs are the ones made with Xenomania, but I really hope so.

Another track from the album sessions, Hellbent, was recently released on their Total compilation album, and represented a fitting summary of one of the greatest bands in music.

What's more, this news comes in the same week it's been announced that New Order will reform - without Peter Hook - for two special benefit gigs.

New order's acrimonious break-up feels like such a shame for one of the best bands ever - but in some small way, these gigs and the release of the sessions goes a little way to repairing that damage.

After all, it's better than nothing.

New Order - Hellbent

There's a long tradition of bunging an exclusive unreleased track onto a greatest hits compilation to entice the loyal fans who already have everything on there to buy it. Sometimes it's clear why the track was previously unreleased - it's not very good at all. Thankfully, this isn't the case with Hellbent, the one new track on the New Order/Joy Division compendium that's out in the shops this week.

One of the reasons New Order stand as one of my favourite bands of all time is the unfailing ear for melody they have - every track, even if it's a low-key album track, is built around so many impossibly catchy hooks you're almost spoilt for choice. And Hellbent, bookending this new compilation, stands as another prime example of that.

Apparently an offcut from the Waiting For The Sirens' Call sessions, it's classic 21st century New Order, showcasing every side of the band. Other bands would lose themselves in the bewildering variety of sonic elements on offer here, but New Order, as ever, carry it off with effortless confidence.

Roughy, fuzzed up guitar licks, sweeping Moby-esque synthesizers and moments of hyper-energy as the verses explode into the chorus with a furious drum fill. Hellbent has it all, even finding time to squeeze in a Peter Hook bass solo and a bit of acid-house piano. Sound-wise, it's probably closest to tracks like Krafty and Player In The League - and quite frankly, is worth the price of the Total compilation in its own right.

But of course, you're getting 17 more of some of the greatest tracks ever written. A bargain, for sure.

Total is available to download from iTunes now.

New releases round-up - 6th June 2011

Nicola Roberts - Beat Of My Drum

The gorgeous Girls Aloud red-head goes solo with this stunning Major Lazer-sampling track. Feisty rapped verses and a chorus we guarantee you'll fall in L.O.V.E. with. The track is already surging up the iTunes chart and with Nicola launching the single with a DJ set in Hoxton over the weekend, it looks set to do big things this week. The video also features an absolutely inspired dance routine.

Download

Wonderland - Wonderland

I'm a massive fan of this new girl group, who deliver a country/rock flavoured brand of pop on this, their self titled debut album. Not your traditional girl band fare, but Wonderland make the sound their own - especially on highlights like Starlight and their covers of Lady Antebellum and Adele.

Download

New Order/Joy Division - Total

To date, there have been many New Order compilations, but never one that included both Joy Division and New Order tracks together on one CD. With a band who's career spans as many years as theirs, there's the tendency that certain key tracks (or your personal favourites) may be missed off, but as a single-disc compilation of the two band's greatest moments, this presents the perfect introduction for a new listener to one of the greatest musical back catalogues of all time. It also includes the incredibly good 'new' New Order track Hellbent.

Download

Depeche Mode - Remixes 2: 81-11

It's a bit of the old and a bit of the new with this remix compilation from synth master Depeche Mode. Contemporary takes on classic tracks like the amazing Stargate mix of Personal Jesus easily make this album worth the cash - and the three-disc deluxe edition contains enough electronic wizardry to keep you happy until Christmas. It also comes in a posh cardboard box/slipcase type thing and with a booklet printed on some of the glossiest paper I've ever seen in my life.

Download

Toploader - A Balance To All Things

When you think of Toploader, you are inviably going to leap first to their cover of Dancing In The Moonlight. The band's biggest hit, it reached number seven in the UK charts all the way back in 2000. At the turn of the millenium, British music was a very different scene that it is today. In those innocent, naive days, a new decade gleaming bright before us; a track like Dancing In The Moonlight seemed bright and joyous - the perfect track to usher in a new era.

But instead it seemed only to over-shadow everything else the band did, the band eventually breaking up in 2003. But here stands a new decade, the band reformed, their new album Only Human all set to go, a legion of potential new listeners out there. And single A Balance To All Things could very well be the track to win them around. The soulful, emotional vocals of the Toploader of old remain, but they come repackaged in a shiny new body.

Strong piano chords and muscular guitar riffs stand tall, striking out the foundations of a song that comes on like a mix of classic Echo & The Bunnymen and Deacon Blue. It's good old-fashioned rock with a soaring Brit-pop melody to match. A Balance To All Things indeed - this track plays the field, touching base on all grounds to ensure there's a little something for everyone here. This is music made to please.

There's even a brief, New Order-like bassline and the ever-so-slight shimmer of vocal effects. It's little touches like these that see Toploader dipping their feet into the waters of experimentation. A straight-up bit of radio friendly pop-rock this might be, but the willingness to explore new sounds is clear throughout the track, and it feels all the more adult for it.

Producer Ash Howes, who's previous work includes material with the likes of Girls Aloud, has also remixed the track for its single release.

A Balance To All Things is released on the 30th May. The band's new album Only Human can be pre-ordered here.

The Music - Ghost Hands

I'm a big New Order fan, so any band who releases something that sounds like New Order, I will usually love. And The Music's final farewell single Ghost Hands has New Order stamped ALL over it, right down to a throbbing Peter Hook-esque bass solo. The band have even been kind enough to provide the song as a free download from their website. And you can't say fairer than that.

Kicking off with a club-ready, mechanical beat and a menacing synth bass, suddenly the track slams into fifth gear; accelerating away on that kind of anthemic riff Bloc Party have made a career out of. Singer Robert Harvey says of the song:

"We love the track and it just seemed a shame to leave it gathering dust for ever. It's good to go out with something positive and new and we think it deserves to see the light of day. Hopefully the fans will agree - again we want to thank everyone who's been with us on this journey and look forward to celebrating an amazing ten years this summer."

Harvey's proud vocals resound in a chorus about 'getting up and making history'. It's the kind of epic stadium packer that many bands would love to have in their discography; it's five and a half minute duration never feeling dull or tired. It's an expansive soundscape, a workshop of vibrant ideas; yet all wrapped round a beating heart of pop sensibility.

So often rock bands these days chuck a tune out there with no hint of a catchy hook or distinctive edge, but The Music come to the table with both in ample measures. Indeed, it feels a shame that the band are bowing out when this track, of such immense quality, when it suggests so much future potential.

Vanbot - Vanbot

First, to get the obvious out of the way. Vanbot sounds like Robyn. A lot like Robyn. The similarity throws you for six when you first listen to her self titled debut album, but as you let it grow with you, the individuality works itself out and you realise her voice is actually sugared with a distinctiveness of its own. There's definitely more than a little of Kylie's sweetness to it, especially on the ballad Bad Day. An emotional tale of the pains of relationships, lines like 'the worst thing is that you don't miss me' cut straight to the heart. On an album that sounds as metallic and electronic as Vanbot's does, you might think emotions would be hard to portray with such intensity, but songs like Bad Day highlight just how it can be done, and with real power too.

It's hard to decide whether the album as a whole works more on a subtle level or as an all out pop record - it's a quality bands like a-ha made a career out of; radio-friendly pop hooks welded onto records of swirling, smoke-like natural wonder. For certain, on tracks like the single Make Me, Break Me, it errs straight into that all out pop camp. With its big, bold keyboard riffs, bubbling synth line and a chorus that soars the highest heights in terms of pop amazingness, it's a pure winner. The other single, Lost Without You follows in a similar vein, but here shapes itself around a snake-like, hypnotic mystical quality. If any of the tracks were exceptionally Robyn-esque, it's this one.

And when Vanbot wants to be, she can throw you hurtling onto the dancefloor too. Take album opener Ringing; as it plunges into the chorus the beats collide in a spectacular crash of kinetic energy. This is every inch the floorfiller, and there is an inherent groove to every track on the album; it creeps into your limbs, your whole body even - twitching away. And then there's the magestic, epic ambience of Bitter Is The Sweetest Part - this is the moment of the dancefloor caught in a second of endless frozen power.

The album drips in sonic references to New Order too, especially on Tired and Safe By The Numbers, the two tracks coming as a wonderful finale towards the albm's end. Like a lost treasure from New Order's Technique album, Tired sparks and bounds with synthetic energy. Part of the charm of Vanbot is just how many textures she works out from her sound, every track feels embued with some different essence. Icy, crystaline bells ring out in the final minute, an ecstacy of sheer beauty - the culmination of everything this album seeks to create.

Meanwhile, Safe By The Numbers melds that fragility with a surging, wavelike compressed guitar riff that picks you up in its intensity like a surfer caught adrift in a vast expanse of formless water. You're carried higher and higher on a wall of feeling and musical intensity. It's magic caught in a bottle of delicately carved glass, a slash of diamond glitter across a frozen lake. And as the album comes to a close and you rush to play it again, to emmerse yourself in it once more, you realise Vanbot has captured something completely and utterly beautiful here.

Vanbot is available to download on iTunes now.

Introducing... Kites

Kites represent something rather exciting. Basking in the wake of a considerable wealth of press coverage from the likes of The Sunday Mirror and Time Out as well as having a support slot lined up with legend Peter Hook at Scala, the future looks bright for them. They even have a cool, flashy website.

Think of them as a mix of early New Order and OMD, especially on their track You Are (Dead To Me). With distinctive vocals, swirling synth hooks and lyrics full of wit, their songs chug along as if carefully cut and pasted together in a dimly lit factory; they're full of vigor and the rough-worn edges of labour. There's a real sense of artisanship to them.

Meanwhile, Take The Reins centres around bleepy electronics and low rumbling strings. As the guitar comes in a wintery beauty sweeps over the track, twinkling like stars in the dead of night. Here we have a sensitive ballad of the kind that so many bands try to pen, only to fail. This however sounds genuine and oh so fragile, a delicate sculpture of icy wonder.

It is on The Ddisappearance Of Becky Sharpe that they are at their strongest though, coming across half White Lies and half trippy acid house synths that could have comes straight out of The Beloved's Sweet Harmony. It's a meeting of three decades of British music in one glorious melting pot. As the synths swell up in the chorus and then again in the last minute of the song you get the sense of crashing waves of sound, raw and untamed - and that's the real strength of Kites; they're unpredictable, loose, innovative.

Just when you think you've got a handle on their tracks, some new element works its way in to the mix. In this respect, it could seem easy for them to lose their way, for everything to fall apart into its constituent elements. But it never does, the tracks stand tall and proud, gleaming constructs of skillful songwriting.

The Kites' previous single The Seamstress is also available to download from iTunes.

Visit The Kites' website at http://www.wearekites.com/


KITES - EP - KIT0003 by Kites

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Starlight

Sophie Ellis-Bextor's new album has been a long time in the coming. But new single Starlight comes like a seal of quality, assuring that the wait will be more than worth it. With its beautiful, flowing feel and Pet Shop Boys-esque synth bassline, the song is every inch the picturesque, tranquil night-time scene its title depicts.

While perhaps not as instant as previous singles Heartbreak Make Me A Dancer and Bittersweet, the chorus holds strong and the track as a whole is musically far more intricate. Starlight holds real value for repeat listens, new treasures surfacing from the overlapping wave-like layers of its depths each time.

There's some definite New Order vibes here, as if Sophie made a conscious effort to produce Starlight as her ode to the eighties. The middle-eight in particular sounds as if it could have come straight off New Order's 1993 Republic album with its oh-so delicate touches of guitar.

Starlight is a crystaline thing of beauty, the lovely 'we found heaven in the dark' lyrics in the chorus channeling that effortless style and class that Sophie has always done so well. True pop queen glamour.

Starlight is released on the 30th May.

Charity shop time machine to the past...

I'm a regular visitor to my two local charity shops, which, rather conveniently, are located about 50 metres apart from each-other on the high-street. I'm not sure what the staff think of me, spending ages carefully checking through every single CD in the rack, but over the past two or three years I've been going to them, I've uncovered some long-since deleted singles and bargain-price albums from my favourite artists - in the process saving me an absolute fortune in having to buy them from Ebay.

My latest purchases were:

Depeche Mode - Ultra
New Order - The Best Of
The Stone Roses - Second Coming
Now That's What I Call Music 37

The first three are all some of my favourite bands of all time. And finding these albums at two quid a go, I just had to have them. Sure, I already have the tracks on my iTunes (and in the case of Ultra, a re-released deluxe edition), but there's something inherently beautiful about purchasing the originals. In their slightly scuffed cases and with the little price-tag sticker on them, they are so much a part of the 90s - the era seems to seep out of the very CDs themselves. Buying them in this way, you are getting more than just the music - here you have a little time-capsule, a link back to the past, a window into the world in which these albums first appeared.

George Michael - True Faith

Wow. Talk about auto-tune overload. When I heard George Michael was going to be covering New Order's True Faith, this wasn't what I was expecting. I imagined a more straight-up version of the song instead of this drastic re-invisioning. I guess in a way what he's done with it is a good thing; it's far enough from the original that I can like it on its own merits. But unfortunately, at the end of the day, it just doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

Let's be fair, it's not a bad version, per se. It's all very sunny and chilled-out. You could sit on a tropical beach sipping cocktails to this. But it all feels so aimless, like George just pulled the vocal out in one take over a swirly soup of guitar and synths, and then shoved a load of auto-tune on it.

This was never going to be good as New Order's True Faith. But I was yearning for something so much more here. It's a shame because if this was a track on its complete own right, it'd be fantastic. But as with all cover versions, there is always that danger of comparison. Ahhh well, shove a big fat dance beat underneath it and it'll sound amazing.

George Michael, please do True Faith justice...

So, what we know: George Michael is doing a song for Comic Relief, but the best thing is that it'll be a cover of New Order's 1987 hit True Faith. Now, New Order are in my top five favourite bands of all time and True Faith is one of my favourite singles of theirs, so I'm really, really hoping George can do proper justice to the track. I haven't been this excited about a Comic Relief single since Girls Aloud and The Sugababes released their cover of Walk This Way. Good ol' Red Nose Day obviously has a fancy for classic 80s hits.

Anyway, please could this be more like the amazingness that was Rihanna sampling New Order's Blue Monday on Shut Up And Drive and not some boring middle of the road Radio 2 friendly re-hash of the track. George himself has brought out some great dance-pop tracks in the past so please can his True Faith cover continue in this tradition.

Oh, and all the proceeds from the single go to charity, which is always nice.

True Faith is released 13th March.

The Pierces - You'll Be Mine

The Pierces’ Love You More EP was one of my favourite collections of tracks from last year so I approached their new single with a little trepidation, not sure if they’d ever be able to live up to their previous glories. Thankfully though, their new single You’ll Be Mine allays all fears. It’s stunning. Again, love provides the theme for the girls’ folksy, poppy hybrid sound.

There’s a beautiful sun-kissed Balearic feel to the song; it speaks of long blazing days in the Mediterranean sun, and even longer nights relaxing on the beach as the waves rush into the shore. There’s touches of New Order’s classic Republic album here and more than a dash of Empire of the Sun’s We Are The People. Driven by a tuneful acoustic strum and delightful music-box-esque sparkle, the melodies are spot on, with a charming little refrain that will stick right in your head. As with the Love You More, this is utterly bewitching, demanding constant repeat listens.

You’ll Be Mine is released on 7^th March.

Chapel Club - Palace

When a band releases their debut album, it is all about first impressions. This is the big time, your chance to convince the masses you are worth investing in. And as debut albums go, Chapel Club’s Palace is a profoundly good one. The band’s guitarist Michael Hibbert says of the album that it is about “not being afraid to be too ambitious. We wanted to take the grandeur and force of the lyrics and make a record that resonates on a large emotional scale.” And he’s spot on. Palace is an album that builds itself around ambition and grandeur, and it succeeds.

There’s touches of early New Order and Echo & The Bunnymen here, particularly on Blind Light and Five Trees respectively, but only at their more guitar-orientated moments. Chapel Club are not a synth band. Instead they specialise in hefty post-punk guitar hooks - the tracks are powerful, big; certainly more weighty than contemporaries like White Lies, who their sound shares more than a lot in common with. Songs like After The Flood are atmospheric, explorative pieces; an experiment in just how many sounds you can pull out of a guitar.

As an album, Palace paints a bleak, modern landscape, a place of harsh, mechanistic sounds. Rhythmic basslines, thundering drum beats, wailing guitar lines. When you listen to this album, it is almost as if you are dropped into a factory-like labyrinth of sonic qualities and made to pick your way out. But the important thing is that this is a pleasurable experience, for the deeper you look into these songs, unpacking the towering wall of sound that manifests itself in tracks like White Knight Position, the more you get from this album.

The Shore has a more cinematic quality to it, the potential soundtrack to countless slick, American TV drama’s. You can almost picture a stark, rain-lashed cityscape now as you listen to the track. This is music to think to, and at six minutes long, there is ample thinking time provided. Reaching the second half of the album, the aforementioned Blind Light stands out again and again as a highlight. Indeed, it is refreshing to see that Palace, as an album, bucks the trend that so many albums fall prey too: starting well, only to trail into mediocrity in the second half. And with the sense of atmosphere Chapel Club create, consistency lends itself even more to ensuring a complete listening experience.

iTunes are currently offering O Maybe I from the album as their free single of the week.

Starlings - Weight In Gold

Starlings explode onto your stereo with a blistering blend of glossy synths, Duran Duran-esque basslines and the energy to match any of their contemporaries. Weight In Gold is a stunning debut for the Sheffield based band, the track hypnotising in its beauty and the shimmering catchiness of its chorus before tripping effortlessly into a twinkling guitar solo.

Fans of New Order and Delphic will find lots to love here, but what marks Starlings out in their own right is the organic feel to their music; it feels alive, fresh, more ‘human’. The band’s Facebook page describes them as ‘cosmic indie funk’, and there really could be no more perfect description than that. All the elements are there, capturing the essence of why Starlings hold so much potential to appeal to the masses.

There is most definitely a sense of ‘spaciness’ to there songs, that feeling of a fast expanse that their music flows into, a space of unlimited potential just waiting to be tapped into. ‘It’s a long, long way to fall, when you hover above us all’: a snatch of lyrics from the chorus, and when the Starlings sound as good as this, we’re all ready to fall further and further alongside them.

Released 20th December

Hot Chip, Bernard Sumner & Hot City - Didn't Know What Love Was

Quirky electronic hit-makers Hot Chip and New Order frontman Bernard Sumner - from the opening bars of this track (an exclusive free download from converseblog.com), you know it’s a combo made in heaven.

Trippy piano chords and retro synths abound in this dancey slice of pop joy that could have come straight out of the early 90s. Sumner’s vocals gel perfectly with Hot Chip’s and the chorus is insanely catchy, transporting you away to drink laced neon nights and the glamour of the dancefloor.

Didn’t Know What Love Was is easily a contender for the best thing Hot Chip have put their name to and equally, it’s refreshing to see such a musical icon as Sumner fitting in so effortlessly with a new musical generation. He’s certainly lost none of the spark that saw him propell New Order to the upper reaches of the charts time and time again in the 80s and 90s. Oh, and did we forget to mention that this track is free to download? Definitely one to get your hands on.

Out now

Summer memories of a favourite album...

It’s safe to say that New Order’s ‘Republic’ is in my top 10 favourite albums of all time. A couple of years ago I went on holiday to the south of France and this was one of the few albums I had on my iPod. On those long, lazy summer days, I listened to it again and again and it never grew old or boring.

Fantastically consistent, it more than deserves the Number 1 chart placing it achieved back in 1993 and sees the band striking the perfect balance between the rock/dance fusion that came to define them. Brilliant production values, well crafted lyrics and unforgettable melodies - Republic has it all. Maybe it’s the album cover itself with its image of a gloriously hot tropical beach juxtaposed against a raging fire, or maybe its the delicate lightness of the tracks themselves, but every time I listen to the album now I’m taken back to that summer of a few years ago.

The best music will always be the music that comes to mean something to you in some form or other, and for me, this album, and the lead single Regret in particular, does that more than most. And for that, it’ll always hold a special place in my heart.