September 11 [16:00 EDT] -- Monaco, whose single "What Do You Want From Me" is the first off their album Music for Pleasure, is the second side-project from Peter Hook, New Order's founding bassist.

Hook developed a reputation for distinctive bass-manship after his 1979 debut with Joy Division, a short-lived yet celebrated post-punk band.

Joy Division broke up after frontman Ian Curtis hung himself in the basement of his Macclesfield, England, home. The surviving members -- guitarist/vocalist Bernard Sumner, drummer Stephen Morris, and Hook -- recruited Gillian Gilbert and formed New Order, which gained acclaim for deeply melancholic synth-pop.

With New Order on indefinite hiatus following 1993's Republic, Peter Hook, like his bandmates, busied himself with side projects. He enlisted former Revenge bassist David Potts for Monaco. Their collaboration produced Music for Pleasure, an album widely-praised for its New Order-isms. Hook's nimble bass playing powers tunes without assistance from a guitar; Potts sings at times just like New Order's Bernard Sumner. Still, a certain elation separates Monaco from New Order.

"Instead of making music that makes you want to jump off a building and kill yourself [like New Order]," noted Detour magazine, "Hook now makes music that makes you want to jump back and kiss yourself."

Surely that's progress.

• Monaco