New Order, timeless style: Blue Monday recorded with instruments from the 1930s
16 January 2023
New Order's Blue Monday was released in March 1983, and its cutting-edge electronic groove changed pop music forever. If it had been made 50 years earlier, what would it have sounded like? Watch masked musicians Orkestra Obsolete play the song using authentic instruments available in 1933: the harmonium, Diddley bow, singing wineglasses, dulcimer, Theremin and musical saw. Banish the January blues and marvel at a classic as you've never heard it before.
Orkestra Obsolete: Blue Monday
What would New Order's classic have sounded like in 1933?
The Instruments
Diddley bow
Hammered dulcimer
Harmonium
Zither
Musical saw
Singing glasses
Theremin
Prepared piano
Slit drum
Dulcitone
Other instruments
The history of Blue Monday
Blue Monday by New Order is the biggest selling 12” single of all time.
“I don’t really see it as a song. I see it as a machine designed to make people dance.”New Order's Bernard Sumner
It was created using a hand-built Powertron Sequencer, driving a Moog Source synthesiser and an Oberheim DMX drum machine.
Clocking in at seven and half minutes, it is one of the longest songs ever to grace the UK singles chart, peaking at No. 9 in 1983 and at No. 3 when it was re-released in 1988.
The original artwork, designed for Factory Records by Peter Saville, was famously so expensive to produce that the label lost money on every sale.
Related Links
More from BBC Arts
-
Picasso’s ex-factor
Who are the six women who shaped his life and work?
-
Quiz: Picasso or pixel?
Can you separate the AI fakes from genuine paintings by Pablo Picasso?
-
Frida: Fiery, fierce and passionate
The extraordinary life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, in her own words
-
Proms 2023: The best bits
From Yuja Wang to Northern Soul, handpicked stand-out moments from this year's Proms