Music CD - Joy Division: The Complete BBC Recordings

	Music CD: The Complete BBC Recordings Artist: Joy Division List Price: $16.98 Our Price: $8.43 Your Save: $ 8.55 ( 50% ) Availability: Manufacturer: Varese Sarabande
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Tracks: 1. Exercise One 2. Insight 3. She's Lost Control 4. Transmission 5. Love Will Tear Us Apart 6. Twenty Four Hours 7. Colony 8. Sound of Music 9. Transmission 10. She's Lost Control 11. Ian Curtis and Stephen Morris Interviewed by Richard Skinner - Joy Division,
Binding: Audio CD EAN: 0030206108422 Format: Live Label: Varese Sarabande Manufacturer: Varese Sarabande Number Of Discs: 1 Publisher: Varese Sarabande Release Date: 2000-10-24 Studio: Varese Sarabande
Related Items Warsaw Closer Unknown Pleasures Still Heart and Soul
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: A lot of great stuff "Heart and Soul" left out Comment: "Heart and Soul" is an amazing and comprehensive overview of Joy Division's brief but crucial recorded legacy. HOWEVER, it omits the following BBC Sessions: "Insight," "Transmission," (both versions), "She's Lost Control" (both versions), "The Sound Of Music" and "Twenty Four Hours." This means almost all of this CD is NOT on Heart and Soul. Which means you should buy it. Now here's my review: True there were occasional overdubs of a guitar here or vocal there, but Peel Sessions, at least from the punk era, were a great chance to get a "live" recording, but with studio conditions more conducive to solid band performances. Joy Division, never a particularly proficient bunch of musicians, benefitted tremendously from the setting the John Peel Show offered. Ian's voice on both these sessions was thankfully in good shape. He sounds strong and, relatively speaking, his pitch is solid. His yell at the end of "Transmission" still gives me chills, 15 years after I discovered the 12" vinyl of Session 1. Stephen, Bernie and Hooky all turn in their most consistent, assured performances of the Joy Division era. Personally, I consider the versions of "Exercise One," "Insight" and "Sound Of Music" to be the definitive versions of these songs. But all eight of the original two Peel Sessions are nothing short of stellar. Of particular interest are the different lyrics in verse 2 of "Colony" and the overall feel of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" without the overdubbed high-hat part on the studio version. The extra versions of "Transmission" and "She's Lost Control" come from a different British radio show, "Something Else" and were recorded on September 15, 1979. Both are good, but a tad inferior in sound quality. "She's Lost Control" is absolutely manic - a little too fast for my taste. More than anything, it was the Peel Sessions that got me into Joy Division. If you are not a big fan of the (over)production style of Martin Hannett, then you should love this. In any case, this is top quality live-in-the-studio material from a great, unique band. Customer Rating: Summary: Transmission: Intensity Times Two Comment: More than 25 years after the death of Ian Curtis, the loss magnifies, and the impact made by Joy Division becomes ever more apparent. Moby. Nine Inch Nails. Interpol. The list of artists influenced by Joy Division are too many to mention. Begin with Unknown Pleasures or the Substance Collection, but pick up the BBC sessions not only for better versions of Transmission and Exercise One -- untouched by producer Martin Hannett (just as C. Roark "tri-zeta" pointed out in the first review posted here [though I will point out the Pink Floyd influence is impossible, as Joy Division's Peel session was from January 1979 and Pink Floyd's The Wall was not released until November that year]) -- but also for what used to be rare recordings of Transmission and She's Lost Control (tracks 9 and 10 here) from Something Else (recorded for Radio One in September 1979). When all's said and done, it's the two versions of Transmission that are worth the price of this BBC Sessions disc. The first, from the John Peel show, is a different and superior arrangement than what you'll hear on Substance. The latter, though a little raspy, is just plain intense. And that intensity is what Joy Division is all about. Customer Rating: Summary: Joy Division through a different lens. Comment: This is Joy Division away from the influences of Martin Hannett, who produced both their studio albums and is largely credited with helping craft their sound. I was rather suprised by the consistency of these tracks. There are only 10, and both Transmission and SLC get worked over twice. They are pretty tight, demonstrating that Joy Division's songs were about substance and not style- they sounded just as great when transmuted to a different settting. The sound is more full-bodied, not as cold and skeletal as the Hannett productions. Again, I was happily surprised. Exercise One (great song, even despite that it subtley plagiarizes a Pink Floyd riff from "The Wall") is short and crisp. Insight is denser- never liked that track so much. The first SLC is very digitized, sounds somewhere between the studio take and the 12"... they definitely played with it. Transmission (1) is one of the more consistent sounding (studio) takes I've heard (better done live on many bootlegs) of it. LWTUA is easily as good as the studio takes released for Factory. 24 Hours seems faster and more confident heret than on Closer. Ian's voice sounds better too- I like the drum-sound, well done. Colony kinda bugs me- not as sludgy as it should sound, I think. I like the Closer version better. Still, Ian's voice is good on the track. Sound of Music is much denser and deeper here than on the single. Transmission (2) is very quick-paced and pretty thin. It's not as urgent or tense as the first take. Finally, the second version of SLC is very fast and urgent and raw as hell- sounds like a schizo demo! It's uniquely badass, and stands up alongside both the studio and 12" versions! Love it- the guitar, when it comes in, is like a fistfull of bees and saw blades. All in all, pretty solid. The interview is kind of a letdown- standard interview fare. Very short- about 3 minutes or something. The fact that's there's so few tracks make this prety much for the hardcore fanatics, zealots and true believers, only. The average JD fan probably won't like this as much as the elect- but then, oh well... Customer Rating: Summary: Great sample of important band Comment: For new and old fans of Joy Division, this disc is a gem, period. The sound quality of most of the tracks is fantastic--some of the versions here sound better than the studio ones, especially Transmission, which has a crisper and more energetic feel to it than its studio counterpart. I've rarely been disappointed with collected BBC and Peel Sessions discs. John Peel's show allowed bands to re-record their songs live in a studio environment for later broadcast. This gives the songs a live energy combined with the control of the studio for excellent sound. Only the last two songs really differ in quality, sounding a bit more raw and bootleg-ish, but the disc as a whole does not disappoint. She's Lost Control makes good use of powerful electronics, Insight has a cold, frantic feel. I think the version of Love Will Tears Us Apart is one of the best available anywhere--the energy, speed, and sound are fantastic. I think it blows away the studio version. The interview isn't bad, about ten minutes long, discussing the Manchester vs London scene, the record label business, etc. All in all, this is a no-brainer for any Joy Division fan. It's also an excellent starter for new fans as well. One of the best CDs I own. Customer Rating: Summary: Peel Be Big Pimpin' Comment: I've listened to quite a few live albums from bands performing for John Peel's radio show. And Peel can really get great stuff from the artists recording. Here we have Joy Division's 1979 live tracks and some of them are great, they even include two you can't get on any of their albums, "Exercise One" and "Sound Of Music". The former is a great song and really shines on the album, the latter, however, is a bit weak in comparison with the rest of the material and feels more like a decent b-side more than anything. What is remarkable is how you can't hardly tell that this is a live recording, the production is really just that good. One of the versions of "She's Lost Control" on the album is probably better than the studio versions, which were already excellent on their own. But who really needs two live versions of She's Los Control, definately not the average music listener nor me, that's why I would only pick this up to see what they sound like while not in the studio. There are plenty of gems on here like "Insight" and "Twenty-Four Hours" but it has stuff like "Sound Of Music" and the multiple versions of "She's Lost Control" which you don't really need. Not to mention the interview which doesn't really have anything that extraordinary to say and is only for the hardcore fan. The music is great, as is all Joy Division, but there are other better collections that have most of these songs on them, so it just feels unneeeded. More Reviews
Editorial Reviews: The ever-expanding log of BBC vault recordings is a decidedly mixed lot, with plenty of rubbish surfacing along with more than a few gems. This 10-song collection from the short-lived but vastly influential foursome Joy Division definitely belongs in the latter camp. Made up of radio performances cut in January, September, and November of 1979, The Complete BBC Recordings captures the post-punk outfit two years after they came together following a Sex Pistols appearance in their Manchester, England, base and a matter of months before frontman Ian Curtis took his life. Signaling a tidal shift in the punk mindset, Curtis's inner torment was expressed by melancholy rather than rage. His instrumental cohorts--the pre-New Order trio of Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris--created a sound that was as terse yet expressive as a rude remark. These John Peel and Radio One performances depict a band on a grim mission--to give their sense of paralyzing futility an undeniable momentum. Riveting from start to finish, The Complete BBC Recordings is a must-own for fans of the band and anyone interested in hearing where the '70s ended and the '80s began for a vital segment of British rock. --Steven Stolder