![]() ![]() There’s a great deal of tension and release, and I think the guitar playing is some of Bernard Sumner’s finest work. Even the bass line is really staccato, but the first note is held, which is crucial. “I think their best song is Transmission. It was just muscle memory from playing it a lot. Ironically, it’s not one of my favourite Joy Division tracks. I went back and realised it was the bass line that I’d learned when I was younger. Michael and Fyfe said it was a brilliant riff but I said I wasn’t sure where it was from. We had eight tracks and Chris Sheldon came to the studio and we were just jamming. TRANSMISSION (single, 1979) “It’s not Isolation! The Isolation cover happened during the writing of Troublegum. Peter Hook has called this his favourite track and I can see why, but it surprisingly hasn’t got much Hooky-style bass playing in it.ġ. ![]() It’s unlike many other Joy Division tracks. Before I did this list, I listened to it again and it gave me goosebumps in the first bar. It was so cinematic and devastatingly beautiful. I was going through a few personal things I didn’t know what was going on in my life, where it was going, not sure who my friends were… and here’s a posthumous release by my favourite band in the whole world that I wasn’t expecting. I felt like I couldn’t breathe because I was overcome with the whole track. It’s just two chords over and over again, very minor, very solemn. It was one of those few moments in music where I thought I was going to have a panic attack. It was one of those records where I didn’t buy into the whole post-death thing, but the very first time I heard this was in the living room at my mum and dad’s house. ATMOSPHERE (Substance, 1988) This was released posthumously. Some bands at the time would use a cowbell, but they’d use a synth drum. There’s a disembodiment in the sound and the instruments are all pulling at different places and it gives the sense of someone on the floor having a fit. It’s about Ian Curtis witnessing a girl have an epileptic fit. What’s lovely about the original version, there’s a echo on at the end of Curtis’ lines, which warps the vocal and gives a complete sense of dislocation. It’s also got a Can-like trance-like guitar riff. That’s one of the things I loved about Peter Hook’s playing is that it was quite fearless. ![]() My forays up to and past the 12th fret were not appreciated. They were jamming their own stuff and I was told to leave my attentions above the fifth fret at home. I started to play with local bands and remember jamming with a rock band who did covers. It got me into a lot of trouble because it was one of the first ones I’d ever learned. SHE’S LOST CONTROL (Unknown Pleasures, 1979) It’s got an amazing bass line. From Safety To Where has been under-looked but there’s a great deal of worth in peripheral tracks like this.Ĥ. People were used to hearing the Pistols and the Damned, then here’s this band from Manchester with this sparse-sounding song. It has this lilting feel to it and very little guitar, which is brave. It’s got that sense of something around the corner that could be unmanageable. That reminded me of the enigmatic authority of someone like Harold Pinter or Jean-Paul Sartre. There’s this line: ‘Just passing through, ‘til we reach the next stage, but just to where, well it’s all been arranged’. It settles into a hypnotic dub groove and Ian Curtis at this point hadn’t quite found his feet, so there isn’t that introspective pondering he did later on. I know there was an awful lot of dub reggae doing the rounds in 1979, and a lot of punks would listen to it to chill out from their speed-fuelled mayhem. FROM SAFETY TO WHERE (Substance, 1988) This song opens with something like a Joe Lally dub reggae bassline – but this was way before Fugazi. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.ġ1. The latest news, features and interviews direct to your inbox, from the global home of alternative music.
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