LTM Recordings

Section 25 \ Retrofit [LTMCD 2548]

Recorded before the untimely death of Larry Cassidy in February 2010, Retrofit saw cult Factory Records band Section 25 revisit key tracks from their extensive back catalogue, remade and remodelled for the 21st century using an appropriate mix of new and old technology.

Issued on vinyl for the first time in 2023, this edition of Retrofit is limited to 500 copies only pressed on orange coloured vinyl. A bundle containing all 4 vinyl reissues (FBN 130, 135, 140 and 145, plus a bonus copy of the FBN 124 live package) is also available.

The CD and digital version of Retrofit also includes exclusive track, Uberhymn, a remix of Garageland, and closes with a pulsing re-boot of Looking From a Hilltop by New Order member Stephen Morris.

Cover art by Beth Cassidy.

Vinyl tracklist:

A1. The Process
A2. Looking From a Hilltop
A3. Beating Heart
A4. Reflection (Young Image)
B1. Dirty Disco
B2. Girls Don't Count
B3. New Horizon
B4. Wretch

CD + digital tracklist:

1. The Process
2. Looking From a Hilltop
3. Beating Heart
4. Desert
5. Uberhymn
6. Garageland
7. Dirty Disco
8. Girls Don't Count
9. New Horizon
10. Wretch
11. Another Hilltop (Morris Mix)

Available on vinyl and digital (MP3 and FLAC). To order vinyl please first select correct shipping option (UK, Europe, Rest of World) and then click on Add To Cart button below cover image. Digital copies are supplied to customers via link sent by email.

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

Reviews:

"A shiny Teutonic stomp! Looking From a Hilltop is a dreamy electro pop peak, with a whooshing new dance mix from New Order's Steve Morris" (Uncut, 10/2010)

"Audacious and innovative" (Record Collector, 01/2011)

"For the last three years S25 haven't put a foot wrong, and even in adversity seem to come up with the goods. The tour de force here is Stephen Morris' almost techno style reworking Another Hilltop - if this version doesn't make you want to dance, nothing will" (www.strummerlive.net, 09/2010)

"A declaration of interest: for me, Section 25 might just be the best band in the world. Since 1980 they've been forging music that is as beautiful as it is challenging, from the monochrome psychedelia of their first album through Zen guitarscapes, electronic epiphanies, the arguable invention of acid house, and on to an unexpected rebirth in 2006. Even within the narrative of such an unusual band, Retrofit is an odd confection: not a best-of or remix album but a retrospective in which tracks are re-recorded, re-tooled and entirely re-modelled into gleaming techno sculptures with the most human of hearts. Beth Cassidy takes the songs her mother sang and transcends the weight of expectation to reinvent them, but it's her father Larry who remains the soul of the band - the sage who realised the old can again become the new. His death, shortly before this work was finished, was another artistic and human tragedy for Section 25. Retrofit stands testament to his genius" (Glasgow Herald, 09/2010)

"The idea is admittedly an odd one although in this instance it seems wholly appropriate. Gathered here is a selection of nine Section 25 faves. re-recorded and re-thought. The idea is born from their invigorating live set - compelling use of technology to lift them (almost) free from the familiar shards of 80s underground. Shockingly, this new attack works. It's impossible not to hone in on the sharp remix of Looking From a Hilltop, twice featured here although the it is the closing number, re-touched by Stephen Morris, that truly sets the tone for a Euro-tinged future. There is more. Dirty Disco is a near perfect evocation of the darkness of English small-town hedonism while Garageland, again, is carved from northern existential wandering. All this tightening appears to have tugged the band into a sense of Now, even if their sometimes clunky musicality remains gloriously at odds with the contemporary norm. If that sounds rather confused, so be it. But, as ever, it is a rare and workable confusion" (The Quietus, 09/2010)

"Like Little Boots' switched-on grandparents, the formerly doom-laden Factory electro-dancefloor auteurs have produced an infectious swirl of post-modernist motorik. Where Ian Curtis-produced 1980 debut single Girls Don't Count was once a dirge, here it's been glossed up to sound not unlike one of Saint Etienne's dubbier, clubbier moments, while a remix of Hilltop by Stephen Morris is pure techno flashback. Old-school on many levels, then, but pulsatingly sublime nevertheless" (The List, 10/2010)

"Retrofit is something more than a curio, instead being a new statement of purpose that also proves to be an unintentional valediction" (AllMusic, 10/2010)

"SXXV long ago creatively eclipsed their contemporaries. Their vision has remained intact, encased within successive releases. They operate outside the media circus, caring little for reviews or mainstream recognition. Retrofit is completely modern music. It replaces the old, with the new. It's brilliant, and will offer me countless hours of listening enjoyment" (www.sharoma.com, 12/2010)

"Embraces nostalgia head on, and this time I love it" (Cyclic Defrost, 12/2010)

"Blackpool's finest have found the fountain of youth" (The Big Takeover, 04/2011)