Today, Peter Hook (Born Peter Woodhead) of Joy Division and New Order turns sixty-three-years of age. Celebrating his career in music is near impossible with respect to the remarkable success he achieved with the aforementioned bands, however that moment in time at the start of his career may perhaps be the place that sums up Hooky the best. Something he has taken to revisit in recent years with his band Peter Hook And The Light, again touring the individual albums this year which will see him perform the albums Technique and ‘Republic’ in their entirety. Keeping the flame burning brightly as his own unique support act at all shows where he performs a selection of Joy Division numbers in his own faithful style.

Transmission

The pulsing bass , the thunder of the drums, the synthesiser and bass working perfectly as a unit, and then Ian Curtis singing in his low-larynx-gothic projection;
"When the routine bites hard
And ambitions are low
And the resentment rides high
But emotions won't grow",

'Love will tear us apart', perhaps one of the most memorable songs by Joy Division,their calling card,released posthumously after Ian's death.The lyrics a mirror of his frame of mind and his failing marriage to Deborah(Deborah Woodruff).

To say one song was all there was to Joy Division,that they can be defined by three minutes and eighteen minutes of dark thumbing brilliance or even their two studios albums of perfect surreal-starkness-,'Unknown Pleasures' 1979 and 'Closer' 1980.
The metamorphosis that happened with New Order does not define anything that happened before either.

Joy Division were a sum of everything that was good about Punk and 70s music in general. Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and certainly David Bowie and his Berlin era, with 'Low' and 'Heroes' an inspiration, after all pre-Joy Division were called Warsaw taken from the Bowie song of the same name.
But Curtis injected his own vision and distinctive voice to it, Joy Division have influenced so much about today's modern music from The Cure to Radiohead.

Manchester

One of the biggest influences on the Manchester scene was the infamous gig by the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall on the 6th-of -June 1976 as part of the Anarchy tour. In the audience that night were, apart from Curtis, future members of the Buzzcocks were present, whose founder member Pete Shelley organized the gig and even opened for the Pistols. But more importantly to the story the two founders of Factory Records Martin Hannet and Tony Wilson. On a side note however. also present and influenced was Mark E. Smith of The Fall, Mick Hucknall of Frantic Elevators and much later Simply Red and one Steven Patrick Morrissey, who would form The Smiths. The influence that one night had on the late 70's and early 80's music industry is staggering.

The goth-injected, controlled passion of Joy Divisions second and final album 'Closer',is in essence a brilliant rock album, some have gone as far to say the best rock album of the-eighties. Released posthumously on July-the-18th 1980 almost two months after the death of Ian Curtis.
Unloved by Sumner and Hook, unhappy again with Martin Hannets mix, very hard to imagine why as Hannet, both genius and madman, has managed to merge the bands sound into a more positive and melodic experience than on 'Unknown Pleasures'.

Peter Hook and New Order exist as two separate entities now, but their sound is rooted as it always will be very much in the past.

Phil Western (°12 August, 1971, † 9 February, 2019) was a producer/engineer/composer and programmer who has been active in music for close to 20 years and has close to 40 albums released to date.

He is known for his collaborative work with his close friend Cevin Key (Skinny Puppy) in the electronic music projects like Download and PlatEAU, as well as his own solo albums, many of which have been released on his own label, The Record Company. His production and engineering work includes remixes for Skinny Puppy, Nine Inch Nails, Monster Magnet and many others.

May he rest in peace.
DISCOGS

Punk, at the very beginning was an expressionist- revolution, a reflection of the failings within society delivered perfectly and directly through the simplest forms of music.
Whilst true for most punk bands which sprang up in the late nineteen-seventies, for Belfast’s Stiff Little Fingers it is true more so than any other. The second-of-February this year marks forty-years since the release of their incendiary debut ‘Inflammable Material’.

What better way to celebrate than looking at the beginnings of Stiff Little Fingers and the core of one of the most explosive Irish albums of the twentieth-century.

Starting life as a Deep Purple covers band was never going to resonate with what they felt inside, the broken concrete landscape of Belfast was a perfect muse for their frustrations.
Formed in-1977, Stiff Little Fingers consisted of:Jake Burns vocals and guitar, Ali McMordie guitar, Henry Cluney on bass and the man who introduced them to punk Brian Faloon on drums.
A false start but a historic one, as the deal signed with Island Records fell through they had to rely on a new indie-label. On the fourth-of February 1979 ‘Inflammable Material’ became SLF’s first album and the first album distributed by Rough Trade Records, though it went one better and became the first independently released album to chart in the UK, hitting a peak of number 14.

This is a musical-observation into the heart of a dangerous time, an angst ridden dialogue between Jack Burns and the listener, with a very direct eyewitness report from the ground. This was art colliding with realism in its finest form.
Although not a concept album as such but it does tell a very real story. ‘Inflammable Material’ serves as a time capsule which could be dug up in a hundred-years time to show the perspective of that youth culture. Any common thread connecting these tracks becomes very obvious to the listener.

The album is an honest and unrestrained view of what the band members had witnessed as everyday aspects of Northern Ireland, where reality is central and not escapism. This is not an album packed with love songs or romantic themes to get lost in, the landscape this release presents is submerged in war and those caught up in the tense crossfire.

“Inflammable material, planted in my head
It's a suspect device that's left two thousand dead
Their solutions are our problems
They put up the wall
On each side, time and prime us”- Suspect Device

Kevin Burke-Jan 2019

Front Line Assembly will release their first new album in almost six years early 2019. Having rejoined the group in 2016 in a touring capacity, 'Wake Up The Coma' also marks the studio return to FLA of Rhys Fulber, thus reuniting him with founder member Bill Leeb in the duo line-up that has already made so many classic electronic records together.

Musically, 'Wake Up The Coma' sees FLA continue to push the envelope of the electro-industrial genre that they helped to define. A teaser single from the record entitled 'Eye On You' featured Robert Görl of DAF (one of Leeb's earliest influences), while the album also includes guest vocal appearances from Nick Holmes of Paradise Lost on the strident title track, Chris Connelly (Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Cocksure) on the Bowie-ish 'Spitting Wind' and Mindless Self Indulgence frontman Jimmy Urine on a surprise cover version of Falco's 1986 no. 1 smash hit 'Rock Me Amadeus'. A reference to Leeb's own Austrian heritage, perhaps?

A video for 'Rock Me Amadeus' is available now. Directed by Jason Alacrity, who himself has roots in industrial electronic music and has shot clips for the likes of Skinny Puppy and Combichrist, it features Urine performing half-rapped, half-sneered verses in German over a relentlessly oscillating bass line and exudes Teutonic cool, albeit in a kitsch 80's way. In red-rimmed shades and skinny pinktie, Urine appears, Max Headroom-style, on an old Sony CRT TV. There are laser lights, old-school threads and vintage video effects, plus a rotating bust of Mozart under Miami Vice lighting. Despite this, the clip feels contemporary and is the ideal accompaniment for a reanimation of a classic pop number that always gets listeners singing along.

This month it’s 30 years since Vancouver Industrial / EBM band Front Line Assembly released their third studio album Corrosion (February 1988), or fifth full length if we count in two self-released tapes Total Terror and Nerve War which were released earlier in 1986. It was their first release on Third Mind/Wax Trax! with PIAS (Play it Again Sam) manufacturing and distributing the Third Mind issue in Europe.

At this time Front Line Assembly was Bill Leeb only, while Michael Balch acted as producer and Dave 'The Rave Olgivi mixed some of the tracks. Third core member Rhys Fulber would join the band one year later, in 1987 and become Leeb’s right hand until this very day.

This eight track album captures very well the dark, almost claustrophobic, sound and atmosphere of Front Line Assembly before their ‘breakthrough’ with Gashed Senses & Crossfire (1989). A perfect stylistic blend between early Cabaret Voltaire and Front 242 but with a more American / Wax Trax industrial sounding touch.

The album received a 7/10 in the NME (New Musical Express) and was favoured by Melody Maker Magazine.

Tracklist for Corrosion:
1) Lurid Sensation
2) Right Hand Of Heaven
3) Concussion
4) On The Cross
5) Conflict
6) Controversy
7) Dark Dreams
8) The Wrack Part III - Wisdom
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