Part
1: The Music
Moving through the silence without motion
Moving through the silence without motion
by Kilian
There
was a galvanizing word on the street shaking English postwar youth,
straight in meaning, short in sound and drastic in aftermath: punk. A
legendary Sex Pistols gig in 1976 in Manchester is said to
have inspired most visitors to found a band
themselves. Impressed by this do-it-yourself-mentality young
Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner invited twenty-year-old Ian Curtis and
drummer Stephen Morris to their recently set up ensemble. At the
early beginnings one went with the flow of unwashed and rough
rebellion of the no future wave. When the band recorded their first
EP An Ideal for Living punk was the most influential root of
their early sound, although there were already David Bowie and
Iggy Pop at the back of their minds. The quartet named Warsaw
after the David Bowie song Warszawa subliminally strived
for a musical style beyond punk rock but didn't have a concrete
concept regarding this vague intention yet. Such hidden treasures are
known to grow in the musical and mental underworld of continuous and
progressing activity. The time had not been right yet at this point
but finally came in the course of the band's increasing popularity in
the region of Manchester, accelerated by the television appearance in
prominent music reporter Tony Wilson's show. He later founded the
very important label Factory Records and contracted the four,
who now called themselves Joy Division.
Abandoning
the punk routine the gate was open to what should later become a
prototype of the novelty called post punk. With swapped roles bass
player Peter Hook undertook melodies in high
bass octaves while the distorted
staccato rhythmics of Bernard Sumner's guitar delivered the
projection screen for Stephen Morris' perfectly fit in and thus
unobtrusive drums. Over this rhizome of common harmonies, solid
accentuations and spheric timbre Ian Curtis' vocals rose in a now
much darker and deeper baritone voice. In contrast to the
“post”-mentality employed on records the band still indulged the
spirit of punk on stage, scuffles and brawls included. This strange
ambiguity must be seen against the background of punk's overall pop
cultural character. What was it if not a transitional phenomenon or more
radical a turning point in popular music which emerged in large parts
out of the conflicts within English society, namely as a working
class youth cultural protest. Breaking with traditions of the 70s colourful and complex
progressive rock, space rock as well as glam rock epics - punk prepared the 80s with its
clean synthie-pop and basically bridged a gap. Despite all social
and cultural implications worth mentioning in a contemporary history
of the second half of the twentieth century punk can be seen as a
merely mediocre musical period which gained its most importance
through the following artistic movements it paved the way for. Joy
Division populated this innovative borderland between punk and its
counter-rebellious colonies. Many difficulties and potentials of such
a constellation were experienced in the further development of the
band.
A
key role in this process is attributed to Factory producer Martin
Hannett. Recording the first full length album Unknown Pleasures
in 1979 he extracted the essence from the noisy aggression of the
live performances and refined it to the sound later to be known as
post punk. Although the band was at first dissatisfied with Hannett's
transfiguration he got the others to agree. Thus we owe Joy Division
as we know them to a great extent to his production channelling their
brilliance in the act of recording. He called it an “incredible
depth” that could be gained from the powerful but vague live gigs.
In the studio he upgraded the songs with unpretentious synthesizers
and employed sophisticated techniques of recording to enable a deep
soundscape. Hannett meticulously separated every instrument and even
single parts of the drums during the recording procedure to create a
clean clarity which resulted in a completely new tone. Reverberating
and at the same time razor-sharp in the foreground, muffled and
blurred in the background and with conjuring vocals that rose over
the whole instrumental spectacle this was the decisive sound of Joy
Division. The album made history in pop music radiating on bands to
come and inspiring generations of musicians.
After
the resounding Unknown Pleasures the second studio album
refined the musical mechanisms of its predecessor. Closer was
as deep and spheric as the first album, but in contrast to it thicker
and more dense (the staccato articulated Colony) and more
experimental (the distraught opener Atrocity Exhibition).
Synthesizers were employed more dominant making the second track
Isolation a musical bonfire albeit the song's lyrics suggested
a completely different mood. In accordance to this paradox Curtis'
slowly babbling baritone voice was sporadically surrealistically
distorted. Reverb added to the drums put
them in balance with the stringed instruments. Peter Hook's bass
still dominated as a melody maker (e.g. in the impulsive Twenty
Four Hours), while Bernard Sumner's guitar emphasized its loud
roots in rock music. More aggressive and greedy than on the
predecessor the rudiments of punk were still audible (A Means to
an End) thus as well contributing melodies to the songs.
Ultimately the album ended up in the long tracks The Eternal
and Decades through which the dark and acherontic atmosphere
became Joy Division's figurehead.
sources
of pictures:
Tube by Anton Corbijn:
http://badcoverversion.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/joyd.jpg
Cover of Unknown Pleasures by Peter Saville:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b5/Unknownpleasures.jpg
Band:
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/28455823/Joy+Division+JD2.jpg
