3, 5, 0, 1, 2, 5 – Go!

.… 3, 5, 0, 1, 2, 5 – Go! …

So it begins. The band Warsaw’s excellent first song ‘Warsaw’, the band begat Joy Division, which begat New Order and it all begins with a recitation of Rudolf Hess’ POW number.

Which was commemorated as the first track on Joy Division Substance, their 1988 odds and sods, singles and mingles, B-sides and free sides collection.

I am largely ambivalent to the whole Joy Division/New Order thang, or as much as someone with a pulse can be to the creators of ‘Blue Monday’ and ‘Love Can Tear Us Apart’.

I have issues with the whole self-mythologizing thing that the Manchester scene has always gone in for too hard and the way that folks promote the (death) cult of Ian Curtis. Leave it out, he was a very different, excellent frontman with a great voice, who brought a lot of jerky intensity to the band, but read Deborah Curtis’ book Touching From A Distance for some perspective on the man.

Plus I’m not over their flirtation with the baddies of the last world war, or at least the aesthetics thereof, but that’s a whole ‘nother thang.

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Substance, which I bought as a cheap way to get hold of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ on vinyl, has been an interesting listen this week. It charts their tentative emergence from punk through to something that was very much their own thing; I like both ends of the cucumber.

Of their earliest ‘slowed down punk’* tracks ‘Warsaw’, ‘No Love Lost’ and ‘Failures’ are great, the latter absolutely blazes with some chunky guitar work and even has a touch of the Modern Lovers and Iggy about it. It’s the warmest Joy Division ever sounded to my ears.

Elsewhere we are back in the trenchcoated trudge through Rusholme in the rain, several tracks here are moods than songs, ‘Dead Souls’ and ‘Incubation’ come to mind; whereas I find the skeletal ‘Autosuggestion’ gruelling, it’s all a bit Bela Lugosi’s Dad. Later, ‘These Days’ shows exactly what you can do with this framework when you hang some real, umm, substance and intent on this scaffolding, it’s great.

Substance deals us some better cards with ‘Atmosphere’, Transmission’ and of course that one about love. ‘Atmosphere’ was not one I knew before and it is excellent in a miserably wintry way, Curtis’ vocal on it is superb, he makes it feel very real and the synth swells are a welcome adornment to their usual sound. ‘Transmission’ is a fast driving cut with a great tune and you can hear the whole band’s sound gelling perfectly, as Curtis barks out his increasingly despairing commands to dance to the radio, trying to fill a spiritual emptiness with noise. It is my favourite Joy Division tune by far at the moment.

Which leaves us with the absolutely sublime ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, which just embodies a certain time, a certain place and a certain joy to me. From that fabulously open positive guitar flourish at the beginning on in it is perfect, the biting sad lyrics gleefully hidden in the melody, razorblades in candyfloss.

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So there is a fair amount of Substance in these records. The way Stephen Morris’ drums and Peter Hook’s bass work together is superb when they get to develop it properly, I’m a fan of both of their playing but what was interesting to me was just how good Bernard Summer’s guitar work was. After the initial punk flurry Summer’s lines at their best are both sparing and very telling, carrying the melody in a really interesting way.

I will never be a card carrying Joy Division fan but I really enjoy the more substantial parts of Substance, there are some cracking tracks here well worth the listen. Transmit:

Well I could call out when the going gets tough
The things that we've learnt are no longer enough
No language, just sound, that's all we need know
To synchronise love to the beat of the show

And we could dance 

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As a bit of a font geek I really love the use of Crouwel’s New Alphabet typeface on the LP cover. Although, in a similar scandal to NUJV! the letters used on the cover actually spell out Subst1mce.

1101 Down.

PS: I am reading and really enjoying Stephen Morris’ Record Play Pause, which is what prompted me to pick this one up this week, a good funny book. Big Hawkwind fan, vinyl geek, say no more.

*copyright, my mate Ads.