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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The title says it all!, 9 Dec 2001
Coming some two years after Movement, this was the
turning point album in many ways. Many, including
the band themselves, felt that Movement was too
close to the Joy Division sound and this is partly
borne out as they are not keen to play anything
from it (barring the odd Dreams Never End!).Movement was also the last JD/NO album to be
produced by the gifted (and late) genius Martin
Hannett. So, P, C & L sees the band stretching
out in different directions at the same time. Your Silent Face is classic early NO: a sequenced
and metronomic line locked in tight to Steve's
Oberheim DMX drum machine (later to find fame on
Blue Monday). On top of these are Gillian's
spacious string lines, Hooky's melodic bass and
Barney intoning the lethal pay-off line before
aforementioned strings - and his melodica! -
come back: "You've caught me at a bad time so
why don't you piss off?". I've seen them do this track live a few times,
the last time being in October 2001 at Brixton
and to see a few hundred people shout it back
at Barney is quite something! On record, it's
a glorious moment. Leave Me Alone is stripped-down, powering along
on Hooky's driving bass and Steve's dynamic
drumming. Ecstacy features another minimal
bassline and superb vocoder vocals. They only
used it on this (and The Beach), it went wrong,
they spent a fortune on it but it never worked
again! Ultraviolence conveys an air of menace
where Barney's restrained vocals compliment the
impending savagery of the music perfectly. Both We All Stand and 586 first saw an airing in
early form on a Peel session in the summer of 82.
We All Stand is incredibly minimal: there's very
little there, just sparse guitar, Hooky's winding
bass and Steve's effected drumming. 586 is a different kettle of fish. The Peel
version is quite minimal but this is a corker.
An insistant sequenced bassline draws us in
and the band give it to us with both barrells,
drawing to a close with a brilliant sampled
toy piano solo! "I heard you calling..." says Barney as the
music swells and the sound is quite joyful
and exuberant, two fingers to NO's detractors
who see their music as dour and joyless. Not so. They were on their way to the big time
and this album paved the way... Al Ferrier, December 2001
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