New Order Movement CD

After the tragic suicide of Joy Division's Ian Curtis, the band restructured. Guitarist Bernard Sumner, whose gift for combining the melodic with the hypnotic had been the band's cornerstone, stepped up to the microphone. The resulting debut MOVEMENT finds the group taking a brave step away from its unfortunate past. Preserved are Joy Division's dark edges--Sumner's guitar attack swerves deftly between funereal repetition and noisy bursts, while bassist Peter Hook continues to explore his instrument's upper registers.

From the slow, deliberate build and melodic interplay of its opening moment, the mid-tempo "Dreams never End," MOVEMENT boldly states the band's more experimental, slightly less emotionally turgid agenda. That Sumner is trapped under the influence of Curtis is undeniable--at times, the resemblance is alarming, but MOVEMENT is the sound of Sumner finding his voice. The spacey synth-pop of "The Him" foreshadows the sound New Order was to slowly develop, as Sumner became more comfortable with the upper reaches of his vocal range. Dynamic play abounds--the existentialist drone of "Truth" gives way to a crushing, chaotic guitar wail, while the intense, revealingly named "Doubts Even Here" slowly erupts beneath a disturbing double-vocal, stressing the burgeoning diversity of this legendary band in the making.

Movement is the first hesitant step in the transition from Joy Division to New Order. Despite a relatively assured debut single ("Ceremony," which didn't even appear on the album), the first New Order album revealed a band apparently caught up in mourning for its former lead singer. (But of course, themes of loss and isolation were hardly novel for them.) Movement encompassed songs written just after the suicide of Ian Curtis, and it was recorded with alternating vocal spots to see whose would fit best -- although neither Peter Hook nor Bernard Sumner sounded worthy of the mantle. (At times, their hesitancy makes it sound as if they were recording guide vocals for a Joy Division LP, expecting Ian Curtis to come in later.) Despite the band's opaque lyrics, critics and fans were spotting references to Curtis all over the record, with despair and confusion reigning especially on "Senses" ("No reason ever was given") and "ICB" ("It's so far away, and it's closing in"). More so than on any Joy Division record, it also revealed a group unafraid to experiment relentlessly in the studio until it had emerged with something unique. Spurred on by producer Martin Hannett, despite his antagonistic relationship with the band (and perhaps, because of it), New Order produced a ghostly, brittle record, occasionally uptempo but never upbeat, with drum machines rattling and echoing over dark waves of synthesizers and Hook's basswork. A masterpiece in the career of any other post-punk band, Movement only paled in comparison to the band's later work. [Rhino's 2008 remastering of New Order's first five albums, subtitled The Factory Years, provided complete remastering of each original LP plus a bonus disc that included a good sampling of the band's non-album material contemporary to the album. For Movement, that means both sides of their critical 1981-1982 singles ("Ceremony," "Temptation," "Everything's Gone Green") plus alternate versions of "Ceremony" and "Everything's Gone Green."] ~ John Bush

Liner Note Author: Ian Harrison.

New Order: Bernard Sumner (vocals, guitar); Peter Hook (vocals, bass); Stephen Morris (vocals, drums); Gillian Gilbert (keyboards).

Personnel: Bernard Sumner (electric guitar); Gillian Gilbert (keyboards); Stephen Morris (drums).

Mojo (Publisher) (9/01, p.86) - "...A nervy mess. Edging towards a new Northern model of awkward angst disco....One of bassist/voalist Peter Hook's favorite New Order albums..."