JOY DIVISION: WARSAW (1977-1978; 1994)
1) The Drawback; 2) Leaders Of
Men; 3) They Walked In Line; 4) Failures; 5) Novelty; 6) No Love Lost; 7)
Transmission; 8) Living In The Ice Age; 9) Interzone; 10) Warsaw; 11)
Shadowplay; 12) As You Said; 13*) Inside The Line; 14*) Gutz; 15*) At A Later
Date; 16*) The Kill; 17*) You're No Good For Me.
General verdict: Well, why not go
back in time for a change and see Joy Division as punks rather than post-punks?
Most of the songs on this album were well known
to audiences in 1994 — some from Unknown
Pleasures, some from singles and EPs gathered on Substance, some from outtakes captured on Still — but all of these versions actually go back to the infamous
«RCA Sessions», held by the band in May 1978. The twelve tracks in question
were supposed to be their first LP, still provisionally titled Warsaw, despite the band already having
changed its name to Joy Division. However, things fell through, allegedly due
to the band being disappointed with the label's post-production, and although
the tracks had been in active bootleg circulation for decades, it was not until
1994 that the record was legally licensed and released by MPG Records.
Naturally, the release itself was a cash-in,
considering the unending demand for new Joy Division product, somewhat offset
by severed lines of communication between Earth and Ian Curtis. But! In
retrospect, this is a brilliant cash-in, and it is awfully sad, really, that
this album will always count as an archival document and not as a legit Joy
Division product — because not only is it pretty damn good, it also completes
the picture in such an effective way as could never be provided by a Still-level or even Substance-level compilation.
Simply put, this is a coherent, comprehensive,
and detailed portrait of Joy Division in their infancy — a sort of Please Please Me that only hints at the
greatness to come, but this bare hint has a fresh, raw, innocent charm of its
own. This is the stage when Joy Division were still a gritty punk band, a stage
when Hook, Sumner, and Morris played brutally and aggressively, a stage when
Curtis was yet far away from developing his deep Morrison-style voice,
preferring to growl and bark in a much higher, much more punkish pitch. True
enough, at this stage they had not yet found their unique voice — but hey, they
could rock, and the tight, tense, no-nonsense grooves that dominate the album
are nothing to sneer at.
I shall not give detailed comments on the
individual songs, considering that most of them had been previously discussed
one way or another (or not discussed if I did not think they merited special
discussion). I will just say that, although the production values throughout
are fairly rough, the sound will very much satisfy all those who find problems
with Hannett's production and like to hear their Joy Division crisp and
powerful, rather than drenched in echo, reverb, and other New Wavish
technological effects. I myself reserve judgement, but damn if it isn't at
least interesting to hear ʽShadowplayʼ and ʽInterzoneʼ as thick, crunchy
rockers with Stooges-like guitar tones (in fact, I have only just realized that
ʽInterzoneʼ is a straight-ahead tribute to Fun
House, and could fit on that album like a glove). And no electronic gloss
on the drums! and not in a piss-poorly recorded live setting! No, this record
definitely has some nifty reasons to exist.
In addition to the RCA Sessions, the album goes
even deeper in time and throws on five demo tracks from 1977 (back when the
band was still named Warsaw) — the first known examples of studio recordings
made by the team, with predictably shitty quality but even more reminiscent of the Sex Pistols and other punk pioneers.
Actually, ʽGutzʼ, with its insane tempo and undecipherable screaming, might be
as close to hardcore as Joy Division ever got — two minutes of all-out blasting
stupidity, but loaded with charming determination. Truthfully, most of this
stuff is rudimentary and derivative shite, but even The Beatles used to be The
Quarrymen, and the greater you get, the more fascinating is your backstory.
Cutting a long story short, Warsaw is an absolute must-own for any
Joy Division fan, and will be particularly pleasing to those who share the
band's own opinion — that Hannett's production sold short their
rock-the-house-down abilities. Of course, back at the time this only reflected
the narrowness of the band's vision, what with Hannett pushing them into the
next decade and the next dimension of musical sound; but now that the age of
technological innovation (or, at least, specifically New Wave-related
technological innovation) is long past, we have a right to look at these songs from
another angle — and somehow, it is nice to know that there was a time when they
were brimming with the energy of raw anger and frustration, rather than
imploding from within with the internalized energy of doom and depression.
Hi will you review New Order next? (at least the first few singles/records to note the transition to an Ian-less group)
ReplyDeleteThe Stooges song "Penetration" is another clear reference point for Joy Division, the riff sounds very Sumner-esque. There was always this weird art-rock dimension to the Stooges, it's like they were so idiotic that it could only have been high-concept art, like that ten-minute spoken-word thing on their first album situated between such timeless poesy as "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "No Fun." No wonder that many actual art-rockers saw them as an influence; I guess it speaks to the genius of Sumner/Hook/Morris that they could turn that primitive caveman rock to this purpose.
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