Section 25 - From the Hip

Release date: 9/12/2025

4xCD box. 53 tracks.

Factory Benelux presents an expanded 4xCD box set remaster of From The Hip, the pioneering 1984 electro album by cult Factory Records group Section 25, produced by Bernard Sumner of New Order.

Recorded at Rockfield Studio during the summer of 1983, From The Hip was the band’s third album for Factory, and the first to pursue a more accessible musical direction, thanks largely to new members Jenny Cassidy and Angela Flowers joining Larry and Vin Cassidy and Lee Shallcross. It marks the only time that Bernard Sumner agreed to produce an entire album for another artist, falling between the classic New Order albums Power Corruption & Lies and Low-Life.

Adopting state of the art Roland electronics, on From the Hip Section 25 graduated from barbed post-punk to smooth electronic pop, much of which prefigured techno and house styles, and spawned an enduring club/dance hit in the blistering Megamix version of Looking From a Hilltop, remixed for 12” by Sumner and Donald Johnson of A Certain Ratio.

The original 1984 album appears on Disc 1, newly remastered by Peter Beckmann, along with the Megamix and Restructure versions of Hilltop, along with non-album singles Beating Heart and Dirty Disco II.

Disc 2 features newer Hilltop remixes by Stephen Morris, Wrangler and Outernationale, as well as a BBC radio Kid Jensen session and the original 1983 album demos for From the Hip. Disc 3 collects together various electronic sketches and demo tracks from 1983 and 1984, plus several more remixes, while Disc 4 captures desk-recorded highlights from shows in Baton Rouge and Los Angeles during their North American tour in 1985, showcasing the hard sequencer patterns and TB-303 ‘bass squiggle’ later adopted as a signature sound of acid house.

The box and inner wallets reproduce the original iconic cover art by Peter Saville and Trevor Key, which features the cryptic colour-coding favoured by Saville at that time. The 16 page booklet contains liner notes by Jon Savage, Bernard Sumner, Vin Cassidy and Angela Cassidy.

Praise for From the Hip:

"This massively influential album from 1984 saw the Cassidy brothers work with producer Bernard Sumner to incorporate the electro beats and synth atmospheres of New Order into Section 25's doomy post-punk world view. Packaging for the new vinyl edition is top notch" (Mojo)

“Sampled by Orbital and The Shamen, From the Hip's trance states and 303 drum machines now sound like an accidental prototype for techno" (The Guardian)

"From The Hip saw Section 25 emerge as a new band with a new mandate, as half the album's songs prominently featured electro-funk drum machines and brightly-hued synthesizer leads. Looking From A Hilltop smuggles in a spiky machine rhythm from Kraftwerk under billowing layers of keyboards. Other aspects of the song now seem prescient: In Looking From A Hilltop (Megamix), a minimally reworked single version of the album cut, a squelchy, resonant bassline lies wriggling deep in the mix. A year later, Chicago's disco scene would be reborn as acid house thanks to this technique's telltale squirm." (Pitchfork)

“So ahead of the game that no-one knew how to play it" (Record Collector)

“Looking From A Hilltop is all forward motion. At 8 minutes, the Megamix isn’t a second too long. All the elements are subordinate to the irresistible Moroder-esque modulations, which give a framework over which the group and the remixers pour backwards synths, wailing rock guitar, and all manner of ambient routines. With this epic – one of the best tracks from a  great year for electro - - Section 25 finally achieved the grandeur they had always sought.” (Jon Savage)

4xCD box set tracklist:

Disc 1:

1. The Process 

2. Looking From a Hilltop 

3. Reflection 

4. Prepare to Live 

5. Program For Light 

6. Desert 

7. Beneath the Blade 

8. Inspiration 

9. Looking From a Hilltop (Restructure) 

10. Looking From a Hilltop (Megamix) 

11. Dirty Disco II 

12. Dirty Disco II (Pre-Mix) 

13. Beating Heart (12” Remix) 

14. Back to Wonder (12” Version) 

15. Beating Heart (12” Version)

Disc 2:

1. Looking From a Hilltop (BBC session) 

2. Reflection (BBC session) 

3. Warhead (BBC session) 

4. Another Hilltop (Stephen Morris Remix) 

5. Program for Light (Outernationale Remix) 

6. Looking From a Hilltop (Outernationale Remix) 

7. Reflection (Young Image) 

8. The Process (1983 demo) 

9. Looking From a Hilltop (1983 demo) 

10. Prepare to Live (1983 demo) 

11. Reflection (1983 demo) 

12. Desert (1983 demo) 

13. Program for Light (1984 vocal mix)

Disc 3:

1. Tchaiko 

2. Loving No-One 

3. Days Pass By 

4. Firefly 

5. Beating Heart (early mix) 

6. Back to Wonder (early mix) 

7. 4TMI 

8. Deus Ex Machina 

9. Slinky 

10. Sweet Forgiveness 

11. Desert (Shane Fahey Remix) 

12. Looking From a Hilltop (Wrangler Remix) 

13. Dirty Disco II (Portion Control Remix) 

14. Beating Heart (Absolute Body Control Remix)

Disc 4:

1. The Process (live 1985)

2. Looking From a Hilltop (live 1985)

3. Prepare to Live (live 1985)

4. Beneath the Blade (live 1985)

5. Inspiration (live 1985)

6. Reflection (live 1985)

7. Program for Light (live 1985)

8. Dirty Disco II (live 1985)

9. Crazy Wisdom (live 1985)

10. Desert (live 1985)

11. Boogie Beat (live 1985)