answer me: New Order "Run 2" Warners mixes

For a record that never got released in America, the US record company sure got a lot of internal mileage from this.



New Order's "Run 2" was the final single released from their 1989 bestseller Technique. UK label Factory released 20,000 copies of the 12" and only pressed up 500 copies on 7", for promotion only. "Run" minus the "2" appendage is the original version as it appears on Technique; American producer Scott Litt (known for his longtime association with R.E.M.) remixed and restructured it, hence "Run 2".

Then John Denver got involved.

Denver (or his lawyers) thought that "Run 2" ripped off "Leaving On A Jet Plane" and so sued the band. The case was settled out of court, and since then every New Order release since then that contains "Run" (or "Run 2") credits the song to the band and John Denver / his publishing company. For the official released versions I strongly suggest to wait for our friends over at the Recycle blog to get around to it in their release schedule (I've heard the preliminary mastering and folks, it's a must-grab once they post it, by far the best transfer I've ever heard from this notoriously noisy and poor pressing). The 12" version released in 2008 as part of the Technique deluxe edition is poorly mastered, at best.

But back to the reason you came.

I have NO idea if this record ever saw a release scheduled in the USA. American label Qwest/Warner Bros. ultimately never did release the single, to this day the only official avenue Stateside for the 7" mix is via the A Collection DVD (a Rhino DVD collecting the band's videos, it used the 7" "Run 2" mix). However, in-house listening pre-mix and mix candidate copies of all the tracks on the eventual FAC 273 12" ("Run 2", "Run 2 extended version", "MTO", "MTO minus mix") were circulating on cassette in California, the Warner Bros. offices, in summer 1989.

The majority of these mixes have not seen the light of day until now. 20 years later, I think it's safe to assume that the label won't give two shits about these being out. I have to thank the unnamed for these fantastic transfers, they are really interesting to listen to, they sound great, and while I think the best mixes were used on the release there are some mixes from the June cassette that are really good as well.

Please note that the overloaded bass distortion in parts of track 6 was there on the original transfer as well - which is a shame because if not for that, it would top the vinyl version in terms of less sibilance/noise.

These were all taken from original WB cassettes, which themselves were dubbed from either DAT or reel sources. I've cleaned them up as best I could and for the most part what you have here is release-quality, no 3rd-gen muffled recordings these are.

So enjoy, lossless FLAC even!


NeworderRun2MTO
Warner Bros. in-house cassettes

CASSETTE ONE
June 26 1989 "FROM DAT SOURCE"



01 Run 2 (7" edited master) 3:38
02 Run 2 (unedited old arrangement) 4:12
03 Run 2 (instrumental) 4:27


CASSETTE TWO
July 14 1989 "IN HOUSE STUDIO"



04 Run 2 (7" original) 3:40
05 Run 2 (7" remix) 3:40
06 Run 2 (12" mix) 5:25


CASSETTE THREE
August 10 1989 "FROM REEL SOURCE" "IN HOUSE STUDIO"



07 MTO 3:47
08 MTO minus mix 5:30


Spread across three RAR files, must get them all... Part I / Part II / Part III

enjoy!