I found this article recently on the True Faith/1963 sessions. It’s all from Stephen Hague’s perspective so I expect Peter Hook would tell a different story but it’s an interesting read all the same:
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Not a fan of Hooky as a person really but it’s very impressive to think how much of That Bass Sound had an impact on the band itself, 80s pop music and beyond. It’s very rare a musician can define their own sound so explicitly that you’d immediately know it was them just by the tone or texture of their instrument.
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Also notable what Hague says about Gillian being really professional and easy to work with which is in direct contradiction to what Hook has said
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I agree but I can also see Bernard’s frustration at needing to have ‘obligatory’ bassline melodies rather than following where a composition is going. Just one of those things.
One of my favourite quotes was from around the time Music Complete came out, and she was interviewed and they said something like “you aren’t on all the new order albums” and she replied saying “I’m on all the good ones”. Go Gillian!
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It does seem to fade out very early, particularly considering it then just stops anyway which makes it completely unnecessary.
Anyway, seems… OK… I guess. I can’t say it does a huge amount for me but it’s not terrible. It is quite generic pop on a first listen. I can’t say I was desperate to hear it again when it finished, although made it through the ‘Edit’ which seems to be pretty much identical but shorter. (Er… I guess that is what edit means…)
Reminds me ever a bit of Tasty Fish in the build-up but not as good.
I’ve always felt like New Order and Joy Division songs always took forever to click with me for some reason, and Electronic for that matter. So we’ll see but not confident so far. Particularly not as Spotify churned up Age of Consent next which obviously blows it away.
Don’t know if it would be a bit weird for a New Order song to have a Peter Hook bassline if he’s not in the band. Would feel a bit like the Pixies when they came back and it sounded just like Kim Deal was doing backing, but it turned out to be somewhere entirely different… and a man.
It’s a grower. Gone from it passing me by to really enjoying it. Very uplifting track.
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yes Gill
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This is amazing
Really enjoying the PCL re-issue. That Peel session still sounds not of this world, not of the world they went on to inhabit either…
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Movement 39 years old today. So there you go.
Need to listen to part 3 of the Transmissions podcast. Enjoyed the first two episodes.
Really enjoying the Transmissions podcast.
Led me to go back and listen to Closer and Unknown Pleasures - they really are quite spectacular records.
I always preferred ‘Unknown Pleasures’ to ‘Closer’, however, i’m beginning to realise just what an amazing record ‘Closer’ is. ‘The Eternal’ followed by ‘Decades’ at the end…wow.
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Decades is often overlooked I find - probably because it’s inexplicably never been on any of the best of compilations or possibly because you should only hear it in the wider context of Closer. I dunno! But one of theirvery best songs I reckon.
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On Transmissions, it is very apparent the entire aesthetic of Factory and its artists was built on the working class aspiration of not wanting to have to get a proper job.
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funny, I was reading an early interview with Robert Smith there and he was expressing similar sentiments about The Cure.
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Yeah, same. For years (decades) I rated Unknown Pleasures over Closer, but revisiting the albums recently I wondered why I ever thought that.
Still think that the Substance compilation (CD version, with the “Appendix”) is better than both, though. I’m aware that remains a controversial opinion.
Yeah, you are probably right about ‘Substance’ as they are one of those bands where the albums don’t tell the whole story. A lot of their best songs weren’t on either album such as ‘Digital’, ‘Transmission’, ‘Dead Souls’, ‘Atmosphere’, ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ & ‘These Days’.
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Substance is a compilation album released 8 years after the bands demise. It’s content is phenomenally good and covers historically their span superbly well.
No criticism, and if it’s your favourite then that’s fine - but I would suggest as a work of aural art most people will go with the studio albums.
Unknown Pleasures is a 10/10 album I feel, yet Closer is better than it, so fragile yet powerful like no other album. Closer crosses a line and at times, dependant on the listener not the album - becomes more than music.
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To be fair I feel this way about Underworld, and Underworld are one of my favourite acts. It might be because I had the best of for years before getting any of the other albums and I just got used to hearing those tracks in that order. Also a damn fine compilation too, much like Substance
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