Joy Division - The Eternal (Martin Hannett Alt.Mix)
Joy Division - Passover (Martin Hannett Alt.Mix)
Recently there has been an awful lot of kerfuffle about some newly discovered tapes purporting to be Martin Hannett's very own out-takes and rough mixes. The versions of most of the full tracks featured are pretty close to the released versions apart from a bit of added sounds and percussion with a few little differences in levels here and there, not exactly mind blowingly different, but nevertheless incredibly interesting to the likes of me who have spent their entire lives being in love with this band.
Amongst the most interesting recordings for me though are the two versions of The Eternal. It's always been a beautiful beautiful song, but here it just seems so much richer, I can't really put my finger on why. It has a slightly different intro, and the ending has the bass drum going till the end, and some different instrument levels, but apart from that it's not startlingly different, but at the same time sounds totally different...
I'm not really helping much here am I?
There are also some wonderful recordings of the lift noises from the start of Unknown Pleasures... Now I know what you're thinking, lift noises Simon?... have you lost your marbles.
But when you've heard the sounds a million times over in a song, to hear the un-mixed raw sounds is very exciting for me... And I make no apologies for it.
Basically this whole tape(?) was a real joy to listen to for the Joy Division geek in me. It's full of snippets of studio talk, different mixes, and playing with keyboard sounds and atmospherics. Listening in hushed silence to the whole thing I was struck by how great a band they and Hannett were together, I already knew it, but it just re-confirmed by beliefs.
I honestly don't think there has been as an important Joy Division find since the Demo's album was released on bootleg a few decades ago, some of which turned up on the mighty mighty Heart And Soul box set.
Some unscrupulous git has been selling the bootleg cd of The Martin Hannett Tapes for 45 quid, he's a twat. Do not buy anything off him. If you have a mooch round on this t'internet thingy you will very quickly find it available as a bittorent, and I'm pretty sure that you will be able to find a downloadable mp3 version somewhere. Usually I don't really condone the downloading of a whole album unless it's a never to be released live bootleg or something, but in this case seeing as this will almost certainly never get an official release and the only other way is by being fleeced by the aforementioned twat, then I say download away and enjoy.
And many many thanks to my good friend RSL for the heads up on this.
Buy - Joy Division - Heart and Soul
Visit - Joy Division Central
Have a happy Easter or holiday or whatever it is you're doing this weekend.
Simon
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