Technique

Technique was recorded in 1988, first on Ibiza and then at Real World Studios near Box in Wiltshire, and released by Factory Records in January 1989. New Order produced it, Michael Johnson engineered, and Alan Meyerson mixed it. Sumner wrote all the lyrics.

Sumner said the band felt they had to keep playing with dance-electronic rhythms and so reached a compromise, since they were still writing band music as well. Hook joked that the record was an epic power struggle between the sequencers and himself. He had urged the move to Ibiza after a series of records made in London studios described as dark and horrible. Gilbert remembered it as the start of the band no longer being in the studio together, as in 'you do your drums today, and I'll do the vocals tonight'. After four months on the island, with the album about 20 percent complete in Sumner's estimate, they moved to Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios, which Sumner called a much more sober atmosphere.

Three singles came from it: Fine Time on 28 November 1988, Round and Round on 27 February 1989 and Run on 28 August 1989. Hook said Technique is not an Ibizan dance record but catches a summer sound, and Morris said it had an end of term, last day of school feel. An instrumental Vanishing Point was used on the BBC series Making Out.

It was the first New Order album to reach number one in Britain, and it reached 32 on the US Billboard 200. It went gold in the UK, the US and Canada in 1989. Melody Maker's Chris Roberts called it a rare and ravishing triumph. BBC Music's Ian Wade called it a New Order ready for the next decade, and Pitchfork's Tom Ewing wrote that it is magnificent and drenches the full-band sound of Brotherhood in good Ibiza vibes. In 2006 Q placed it at number 21 on its list of the 40 best albums of the 1980s, and NME ranked it 122nd on its 2013 list of the 500 greatest albums. It is in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.