Different Colours, Brighter Shades

 

Joy Division - Still [FACT 40 UK 1981 24-Bit FLAC]

I notice from social media that 'Joy Division' are reissuing Still as a fortieth anniversary edition in, what looks like, a maroon sleeve on clear vinyl on February 11th - I make that a 40 years, four months and 3 day anniversary. Will I be buying it? Well no, I will not. I bought the original as a young lad of fifteen years in Manchester nearly forty years ago and feel no need whatsoever for a new pressing of unknown heritage on noisy, cheap clear vinyl - I am assuming this release will possibly be the Frank Arkwright 2015 digital remaster, regurgitated for the diehard collector (only 10,000 pressed!) or the new fans and the curious. 

You might well have realised by now, that I am losing interest in digitally mastered recordings pressed onto analogue & poor quality plastic. Perhaps if a company like MFSL or any of the many newer high quality labels had been offered that chance to master & press from the original analogue tapes onto superior vinyl and then present it as a high quality package, then perhaps my coffers would have been stirred.  

I have only ever ripped my original Factory Records copy once before (back in April 2020), since then I have a better cartridge on a pimped up turntable with a superior set-up. So how does it sound? Well, I am astonished, save for a few tiny blemishes, after a good clean (you should know the process now) - it sounds bloody wonderful. 

The soundstage is wide, intricate and detailed with plenty of umph in the lows, definition & space around the mids and just enough brightness in the highs. The live set (despite the flaws and tape drop-outs) puts you stage centre at the feet of Ian Curtis in Birmingham University High Hall on the evening of May 2nd 1980. Just check out Shadowplay, Transmission and the very wonderful New Dawn Fades.

All the tracks were produced by Martin Hannett, (including the powerful yet occasionally shambolic live set - you know - Decades! ) the original was tastefully mastered by Eddy Gorecki at The Townhouse, so there is really no need for Arkwright to screw about with it any more.

So then, what are you doing for the next 2.97 gigabytes?

A1  Exercise One

A2  Ice Age

A3  The Sound Of Music

A4  Glass

A5  The Only Mistake

B1  Walked In Line

B2  The Kill

B3  Something Must Break

B4  Dead Souls

B5  Sister Ray

C1  Ceremony

C2  Shadowplay

C3  Means To An End

C4  Passover

C5  New Dawn Fades

C6  Twenty Four Hours

D1  Transmission

D2  Disorder

D3  Isolation

D4  Decades

D5  Digital