Live Joy Division

Joy Division is one of the definitive bands from the rock culture. With their dark poetic inception and a sound marked by a new way of thinking about how music should be created, the Manchester band served as a model for countless artists. Today, just as it marks 35 years of the death of Ian Curtis (the legendary singer and lyricist of the group) The Many Faces Of Joy Division shows the hidden world behind the group, their rare recordings, side projects, their influences and the Manchester scene where the band bloomed. With a wonderful cover art, remastered sound and extensive liner notes, The Many Faces of Joy Division is an album not only for fans but for anyone who wants to understand the influence (and enjoy the music) of a truly transcendent bad, which made beauty out of sadness.

If Unknown Pleasures was Joy Division at their most obsessively, carefully focused, ten songs yet of a piece, Closer was the sprawl, the chaotic explosion that went every direction at once. Who knows what the next path would have been had Ian Curtis not chosen his end? But steer away from the rereading of his every lyric after that date; treat Closer as what everyone else thought it was at first – simply the next album – and Joy Division's power just seems to have grown. Martin Hannett was still producing, but seems to have taken as many chances as the band itself throughout – differing mixes, differing atmospheres, new twists and turns define the entirety of Closer, songs suddenly returned in chopped-up, crumpled form, ending on hiss and random notes.

It even looks like something classic, beyond its time or place of origin even as it was a clear product of both – one of Peter Saville's earliest and best designs, a transcription of a signal showing a star going nova, on a black embossed sleeve. If that were all Unknown Pleasures was, it wouldn't be discussed so much, but the ten songs inside, quite simply, are stone-cold landmarks, the whole album a monument to passion, energy, and cathartic despair. The quantum leap from the earliest thrashy singles to Unknown Pleasures can be heard through every note, with Martin Hannett's deservedly famous production – emphasizing space in the most revelatory way since the dawn of dub – as much a hallmark as the music itself.

With the exception of Joy Division's last single, Love Will Tear Us Apart, which faded out gradually into the anguished silence of singer Ian Curtis' suicide, none of the band's songs ever really ended; they either fell apart or collapsed, as if to bring about a proper end to something beyond their grasp. Joy Division couldn't stand still…

Joy Division - Les Bains Douches 18 December 1979 (2003) {Alchemy Entertainment FACD 2.61 rel 2003}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 469 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 156 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 19 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1979, 2003 NMC Music / Alchemy Entertainment | FACD 2.61
Rock / Post Punk / Alternative

If Preston finally provided a live Joy Division experience that was worth the purchase price, Les Bains Douches trumped it and then some. Actually compiled from two differing dates – the title performance itself, in Paris, and a further show in Amsterdam two months later that had been heavily bootlegged – Les Bains Douches, with the benefit of clearer sound than Preston, finally presents the experience of live Joy Division as the explosive event it was. There aren't any noticeable technical problems with the performances either, unlike some of the problems noticed on Preston, and with everything running smoothly the foursome simply and totally let go.

Joy Division - Preston 28 February 1980 (1999) {NMC Music FACD 2.60}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 346 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 118 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 41 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1980, 1999 NMC Music | FACD 2.60
Rock / Post Punk / Alternative

The Heart and Soul set rectified the errors of Still by including some far better live performances on its fourth and final disc, but Joy Division aficionados spoke of even better recordings still never formally released. This complaint was settled with Preston, the first of two archival concert recordings, both of which finally do justice to the band's stage work. It's an important point, since Joy Division were a band able to work on three different levels with equal brilliance – on singles, album, and in concert – and Preston is the first real document able to demonstrate the latter point beyond question. Though the performance was beset with technical woes, as the members audibly mention at points between songs, there was still definite magic in the air.

Recorded live on 9th November 2018 (their only UK show of 2018), education entertainment recreation is a brand new live album from London’s Alexandra Palace.

In the wake of early-'80s post-punk artiness, New Order must have seemed like a welcome return to the world of tunes. Those not blinded by Ian Curtis' pyre were certainly pleased with the direction of the band, while those that needed shades had been finding it increasingly difficult to ignore the melancholic hooks pervading even the most synth-laden dance singles coming out of the group. Which makes this live capture of New Order's divisive skill that much more appealing.
Recorded on June 19th, 1987, at Glastonbury, this live set includes everything from the band's major hits ("Temptation," "Bizarre Love Triangle") to the more undisclosed favorites ("Touched By the Hand of God") all with a raw, sometimes po-faced, interpretation of their studio-friendly talents…