New Order - The First Movement (1981)

New Order’s 1981 debut has never quite shaken off the tragic circumstances surrounding its creation. Still grieving from the suicide of singer Ian Curtis, the surviving members of Joy Division were also fighting bitterly with producer Martin Hannett, by now a serious drug casualty who made his contempt for the new group’s raw talents very plain. However, before Hannett took over the production of 'Movement' the band had recorded a number of demos, some of which were laid down in a few hours at Cabaret Voltaire’s Western Works in Sheffield in September 1980, when they were still a trio with no clear lead singer. Featuring all three band members on lead vocals, with interjections from manager Rob Gretton and Cabs co-founder Stephen Mallinder, the session yielded a rowdy early version of New Order’s debut single 'Ceremony', plus a couple of other songs which would later be re-recorded for 'Movement'. They also recorded a dozen or so demos at Cargo studios in Rochdale and in the band’s North Manchester rehearsal space, and songs such as 'Senses' and 'Procession' have a thrilling, biting rawness, making you wonder if this is what the band could have sounded like, with more of the visceral heavy-rock muscle that Hook and Sumner always pushed for against the unyielding Hannett. With the songs stripped of Hannett's overbearing production, they sound warmer and more accessible, and while they might not be as crisp and clear as we're use to hearing, it doesn't detract from the songs themselves. So using all of the Cargo demos and a couple of those from Western Works, we have an album that could have been released in 1980, instead of waiting a year for Hannett to get his act together and for the band to re-record the songs under his direction. I'm not saying that it's better than the official version, but it's certainly different enough for us to wonder what path their career could have taken if this verion of the album had been released instead, and they'd forged a path of lo-fi indie rock rather than later branching out into the dance scene with 'Temptation' and 'Blue Monday'.  

Track listing

01 Dreams Never End

02 Truth

03 Senses

04 Chosen Time

05 ICB

06 The Him

07 Doubts Even Here

08 Procession

09 The Mesh

10 Ceremony

11 Homage