Today, Peter Hook (Born Peter Woodhead) of Joy Division and New Order turns 66 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.
Producer/composer Phil Western (Download/PlatEAU/...) passed way on this day, 3 years ago.
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
Darkwave act, NEONPOCALYPSE, brings a smile to the end of days with new EP, '-ish'
NEONPOCALYPSE, the first ever solo project by Then Comes Silence frontman Alex Svenson, releases its first EP, -ish.
Svenson explains that the six-track NEONPOCALYPSE EP fulfils a personal as much as a musical need: "I needed to fix my mind on something else. The band takes up a lot of my time and this is just a side project to find a new input... and a new output.”
The music by NEONPOCALYPSE is the end of days to a swell tune with a zippy beat. If the world is going under, enjoy the beautiful scenery and suck carefully on the last joyful moments... with a smile on your lips.
Tracks like, "Broken Circles' blend sounds similar to John Foxx and Simple Minds, yet with an unmistakably modern twist, thanks as much to Svenson’s familiar velvety croon and strong sense of melody. Others like "Game Over" and "Lips And The Light" pay homage to early industrial and 80s synth scene artists.
-ish is available now on limited edition CD and digital formats via the Swiss Dark Nights label.
Siren Song” is the fourth EP and X-IMG debut of Argentine producer & DJ Dominique Slva. With a background in classical music and violin she fuses a sophisticated blend of broken beats, supernatural textures, crystalline melodies, ethereal vocal cut-ups and intricate percussion to create a dream like work consisting of 5 original tracks. As she explains: “Siren Song is an attempt to distance myself a bit from the dancefloor tracks, the idea was to make something more mysterious and not rigidly grounded into reality or the typical club format.” It also includes is a remix of the track “Lovers Cannot See” by SARIN.
Release is planned in the beginning of March 2022.
On INTO THE ANCIENT, Grammy-nominated recording artist Peter Phippen explores the gleaming mystical sonorities of ancient and modern flutes. Within a 12-track album of haunting new age world music, Phippen and co-producer / synthesist Ivar Lunde Jr. offer a captivating collage of the flutes’ translucent chimerical whisper and subtle electronic sound images. It's a shimmering panorama illustrating the gauzy veil of perception that separates our present state from the airy world of the spirits.
