by Johnny Slade

Created on: July 02, 2009   Last Updated: November 21, 2009

Manchester, England 1979, was one of the many casualties impacted by the fury of a bad recession when social and economic unrests affected and fueled inspirations for many up and coming bands. With the politics and chaotic beliefs of a London based group, The Sex Pistols (which had already disbanded by that year), the Punk rock scene already grew a plethora of impressions on both the American and European youth with a few musical genres.

Particularly impacted was a group of Manchester locals comprised of Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris began an alliance naming it "Warsaw" to quickly change into "Joy Division", taken from a 1955 novel "The House of Dolls" as reference from a department in a concentration camp.

As the pioneer group to be signed under Tony Wilson's local label, Factory records, Joy Division armed with the cautious and meticulous production and engineering expertise of Martin Hannet, conceived their debut album "Unknown Pleasures". With the black sleeve cover displaying Pulsar waves on negative exposure, includes 10 powerfully emotional tracks with poetic arsenals and sonic manipulations that will haunt the listener for a very long time.

Automatic energy can be felt immediately on the first track of "Disorder" with its stereo-panning drum intro and melodic bass line along then joined by basic pop-elemental guitar lines gives out a fast groove with sort of a mod personae. The core of the song is in its lyrics where Ian Curtis practically gives a tour of a bleak and dreary Manchester on both descriptive and psychological levels.

"Day of the Lords" quickly shifts the gears down to a slower vibe of melancholic guitar lines and power chords of exceptional melodies, this gives a hook with Curtis' haunting cries of "Where will it end?!" is particularly the personal spine chiller for me that hits home (and for some people as well). "Candidate" follows on with a faster pace and hard rocking guitar lines with energetic proportions, then "Insight" follows it up with a relaxing mid tempo groove with innovative synths included for its breaks as a few of Martin Hannet's studio trickery.

some backward sounds soon introduces "New Dawn Fades", one of the most intense songs ever written in the album where Ian Curtis exposes his psychological struggle that still gives a me an incomparable chill in the spine whenever I hear it. A damn good track to close the first side.

Ian Curtis was a former worker for a local employment agency in Manchester, in the early days of the band. One of his clients was a girl who came into his office for employment suffered an epileptic seizure during her appointment and later died the following week. This event left quite an impression for Curtis and birthed the side B opener "She's Lost Control". Following it up would be the most rocked out song the group's ever recorded, " Shadowplay ".Morbidly poetic in its lyrics accompanied by pentatonic bass and guitar progressions and slightly fast paced drums.

To its conclusions with such songs as " Wilderness", "Interzone" and "I Remember Nothing", "Unknown Pleasures" stands as a landmark and will soon be categorized as one of the pioneering albums in the "Gothic Rock" movement. An amazing album that cannot be ignored in the history of underground and pop music.

Thank you! Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and God rest your soul, Sir Ian Curtis!

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