Today, exactly 39 years ago, Joy Division released their second and final studio album, Closer.
Today, exactly 39 years ago, Joy Division released their second and final studio album, Closer. It was released on 18 July 1980 on the renowned UK label Factory Records exactly two months after the tragic suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis (18 May 1980). Today, Closer is still considered as one of the major releases of the New-Wave and Post-Punk era.
The songs on Closer were drawn from two distinct periods. The earlier guitar-driven compositions like Atrocity Exhibition, A Means to an End, Colony, Passover and 24 Hours were written during the latter half of 1979. The other songs like Isolation, Decades, The Eternal and Heart and Soul were written in early 1980 and included more prominent use of electronics and synthesizers.
Regarding the album's lyrical content, Bernard Sumner recollected: "We'd go to rehearsals and sit around and talk about really banal things. We'd do that until we couldn't talk about banal things any more, then we'd pick up our instruments and record into a little cassette player. We didn't talk about the music or the lyrics very much. We never analyzed it”. Bernard also remembers Ian Curtis saying he was feeling strange because “he felt like all his words were writing themselves. He also said that he had this terrible claustrophobic feeling that he was in a whirlpool and being pulled down, drowning."
Closer was recorded between 18–30 March 1980 at Britannia Row Studios in London. It was produced by Martin Hannett. His production has been highly praised by the music press. However, as with their debut album, both Hook and Sumner were unhappy with Hannett's work. Peter Hook later complained that the track "Atrocity Exhibition" was mixed on one of his days off and when he heard the final product was disappointed that the abrasiveness of his guitar part had been laden with effects and toned down. He wrote; "I was like, head in hands, oh fucking hell, it's happening again. Unknown Pleasures number two... Martin [Hannett] had melted the guitar with his Marshall Time Waster. Made it sound like somebody strangling a cat, and to my mind, absolutely killed the song. I was so annoyed with him and went in and gave him a piece of my mind but he just turned around and told me to fuck off."
The album cover was designed by Martyn Atkins and Peter Saville, with a photograph of a Italian tomb on the sleeve. Designer Peter Saville commented that he, upon learning of singer Ian Curtis's suicide, expressed immediate concern over the album's design as it depicted a funeral theme, remarking "we've got a tomb on the cover of the album!"
Closer as a 12” vinyl album reached No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart. The Album was also chosen as Album of The Year by NME and is still placed highly in various top 10 lists like Best Album of the 80s (Slant Magazine, Pitchfork Magazine, Q magazine, …) and number two on Sonic Seducers “10 key Goth albums”. It got 10/10 review scores by Akk Music, NME, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone album guide, Select, Spin Alternative Record Guide, Uncut and the Encyclopedia of Popular Music
By 1982, the album had sold over 250,000 copies worldwide.
Shortly after this release the remaining members chose New Order as their new and future band name.
Closer
Side A
1. Atrocity Exhibition
2. Isolation
3. Passover
4. Colony
5. A Means to an End
Side B
6. Heart and Soul
7. Twenty Four Hours
8. The Eternal
9. Decades
All songs written by Ian Curtis, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner.
Electronic/Industrial Bass Artist SINthetik Messiah Announces The Release of Their Single 'Black Sheep'
(Features Hart Fortenbery of SyFy's "Deep South Paranormal")
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 11, 2019 - Cajun electronic/industrial bass artist SINthetik Messiah very proudly announces the release of their new single "Black Sheep." "Black Sheep" features the voice of Hart Fortenbery from the hit SyFy Channel show "Deep South Paranormal." Mixing and mastering was done by Joe Haze (Lords of Acid) and artwork was done by Rob Walden Design.
For fans of : The Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails & Rabbit Junk.
The concept behind the music:
"Black Sheep" is a term to describe a family member that just doesn't belong, the one that took a “different path.”
Hart Fortenbery of SyFy Channel's show "Deep South Paranormal" and Bug Gigabyte have been friends for many years. They are even known to have both of their bands do back-to-back sets together at many benefit shows in the south. A while back while drinking large amounts of whiskey at Hart’s humble abode, the Swamp Pop Palace, Hart and Bug started discussing the idea of doing a track together.
The beginning of “Black Sheep” has a snippet of that very conversation. With “Black Sheep” Bug Gigabyte was trying to musically describe Hart Fortenbery’s life; minimal yet complex in a way only a shaman can understand.
Bug also wanted to make the structure, sound design as well as the meaning of the track an indirect tribute to THE PRODIGY for their recent loss of Keith Flint. THE PRODIGY has been a major influence to Bug Gigabyte ever since the beginning of his musical career.
BIOGRAPHY:
Home-grown on the bayous of Louisiana, professional sound designer Bug Gigabyte has been the main composer, producer and sound engineer for SINthetik Messiah since the very beginning. Bug is known in Louisiana for creating Industrial Dubstep under his band name SINthetik Messiah. Recently the band was also named as one of the top rock acts in the Acadiana area (South Louisiana,USA) by The Times of Acadiana in 2019. SINthetik Messiah has also received radio play throughout the world on physical and digital radio stations.
Bug also started SMTV: SINthetik Messiah Television, a non-profit, art-based television program that helps give financial relief to art and music teachers in the Louisiana state public school system. SINthetik Messiah has also received recognition in both newspapers and digital publications for the benefit work they put back into the communities throughout the gulf coast of the USA.
soundcloud.com/sinthetikmessiah/black-sheep-feat-hart-fortenbery/s-si1xD
Electronic Act THE BRUTE: Announces New LONESOME HERO/AND I WANT YOU Split Single & Video
Electronic act, THE BRUTE: are very pleased to announce the release of their new "Lonesome Hero"/"And I Want You" and their new video for "Lonesome Hero."
For fans of David Bowie, Depeche Mode & Recoil
The double single "Lonesome Hero / And I Want You...“ is the debut from the group. The two songs contain echoes of classic electronic bands but given a more modern touch, made for a mainstream audience. Both songs come along with a mix of driving bass lines, atmospheric vocals and lyrics that gain new meanings with each listen.
""And I Want You" was a kind of a thank you to a muse that brought me back to life after a long and dark period. She brought me back to make music again."
"The meaning of "Lonesome Hero" is ironic. Many of us take ourselves too seriously or feel we are too important. Politicians, managers and sometimes your friends and even you put yourself into the centre of the universe. In fact, we all have our package. We all are the hero in our life and fight to survive every day, the tip girl at the diner on the next corner as well as the millionaire who fights to pay his staff each month. We all are lonesome heroes."
- Daniel Gierke
Biography:
The Brute : is an Electronica music group from Switzerland and Germany and combines progressive electronic sound with haunting vocals and a melange of synthpop, blues and rock influences.
Daniel Gierke, mastermind of the project, has been writing songs for many years. At the beginning of 2018, the idea arose to steer his musical ambitions into a new direction. The Brute: was born and in May 2018 the video "And I Want You...“ was released on YouTube. The positive response of the audience and friends encouraged The Brute: to continue working on new material.
The Brute: are in the studio right now for the upcoming debut album, which should be released in Autumn 2019.
We are happy to announce we have succeeded once again in compiling yet another printed edition of Peek-a-boo Magazine Issue #34
Read it online, download it for free or get a printed copy from your local dealer,concert or party!
Antwerp - BodyBeats Productions / Brussels - Le Fantastique / Ghent - Wool-e shop / Leuven - Bunkerleute & Depot / Retie - Dark Balloon / St-Niklaas - De Casino /Hasselt - Gothville / Germany - Infrarot
You can also subscribe here and get it in your snail-mail box at postal costs only!
Enjoy!
Reviews within this magazine
- CABINET OF MILLIONAIRES : Theresa, Vol.3 Ep
- CONTAINER 90 : Friendship and love
- DAVID J : The Auteur (Redux / The Starlet's Cut) Ft. Rose McGowan
- DEF ROBOT : Makers Of Mountains
- ENZO KREFT : Control
- HOCICO : Artificial Extinction
- L7 : Scatter The Rats
- LISA MORGENSTERN : Chameleon
- MASSIVE EGO : Church For The Malfunctioned
- MECHANIMAL : White Flag Single
- RADERKRAFT : Smart Control
- SIGNAL AOUT 42 : Insurrection
- THIS CAN HURT : Worlds Apart
- VEIL OF LIGHT : Inflict
- WISBORG : From the Cradle to the Coffin
Interviews within this magazine
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Founded in Cologne, Germany in 1985, Pink Turns Blue's groundbreaking blend of atmospheric dark pop informed by European post-punk contemporaries and the buzzing punk dissonance of Hüsker Dü (the band is named after the Zen Arcade song) immediately tapped into a new canon of sound that was foundational to the emergence of darkwave. Available for the first time on vinyl in 30 years, Dais is excited to announce reissues of the first and second albums: If Two Worlds Kiss and Meta - remastered and cut by Josh Bonati. Despite the commitment to their craft and initial grassroots success, securing label support proved difficult as they refused to sing in German and their sober tone lacked the shimmer of pop and optimism that executives felt formulaic to success. Still, the band persisted with the duo of Elbern and Jogwer sharing vocal duties and song credits, each informing the other's compositions until Elbern halved the song production and left the band in 1987. Continuing to perform and record as a three piece, the band eventually found roots with FunFactory!, an independent label based in Münster whose manager Axel Seitz shared the band's appreciation of the Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol's Factory vision, urging them to forego releasing singles and focus on a full-length. What followed was 1987's classic album If Two Worlds Kiss: a seminal offering to the canon of dark wave's DNA - a liquid lesson in melody, mood, and pacing - each track continuously adding to the journey like a unique push pin on a map of melancholy. Defined by their dynamic song-writing, their debut added a new urgency and depth to guitar-driven gothic rock by allowing fast songs such as the lead single "Walking on Both Sides" to possess the same sullen punch and melancholy as slower anthems like "When the Hammer Comes Down", which derives its power on the downbeat. More rhythmic variety is added through beat-driven dancefloor tracks with triumphant singalong choruses like "That Was You", showing they could swing hard - as well as swirl. A year later in 1988, informed by the band's oscillating live synergy and bolstered by a boon of new equipment and texture, Pink Turns Blue's sophomore album Meta was a conceptual leap predicated by the study of sound and exploration of its edges. With the same fervor that Joy Division mined deeper, darker, and less linear on Closer, Meta is a cohesive meditation on atmosphere and how every note and passage can traverse space individually and as part of a larger narrative. Singles "Touch the Skies" and "Your Master Is Calling" are the albums cornerstones; airy, steady, and driving tracks with a depth of melody and orchestration that sparked a shimmering new example of dark pop. The instrumental balance throughout the album creates a strobe light journey later echoed throughout gothic compatriots exploring minor keys and nocturnal themes. Recorded by Jané Krizaj known for producing most of Laibach's material, Meta's sessions took place in a basement studio located below a stadium. Then a part of Yugoslavia, the studio located in Slovenia was affordable but lacked many modern recording amenities so the band's mission was to smuggle valuable equipment through in exchange for recording time. Riding the excitement, cultural experience, and friendship of Laibach born on the road and further fostered throughout the vibrant Ljubljana music scene and Croatian coast, Meta's feel is an musical manifestation of the beautiful confusion of exploring new and unfamiliar.
PINK TURNS BLUE - 2019 TOUR
07/20 - Cologne, DE - XV Amphi Fest |
