New Order Revisit Their Old Order

Seminal electro-disco pioneers New Order are releasing a new compilation of radio session recordings which includes rare versions of songs they released under their previous incarnation of Joy Division.

As Joy Division, they released two of the darkest, deepest and magical albums of contemporary music (Closer and Unknown Pleasures), forming New Order after original frontman Ian Curtis hung himself on May 18 1980. The 23 year old vocalist's suicide added an even more morbid intensity to the music and particularly the lyrics of Joy Division's music, which touched on (impending) death, spirits and broken hearts.

Chatting to Skrufff a couple of years ago bass player Peter Hook admitted they'd always been interested in the occult, despite cheerfully describing themselves as a 'bunch of piss-heads'.

"Joy Division was like a subconscious outpouring for us, we'd all get on stage, then suddenly this wonderful force used to come out," he recalled.

"I know Ian was very deep and had a lot of feelings about things but I think you have that when you're young. As you get older you realise that karma is the only thing that matters. If you do well to people, you'll get well back and that's as plain as the nose on your fucking face."

New Order- The Radio 1 Sessions (including Joy Division tracks Isolation, Atmosphere and Transmission) is out now on Strange Fruit Records.
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