Denise Johnson, the Manchester-born singer whose soulful voice lifted the music of Primal Scream — most memorably on Screamadelica — A Certain Ratio, New Order and more has died at the age of 56, according to U.K. press reports and musicians she’d worked with. No cause of death has been announced.

This is a round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs. All releases due out this Friday unless noted. May also include some other titles released in recent weeks but not previously featured. This week’s titles include a Depeche Mode box set.

A pair of legendary Manchester musicians — New Order’s Bernard Sumner and The Smiths’ Johnny Marr — shared the stage in Athens, Greece, on Sunday for a one-song reunion of their former band Electronic, performing the 1991 single “Get the Message.” Watch it right here.

After missed opportunities at a pair of U.S. shows booked around Coachella this past April, it finally happened: Bernard Sumner joined Johnny Marr on stage in England tonight for a one-song Electronic reunion as the duo performed their 1989 single “Getting Away With It” during the ex-Smiths guitarist’s slot opening for New Order.

Johnny Marr surprised fans in San Francisco on Saturday night by pulling an old friend on stage: Billy Duffy of The Cult, who joined Marr and his band to rip through “I Fought the Law,” the 1958 classic by The Crickets’ Sonny Curtis popularized first by the Bobby Fuller Four and then The Clash.

This week sees the release of brand-new studio albums from OMD, Big Country (with Mike Peters of The Alarm) and The House of Love, plus reissues from Morrissey (‘Kill Uncle’) and Electronic (‘Electronic’), a live album from Sparks and a new 7-inch single from The Fall.

The 1991 self-titled debut from indie supergroup Electronic — featuring New Order frontman Bernard Sumner and guitarist Johnny Marr of The Smiths, with the occasional assist from Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant — will be reissued in the U.K. next week in a 2CD expanded edition.

Johnny Marr will follow his previously announced U.K. solo tour with an 18-date North American run in April and May that’s built around his appearances at the two-weekend Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival — and which includes dates with New Order in Las Vegas and Santa Barbara, Calif.

The 1991 self-titled debut from indie supergroup Electronic — featuring New Order frontman Bernard Sumner and guitarist Johnny Marr of The Smiths, with the occasional assist from Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant — will be reissued this spring in a 2CD special edition featuring eight previously unreleased bonus tracks.

The folks at 24 Hour Service Station, who are putting out Peter Hook’s Freebass project here in the U.S., will provide three lucky Slicing Up Eyeballs readers with a copy of the band’s debut CD, ‘It’s a Beautiful Life.’

Tweet The two studio albums by The Other Two — the New Order spinoff featuring husband-and-wife team Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert — will be […]

Bad Lieutenant, Bernard Sumner’s brand-new New Order spinoff, has announced its first-ever live dates this fall in the UK and France, as well as plans […]

With Peter Hook having acrimoniously split from New Order, the rest of the legendary synthrock act has enlisted Blur bassist Alex James for a new […]

Today’s London Observer features an interview of the Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe by Johnny Marr, who’s played on a number of […]