Monaco

When New Order entered a period of inactivity following their 1993 release Republic, bassist Peter Hook carried the ensemble’s sonic identity and ethos forward with him. His earlier venture Revenge encountered scathing reviews and commercial indifference, yet Hook revisited the New Order approach he had helped define by forming Monaco with guitarist and vocalist David Potts in 1996. Potts had first joined Hook’s studio staff as tape operator in 1989; three years afterward Hook invited him to supply guitar parts for Revenge’s Gun World Porn EP. On Monaco’s 1997 debut Music for Pleasure, Hook applied the brooding intensity long associated with his Joy Division and New Order work and ceased distancing himself from that legacy. The widely praised album closely mirrored a New Order record in character. Hook’s signature throbbing bass lines re-created the post-punk and pop synthesis that distinguished New Order, rendering the project’s opening single “What Do You Want From Me?” frequently indistinguishable from the parent band in listeners’ ears. Potts’s delivery likewise suggested the cool reserve of New Order frontman Bernard Sumner. The track secured modest airplay on alternative stations, and Music for Pleasure surpassed 500,000 copies sold. With New Order’s continuation in doubt, Monaco occupied the dance-rock space left open by the group’s absence. Although Music for Pleasure brought no sweeping innovations, its material proved more infectious and affecting than many expected, prompting journalists to wonder whether Monaco might endure as a permanent unit. Polydor Records nonetheless ended the band’s contract on grounds of insufficient commercial viability. The label also declined the self-titled follow-up album, which Papillon eventually issued in 2000. After Monaco disbanded in the late 1990s, Hook rejoined New Order for the 2001 album Get Ready.