Making dance music in Dracula’s castle
June 3, 2005 | 12:00am
The setting: Actress Jane Seymour’s manor house outside of Bath in England. The dramatis personae: A pioneering post-punk slash electro-pop band from Manchester composed of singer-guitarist Bernard "Barney" Sumner, bassist Peter "Hooky" Hook, drummer Stephen Morris, and newest member Phil Cunningham who alternates on guitar and keyboards.
Strange how the guys from New Order found themselves recording dance music in St. Catherine’s Court, a former 15th century monastery which was given by Henry the VIII to his illegitimate daughter. Creepy place. During a phone interview, Morris says since there was not enough electricity to power their recording equipment, the band used candles to light the sessions. Imagine electronic beats and trebly, upper-register basslines pulsing from speakers inside a mansion that could pose as the house of Usher (Poe’s character, not the wiggly R&B star) with windows you’d expect a black-winged prophet of doom to fly into. Never more true for New Order.
"Somebody made a comment that it was like ‘making dance music in Dracula’s castle," the drummer explains, adding that the phrase became the title of one of their songs in the new album "Waiting for the Sirens’ Call."
A digression: I ask Stephen whether it’s really true that he was asked to play drums on the roof on She’s Lost Control in one of Joy Division’s recording sessions, as portrayed in the cult hit 24-Hour Party People.
"The movie was meant to be an allegory (laughs)," he says, making this writer look really silly. "I never played on the roof. It if were completely (factual) it wouldn’t be funny. At the end of the day, it’s still a film. The whole movie is a distillation of events. It conveys a sense of the anarchy during the days of Factory Records and how the death of Ian Curtis affected us."
In real life, though, things have a way of continuing, of moving forward. After singer Ian Curtis’ suicide (right after listening to Iggy Pop’s "The Idiot" album and feeling this immense sadness), the rest of Joy Division quietly decided to continue the band as New Order – first as a trio and then as a quartet with Gillian Gilbert on keyboards. And even if the latest album is a mixed bag, it is good to hear one of the most influential Brit pop bands still slugging it out after deaths, debts, Factory Records debacles, and assorted discords. If listening to the music of Joy Division is like peering through a noose hanging from the kitchen of despair, New Order is like feeling the epileptic beat of a pessimistic sampler.
Curtis’ joyless meditations on modern life (Atmosphere, Transmission and New Dawn Fades are essential) gave way to innovative, infernally disco hits (Blue Monday, Bizarre Love Triangle) with "deeply shallow" lyrics, to use Barney’s phrase. But the saving graces were the lovely, melancholy sing-alongs such as Love Vigilantes, Love Less, and Leave Me Alone, which is as achingly brilliant as any Joy Division song. And don’t forget the "album-less" singles Temptation and True Faith.
New Order’s "Movement" (released in 1981) was shaky but pivotal. Barney reveals he doesn’t even own a copy. Features I.C.B. (which is short for, what, "Ian Curtis Buried"?)
"Power, Corruption and Lies" (1983) is the sound of one band redefining itself. The album is a mélange of post-punk classics (Leave Me Alone, Age of Consent) and Kraftwerk-inspired electro-pop bits (Blue Monday, in particular).
"Low-Life" (1985) continued the streak of greatness. Features The Perfect Kiss and Love Vigilantes, a beautiful song with preposterous ghost-from-the-Vietnam-War-comes-home-to-wife lyrics. To detractors of the song’s rubbish lyrics, Barney once answered back, "Bow down before the tune… The tune is God."
"Brotherhood" (1986) had Bizarre Love Triangle; "Technique" (1989) had electronic sheep and cerebral disco; and "Republic" (1993) had Regret and other tracks that beat persistently with the band’s synthesizer heart. Then there was New Order’s supposed comeback album "Get Ready" (2003).
Morris reveals, "We were still self-conscious (when we made "Get Ready"). So we just tried sounding like the old New Order. When we went on the road that year, we found out that people didn’t like the sound of old New Order."
A lesson learned. In making "Waiting for the Sirens’ Call," the band was more relaxed.
"The song (on the new album) started out with bass riffs and a couple of drum loops. It happened really quickly. Things seem to happen better that way. We ended up with no bad memories for the sessions (laughs). So, no agonizing over each track," he shares.
Who’s Joe, Hey Now What You Doing, and the first single Krafty are vintage New Order. The title track (with its synthesizer washes and unrelenting Hooky bass) has a melody that insinuates itself into one’s brains. I Told You So has an island riff that sounds like a refugee from an Ace of Base album. Dracula’s Castle sounds like something made in a vampire duplex by Kraftwerk-lite.
I absolutely dig super-sleek pop song Jetstream, which features Scissor Sister Ana Matronic. Getting her to sing on that track was a brilliant move. Another thing: The chorus just grows on your skin like aural fungi. But the best tune for me is Working Overtime, with its dirty overdriven guitar and punky (not post-punky) attitude. The song evokes The Who or The Strokes or The Stooges playing dance rock in Dracula’s garage.
"Working Overtime started with a drum riff," explains Morris. "We wanted to redo it, but we loved the spontaneity."
So it stuck. He adds that the guys recorded 18 tracks, but had to leave off a lot of good songs, including moody, melancholy ones. Drat. But…
"We already have a couple of ideas for the next album," assures Morris.
New Order is also slated to play Glastonbury on the latter part of June. No worries for New Order whatsoever (except probably the gods in rock Valhalla playing water polo over the festival).
"Glastonbury is great. I hope it doesn’t rain. It usually rains whenever we play. Maybe it’s because we’re from Manchester (laughs)," he enthuses.
Aside from the Glasto gig, another thing Joy Division/New Order fans should look out for is the Ian Curtis biopic directed by Anton Corbijn titled Control. Does Ian still cast a gloomy shadow over the band after all these years?
"Ah, the influence of Ian Curtis… it never goes away. When we released ‘Republic,’ we told ourselves, ‘Why not play Joy Division songs?’ It is but natural."
Proof that neither death nor love will tear things apart.
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