New Order‘s 2015 album Music Complete was very much a return to the group’s new wave roots.
But while the band’s classic tracks were filling the dance floors of Manchester clubs in the 1980s, the youth of East Germany stifled under a conservative communist regime.
Despite the tumultuous cultural and political climate of the time, the music of punk and new wave acts like New Order was still present. Highly influential on German youth culture both sides of the wall, the music served as an inspiration for generation of underground artists and sowed the seeds of the cultural resurgence which would later come.
The new video for Music Complete track Singularity pays homage to this chapter in Berlin’s history.
Culled from footage taken from the 2015 documentary B-Movie: Lust and Sound in West Berlin 1989 – 1989, the clip showcases a series of grainy yet arresting images.
The film itself is a collage of footage captured and sourced by fellow Manchester artist Mark Reeder to reflect on his time in West Berlin. Reeder also released music via New Order’s Factory Records label and toured with the band during the 1980’s.
Showcasing underground gigs, individual and collective acts of public defiance as well as some more mundane scenes, the video certainly leaves a visceral impression of Berlin life.
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