walking upstream…
Joy Division
Joy Division
Formed in Manchester in 1976 in the immediate aftermath of a single incendiary Sex Pistols gig, Joy Division fused punk's coiled tension with icy synthesizers, Peter Hook's melodic high-register bass, and Ian Curtis's brooding baritone into a sound producer Martin Hannett sculpted into something vast and cavernous. Their two studio albums, Unknown Pleasures (1979) and Closer (1980), turned Curtis's inner turmoil into a blueprint for post-punk and goth alike; he died by suicide in May 1980, weeks before Closer's release, after struggling with epilepsy and depression. The surviving members regrouped as New Order, but Joy Division's austere, motorik-driven catalog remains one of the most influential in British rock.
the sound in question
1980
Love Will Tear Us ApartJoy Division
walk the tributaries ↓
Kraftwerk1970s · Electronic / Krautrock / Synth-pop
Ian Curtis introduced the rest of the band to Kraftwerk, handing Hook the 'Autobahn' and 'Trans-Europe Express' LPs; Hook has said he was 'absolutely mesmerised' by both, and that Curtis pushed the band to model itself on Kraftwerk's collective, faceless unit rather than star around a frontman ('we need to be like Kraftwerk - it's all of us, together'). Joy Division walked on stage to 'Trans-Europe Express' at essentially every gig from their first show onward, and the group's embrace of sequencers and mechanical repetition over blues-rock swagger traces straight back to that record.
listen: upstream & heresource: NME - Peter Hook on the legacy and influence of Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider ↗
1977
Trans-Europe ExpressKraftwerk
1980
IsolationJoy Division
listen forOn 'Isolation', listen for the cold, unwavering synth pulse and drum-machine-tight beat sitting where a guitar riff would normally go - the same 'marriage of humans and machines' Kraftwerk pioneered, just filtered through Hannett's clanging, echo-drenched production instead of Düsseldorf's studio gloss.
Sex Pistols1970s · Punk rock
Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook were both in the crowd at the Sex Pistols' legendary 4 June 1976 show at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall (Ian Curtis attended their return gig that July); Hook has said the gig's message was simply 'if they can do it, then so can we' and bought a bass guitar the next day. That permission-giving jolt - you don't need chops, you need nerve - is what launched the band (first as Warsaw) and still drives the sprint and urgency under Joy Division's later, more atmospheric records.
listen: upstream & heresource: Wikipedia - Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall (formation catalyst for Warsaw/Joy Division) ↗
1976
Anarchy in the U.K.Sex Pistols
1979
TransmissionJoy Division
listen forPut on 'Transmission' and listen to how the rhythm section refuses to relax - Stephen Morris's kick drum and Hook's bassline lock into a driving, almost punk-speed pulse under Sumner's spiky, minimal guitar. It's the same raw compulsion to just go that a room full of amateurs caught from the Pistols, just disciplined into something colder and more controlled.
David Bowie1970s · Art rock / Glam rock
Curtis was reportedly obsessed with Bowie's Brian Eno-produced 'Berlin Trilogy'; the band's first name, Warsaw, was taken directly from 'Warszawa', the bleak instrumental that opens the second side of Bowie's Low (1977). That record's austere synthesizer textures - 'music looking at the future', as later writers on the band put it - gave Joy Division a template for turning cold, minimal electronics into something emotionally overwhelming rather than clinical.
listen: upstream & heresource: The New World - From David Bowie to Joy Division ↗
1977
WarszawaDavid Bowie
1980
AtmosphereJoy Division
listen forListen to the spacious synth pads and glacial pacing of 'Atmosphere' - the way the track holds still and lets the synthesizer drone do the emotional work instead of a chorus. That's the same trick as the 'Warszawa'/Low side of Bowie's catalog: dread and grandeur built out of very few, very cold-sounding notes.