"conceptually and artistically the equivalent of necrophilic grave robbing"

Somewhere in a cave in Manchester, a record company A&R man casts an eye over his assembled legacy.  They need more money. The industry is addicted to money. And too much is never enough.

They always need more. And it doesn’t matter how it’s obtained. The junkie will go to any lengths to get its fix. The thing that makes man apart animals - morals - is quickly jettisoned. Money talks. Profit justifies everything.

The Music Industry is in a desperate flux : simultaneously suing the living fuck out of everyone it can think, clinging to the outmoded and obsolete distribution model with an ever growing epidemic of reissues and compilations, and failing to provide its customers with what they want. 

What the record industry thinks you want is shoddily designed and sequenced, unnecessary compilations. Like Motorheads umpteen compilations, and the annual Elvis Presley release, it seems that a year cannot go by without some new configuration of Joy Division’s miniscule body for work. By now, surely everyone who has the slightest interest in the band owns the material. I can’t see this selling many copies. Nor should it - the respect afforded to the bands work is abusive.

That’s the arrogance of big business the world over : it shovels a shit sandwich at you, and expects you to be grateful. Rarely has the words “music” and “business” felt so dirty, so unclean, next to each other. This fetid idea - the third Joy Division best of compilation - is conceptually and artistically the equivalent of necrophilic grave robbing.  At best, I could describe it as morbid opportunism. At worst, it’s an insulting  and degrading attempt to fleece the faithful with yet another pointless compilation that does nothing but diminish the group.

It’s not as if Joy Division were a band with a surfeit of material. In their lifetime they released just 33 songs over 6 singles and two albums. After their demise, they managed to release an odd-and-ends rarities compilation with a live recording, and a collection of their non-album material.

Then, sometime in the early 90’s, after their record label went to the wall, Joy Division found themselves as merely an asset to be plundered, raped, and exploited to the maximum commercial effect. This third Joy Division ‘best of’ pointlessly repeats the previous, excellent “Substance” and the equally pointless “Permanent” with a selection of the-same-songs-as-the-other-compilation-in-a-slightly-different order. Once again, the handful of genuinely rare Joy Division songs and versions that are still unavailable on CD remain frustratingly unavailable, whilst “Love Will Tear Us Apart” makes it’s eleventh appearance, the alternate studio recording that made the B-Side still has yet to appear on any Joy Division album.

Sure, there's "Heart And Soul" that's a pretty good box set, albeit one that reproduces the 2 original albums. And then there's the three expanded reissues from last year. And the two Fractured Music live albums. And the Fractured Music limited box set with extra live CD and T-Shirt that I didn't buy. And the unofficial Martin Hannet Mixes tape that’s now on CD. if I were a JD completist, I'd have the 3 rereleases of LWTUA, each album four times (Fac LP, Fac CD, Heart & Soul, Expanded Editions), a total of 6 concerts (from the 37 known Joy Division live recordings that exist), and 3 'best of' compilations. This is worse than the Doors releasing every soundcheck as a limited-edition live album.

Next, they'll remix Ian's between song mumblings into an ambient album and package with it a bonus remix CD featuring a Paul Okenfold Mix of "Atmosphere", Thee Almighty Trouser Pullers 12" extended Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaance Mix of "Transmission", and the Extended Party Whoop version of "Decades" featuring Sly And Robbie.

They really need a custodian who oversees the bands catalogue with care and attention. There‘s so much stuff that is still unreleased - a complete set of all their local and national radio sessions, or a DVD compiling the known recordings and short art house films they made during their brief life.

Please London Records, for your own dignity, stop this. It's devaluing and cheapening the work. Whoever is responsible for this merely sees the bands Body of Work as an asset to be turned into cash-generating product that sits on the racks next to baked beans in Asda. This compilation is pointless.

But “Heart And Soul” instead, and lets all pretend that this callous piece of exploitation never existed.

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment 1.0 beta 2!