> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.unknowndivide.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Factory Records: A Starter Guide to 10 Essential Records - URL: https://www.unknowndivide.com/factory-records-starter-guide-essential-albums/ - Published: 2026-08-27T21:56:43.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-06T15:52:42.000Z - Description: Ten records that explain Factory Records, the Manchester label that gave the world Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays and The Haçienda. - Author: unknowndivide staff - Tags: Music, #signal No record label has ever been more stylish about losing money. Factory Records was founded in Manchester in 1978 by the television presenter Tony Wilson and the actor Alan Erasmus, and for fourteen years it operated on instinct, handshakes and an almost reckless belief in art over commerce. Producer [Martin Hannett](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin%5FHannett?ref=unknowndivide.com) gave its records their cavernous, haunted sound. Designer [Peter Saville](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter%5FSaville%5F%28graphic%5Fdesigner%29?ref=unknowndivide.com) gave them a visual identity that designers still study. The label famously gave catalogue numbers not only to records but to posters, films, a lawsuit, a nightclub and eventually Wilson's own coffin. The music was good enough to justify all of it. These ten releases are where to start. *Unknowndivide may earn a commission from purchases made through links in this guide. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.* ## Joy Division: *Unknown Pleasures* (1979) The debut album that defined Factory before Factory knew what it was. Joy Division recorded *Unknown Pleasures* with Hannett at Strawberry Studios in Stockport in April 1979, and it was released that June. Hannett surrounded Ian Curtis's baritone with space, delay and an eerie stillness, turning a punk band into something colder and far more unsettling. Saville's sleeve, a plot of radio waves from a pulsar printed white on black, has since become one of the most recognised images in music, and the album still sounded current enough to reach No. 5 on the UK chart when it was reissued in 2019. [Get *Unknown Pleasures* on vinyl](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XILAIWI?tag=unknowndivi02-20&ref=unknowndivide.com) ## The Durutti Column: *The Return of the Durutti Column* (1980) Released in January 1980, this was the first in a long series of records by guitarist Vini Reilly, whose delicate, echoing instrumentals sound nothing like the rest of the post-punk era. It is also the purest example of Factory's attitude. Early copies came in sleeves made of coarse sandpaper, a nod to the Situationist book *Mémoires*. The sleeves were assembled by hand by the band and their labelmates. Inside, the music is gentle, which is exactly the point. [Get *The Return of the Durutti Column* on vinyl](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FT85R8XH?tag=unknowndivi02-20&ref=unknowndivide.com) ## Joy Division: "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (1980) Released in June 1980, a month after Curtis's death, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" became the band's signature song. It pairs one of the most hummable melodies in the Factory catalogue with a lyric of quiet devastation. In 2002 the NME named it the greatest single of all time, and it has since been certified double platinum in the UK. Start here if you only have four minutes. [Get "Love Will Tear Us Apart" on vinyl](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHL2LQKB?tag=unknowndivi02-20&ref=unknowndivide.com) ## Joy Division: *Closer* (1980) Joy Division's second and final album arrived on 18 July 1980, two months after Curtis died. Hannett's production is even more spacious and ornate than on the debut, with synthesizers creeping into songs like "Isolation" and the slow, funereal grandeur of "The Eternal" and "Decades." It reached No. 6 in the UK and was named Album of the Year by the NME. It is a difficult record to hear without thinking about what happened, and an impossible one to forget. [Get *Closer* on vinyl](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XILAHX8?tag=unknowndivi02-20&ref=unknowndivide.com) ## A Certain Ratio: *Sextet* (1982) ![A Certain Ratio's singer performing with a microphone and percussion at Wide Awake Festival](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/41/254117cc-2631-4fb7-9f78-fa31eac12f1a/content/images/2026/10/factory-records-starter-guide-a-certain-ratio-sextet.webp) A Certain Ratio at Wide Awake Festival. Photo: Paul Hudson / [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A%5FCertain%5FRatio%5Fat%5Fthe%5FWide%5FAwake%5FFestival%5F%2851425862882%29.jpg?ref=unknowndivide.com) ([CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0?ref=unknowndivide.com)) A Certain Ratio formed in 1977 and were among the first acts on Factory, releasing "All Night Party" in 1979\. Where Joy Division went inward, ACR went toward the dance floor, mixing post-punk guitars with funk rhythms, Latin percussion and jazz horns. *Sextet*, released in January 1982, was their first album not produced by Hannett, and it spent 11 weeks at No. 1 on the UK Indie chart. It is the missing link between Factory's dark early years and the club culture the label would later help create. [Get *Sextet* on vinyl](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M8FNRSB?tag=unknowndivi02-20&ref=unknowndivide.com) ## New Order: "Blue Monday" (1983) ![Black and white photo of a New Order member playing guitar on stage at the SFX in Dublin in 1983](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/41/254117cc-2631-4fb7-9f78-fa31eac12f1a/content/images/2026/10/factory-records-starter-guide-new-order-blue-monday.webp) New Order at the SFX, Dublin, 1983\. Photo: Luke Brehony / [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2.%5FNew%5FOrder%5Fplaying%5FSFX%5FDublin%5F1983.jpg?ref=unknowndivide.com) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0?ref=unknowndivide.com)) After Curtis's death, the surviving members of Joy Division became New Order and embraced sequencers, drum machines and the New York club sound. Released as a 12 inch single on 7 March 1983, "Blue Monday" is often described as the best-selling 12 inch single of all time. Its die-cut sleeve, designed by Saville and Brett Wickens to resemble a floppy disk, was so expensive to produce that Factory lost money on early copies. Wilson blamed the label's "strange accounting system." Nobody involved seems to have regretted it. [Find "Blue Monday" on New Order's *Substance* on vinyl](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHTZ9KB5?tag=unknowndivi02-20&ref=unknowndivide.com) ## New Order: *Power, Corruption & Lies* (1983) New Order's second album, released on 2 May 1983, is where the band fully found itself, balancing guitars and bass with synthesizers on songs like "Age of Consent" and "Your Silent Face." Saville's sleeve put a Henri Fantin-Latour painting of roses alongside a colour-coded alphabet in place of a title, and it was later chosen for a Royal Mail stamp in 2010 celebrating classic British album covers. It is the best single introduction to New Order. [Get *Power, Corruption & Lies* on vinyl](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002CW4K7S?tag=unknowndivi02-20&ref=unknowndivide.com) ## Happy Mondays: *Bummed* (1988) ![Happy Mondays performing in front of a large glowing video screen](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/41/254117cc-2631-4fb7-9f78-fa31eac12f1a/content/images/2026/10/factory-records-starter-guide-happy-mondays-bummed.webp) Happy Mondays on stage, 2006\. Photo: Stig Nygaard / [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Happy%5FMondays%5FJune%5F30%5F2006.jpg?ref=unknowndivide.com) ([CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0?ref=unknowndivide.com)) If Joy Division were Factory's conscience, Happy Mondays were its id. Their second album, released on 21 November 1988, was produced by Hannett, who wrapped Shaun Ryder's slurred, surreal lyrics and the band's loose funk grooves in a woozy psychedelic haze. The album even samples dialogue from the cult film *Performance*. *Bummed* is the sound of Manchester discovering acid house in real time, a little before the rest of the country caught up. [Get *Bummed* on vinyl](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0829FD88R?tag=unknowndivi02-20&ref=unknowndivide.com) ## New Order: *Technique* (1989) Released on 30 January 1989 and partly recorded in Ibiza at the height of the Balearic boom, *Technique* is the record where New Order brought the energy of acid house into the album format without losing their melancholy. "Fine Time" reached No. 11 in the UK, and the album became the band's first No. 1 in Britain. It still sounds like a perfect summer that knows it has to end. [Get *Technique* on vinyl](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002CW4K8W?tag=unknowndivi02-20&ref=unknowndivide.com) ## Happy Mondays: *Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches* (1990) The peak of the "Madchester" era. Released on 5 November 1990 and produced by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne, two names straight from the rave scene, the album turned the Mondays into chart stars. "Step On," a cover of John Kongos, became one of the defining singles of the period. Two years later, Factory itself was gone, declaring bankruptcy in November 1992 after expensive recording sessions by both of its biggest bands. This is what the party sounded like before the bill arrived. [Get *Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches* on vinyl](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GWNCHB56?tag=unknowndivi02-20&ref=unknowndivide.com) ## The Haçienda and beyond To understand Factory, it helps to understand [The Haçienda](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FHa%C3%A7ienda?ref=unknowndivide.com), the Manchester club the label ran with New Order. It opened in 1982, was heavily subsidised by the success of "Blue Monday," helped bring acid house and rave to Britain, closed in 1997 and has since been demolished and replaced by apartments. The best dramatised version of the story is Michael Winterbottom's [24 Hour Party People](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24%5FHour%5FParty%5FPeople?ref=unknowndivide.com), which received its own Factory catalogue number. The full history is collected on the [Factory Records](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory%5FRecords?ref=unknowndivide.com) entry, and New Order still tour and release music through [neworder.com](https://www.neworder.com/?ref=unknowndivide.com). For more British electronic music shaped by the same era, read our pieces on [The Orb](https://www.unknowndivide.com/the-orb-auntie-aubreys-excursions-beyond-the-call-of-duty-pt-3/) and [Fluke](https://www.unknowndivide.com/fluke-the-second-bite/), and if you want to hear these records on a proper system, our guide to [finding a real listening bar](https://www.unknowndivide.com/listening-bars-are-everywhere-now-heres-how-to-find-a-real-one/) is the place to start. Factory lost money on almost everything it did. History has decided it was worth every penny. More in our [Electronic Music Labels hub](https://www.unknowndivide.com/electronic-music-labels/).