It's all quiet on the Western front here. Now since I'm one to usually break the silence, and the fact I've got nothing better to do a small public service announcement, if you will. And my message is: The Shadowplayers on DVD today!

Shadowplayers is a new DVD documentary showing the history of Factory records from 1978-1981. So we're talking Joy Division(for all you mad goths out there!) and early New Order, Cabaret Voltaire, ACR, Section 25 etc. The film is composed of interviews of the people in and around Factory records at the time, people like Tony Wilson, Peter Hook, Peter Saville and more, quite simply talking about almost every single thing of importance to happen between 1978-81, from the Factory sampler to the rise of Joy Division(and what happened after that) and beyond.

Now this film which obviously isn't a multi-million pound project, is very well done by LTM Recordings, who has released many(if not most) albums from bands that recorded on Factory before they went under in the early 90s - barring of course the really big stars, such as Joy Division/New Order and Happy Mondays. I totally recommended checking out the LTM catalogue as they have some awesome gems in there(Peter Hook's mid-New Order band Revenge for instance, which has a two disc re-release of their LP One True Passion, which includes so much extra stuff on it it's unbelievable. Okay I'll admit I've not picked it up yet, but I do have the original release which is great, more can only make it greater!)

I've finished plugging this film now, and sorry for the big spiel about it, but I just found this film fascinating and I figured some people who read this might not now about it and may enjoy it. You can pick it up at the LTM Recordings website at http://www.ltmrecordings.com as well as all of their currently pressed re-releases, or for a little less archaic ordering system you can also try the excellent Boomkat at http://www.boomkat.com (while you're there I suggest you pick up dubstep master Skream's newest double slab of vinyl Skreamism vol 2 and/or A Guy Called Geralds new album Proto-Acid: The Berlin Sessions for those who like their acid house style beats.) Peace!

- Ian (who again apologises for this advert.)