| Simultaneous to the release of their debut Movement album in 1981 and only 10 months on from the tragic demise of Joy Division and the resultant fall-out from Ian Curtis' death, New Order's first John Peel Session now sounds like the withered electronic chill of a pre-transitional outfit, a band suspended in unanimated limbo between the grey-tinged gravitas of their forerunners and the looser, rhythmic dance leanings of their gloriously inventive future. The latter tendencies, though, start to creep into view on the second Peel Session from the following year, with "586", in particular, pointing the way to the vigorous but characteristically glum techno-pump of Power, Corruption and Lies. Two further tracks from the same session, "Too Late" and a cover version of Keith Hudson's "Turn The Heater On" also aid the post-Joy Division thaw and are unavailable elsewhere. The omission of New Order's third, best and most representative John Peel Session (five songs including versions of Joy Division's "Isolation" and "Atmosphere" and a guest appearance from Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie), which was originally broadcast at the time of the band's reformation in 1998 seems, at the very least, a most curious oversight. --Kevin Maidment |
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