Fac. Dance: Factory Records 12-Inch Mixes and Rarities 1980-1987

VINYL FORMAT. Strut present an essential new retrospective of Factory Records, the seminal Manchester club-turned-record label set up by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus. Compiled by Bill Brewster of djhistory.com, the album places the spotlight on some of the label's early dancefloor-based work across key 12" mixes and rarities, from the unmistakable productions of Martin Hannett to more unheralded backroom work by New Order's Bernard Sumner and A Certain Ratio drummer Donald Johnson, under their BeMusic and DoJo monikers.
The album traces early experiments from Blurt's avant garde mutant funk to the fertile post-Joy Division period as the label's unique, coruscating post-punk sound took shape through seminal bands like A Certain Ratio and Section 25. The album also expressly documents Factory's strong links and cross-pollination with New York's 1980s club culture, as New Order joined forces with producer Arthur Baker, fresh from his pioneering electro work with Afrika Bambaataa, and acts like Quando Quango and Sweet Sensation's Marcel King enlisted NY remixer Mark Kamins for tough-edged club treatments.