Speaking of England, I don't think anyone from the UK has posted on this thread.
I have the feeling that the British members are looking for something exotic so therefore they pick American stuff instead of their local stuff. The same rule applies to you: you're looking for a cultural and popular work from another world. Keep in mind that some British people are fascinated by the Italian way as a sheer fantasy.
I love the scene in 24 PARTY PEOPLE when we first see the members NEW ORDER - standing next to their synthesizers. I wish the film had more about them and less about that mediocre group noone has ever heard of bruce
"Peter Hook's bass carried the melody, Bernard Sumner's guitar left gaps rather than filling up the group's sound with dense riffage, and Steve Morris's drums seemed to circle the rim of a crater." Sumner described the band's characteristic sound in 1994: "It came out naturally: I'm more rhythm and chords, and Hooky was melody. He used to play high lead bass because I liked my guitar to sound distorted, and the amplifier I had would only work when it was at full volume. When Hooky played low, he couldn't hear himself. Steve has his own style which is different to other drummers. To me, a drummer in the band is the clock, but Steve wouldn't be the clock, because he's passive: he would follow the rhythm of the band, which gave us our own edge."
~ Joy Division: Someone Take These Dreams Away, Mojo Magazine. July 1994.
This absolutely mesmerizing rendition of "She's Lost Control" which, as Bernard Sumner says in his remarks at song's end, they hadn't played in twenty-five years "for obvious reasons."
Speaking of England, I don't think anyone from the UK has posted on this thread.
I have the feeling that the British members are looking for something exotic so therefore they pick American stuff instead of their local stuff. The same rule applies to you: you're looking for a cultural and popular work from another world. Keep in mind that some British people are fascinated by the Italian way as a sheer fantasy.
It's just a matter of opinion of course, but the moment the lads from Manchester cut an abortive album attempt in March 1978 which included one of their signature tunes, "Shadowplay" could technically count as the start of the Joy Division sound, but for my money, Joy Division emerged from a half-assed punk-inspired quartet to something unique in October 1978 with "Digital." The punk ethos was there but Ian Curtis' abstract lyrics managed to be personal, too.
An excellent book of iconic Joy Division photographs by Kevin Cummins that no book could truly contain. One gripe: the omission of this iconic photograph of Ian Curtis and Bernard Sumner in thoughtful conversation. At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, its omission is inexcusable!
Ahhhh, but it's not a Kevin Cummins photograph, but that of Anton Corbijn, another chronicler of exquisite artistic touch and taste.
While I don't embrace the "Death Cult" that surrounds singer Ian Curtis, the imagery of the posthumous video for "Atmosphere" is beautifully and chillingly rendered but it still makes me uncomfortable, as does the deification of anyone.
The warlike drums and ominous bass lines and jagged guitar and buzz saw effects of produce Martin Hannett introduce the band's most intense composition, Atrocity Exhibition which has never been a fan favorite but it is of THIS fan. It's another of Ian's "walking through time" efforts like Dead Souls, Wilderness, and to a lesser extent Interzone. Author J.G. Ballard was an influence on Curtis' lyrics and what I call the "Hell-is-Earth" concepts.
The off-kilter rhythm and apocalyptic, nightmarish, horror-show lyrics; I was always haunted by the line "Behind his eyes he says I still exist." This song was never better than when performed live. The best version I've ever heard is the one from London's Nashville Rooms on September 22, 1979. Curtis added a different coda and it's blistering and raw in its pain, something which was absent in the studio version, which opened the "Closer" album.
Asylums with doors open wide, Where people had paid to see inside, For entertainment they watch his body twist Behind his eyes he says, 'I still exist.'
This is the way, step inside. This is the way, step inside. This is the way, step inside. This is the way, step inside.
In arenas he kills for a prize, Wins a minute to add to his life. But the sickness is drowned by cries for more, Pray to God, make it quick, watch him fall.
This is the way, step inside. This is the way, step inside. This is the way, step inside. This is the way, step inside.
This is the way. This is the way. This is the way. This is the way. This is the way, step inside. This is the way, step inside. This is the way, step inside. This is the way, step inside.
You'll see the horrors of a faraway place, Meet the architects of law face to face. See mass murder on a scale you've never seen, And all the ones who try hard to succeed.
This is the way, step inside. This is the way, step inside. This is the way, step inside. This is the way, step inside.
And I picked on the whims of a thousand or more, Still pursuing the path that's been buried for years, All the dead wood from jungles and cities on fire, Can't replace or relate, can't release or repair, Take my hand and I'll show you what was and will be.
Joy Division- "The 1980 album Closer - the band's last record before the death of singer Ian Curtis - included the track Atrocity Exhibition, a chilling glimpse into psychosis. The track is based on Ballard's 1970 short-story collection The Atrocity Exhibition, in which a psychotic mental hospital doctor tries to make sense of world events surrounding him. Curtis had written most of the song before reading Ballard's book, but the song - anchored round the oppressive chorus "this is the way, step inside" - is still heavily informed by Ballard's tale of a man restaging world events in his mind."
~"What pop music tells us about JG Ballard" (BBC News Magazine April, 2009)
Back in the days of cassettes in cars - around 83/84, I put together a 45 minute version of Blue Monday on one side of a d-90 - made up of original version and the 12 inch long version, instrumental, and various other edits - it made for a rather wicked extended listen. I lost count of the times I drove about Essex with windows and sunroof open in the capri blasting that one out!! (Only ever did that through the country lanes, mind - always turned it down a bit in the high streets!!)
Back in the days of cassettes in cars - around 83/84, I put together a 45 minute version of Blue Monday on one side of a d-90 - made up of original version and the 12 inch long version, instrumental, and various other edits - it made for a rather wicked extended listen. I lost count of the times I drove about Essex with windows and sunroof open in the capri blasting that one out!! (Only ever did that through the country lanes, mind - always turned it down a bit in the high streets!!)
Did you have a mullet and wear white slacks? Love the stories of the Billy Carson of yore.
One of the great, underrated New Order songs despite its appearance on the hallowed Power, Corruption, and Lies is "Ultraviolence".
No Jimbo, thankfully no mullet, mate. But leaning on the bonnet of me capri up the pub with my deconstructed jacket with the sleeves pulled up, I could easily have been mistaken for Don Johnson waiting for a drugs bust.
If it was dark.
Miss you on the football thread mate! I will let you call it 'Premiership' if you promise to come back !!
Funny how '80s "hip" ages worse than any other decade, and that includes the much-maligned '70s! Masculinity took a dive in the '80s. Except for you, Bill.
Love the mournful bass and keyboards at the beginning. Peter Hook was what made New Order unique. No one else sounds like him on bass. What I love about it is it's lyrically downbeat--for me personally it is extremely sad--but also beautiful. It's also Bernard Sumner being less vague but also not giving the game away, as it were. For years I went back and forth between "True Faith" and "The Perfect Kiss" as my favorite NO songs and ultimately decided it was True Faith. "The Perfect Kiss" is a shimmering pop jewel but a bit too "cute" lyrically sometimes, whereas "True Faith" conveys a feeling of sadness and beauty. Once again all of this is just my personal view.
Peter Saville's art for the single is classic, as well.
In 1988, New York "No Wave" band SWANS began an evolution--some would say softening--of their sound which began with their 1987 album Children of God and that artistically-rewarding phase continued with well-regarded covers (all of which will be faithfully chronicled here) of the hallowed "Love Will Tear Us Apart"--but which took this Joy Division devotee decades to finally appreciate and this coming from a massive Swans admirer...
