Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No text. No artwork. But signification-rich, 9 Jan 2008
The concept: Both reviewers are right; I agree with Robert Stetter that the lack of all text and artwork is bewildering at first. But as Alex Turner perceptively points out, it makes sense in terms of reduction of information while retaining recognisability - which Factory specialised in. More than this, these covers, like headstones and tombs (both featuring in JD design) have been scoured down to their bases. Here they are again, sandblasted by time, superficial texts and images gone. This reflects the loss of context, the reduction of Joy Division to a piece of current corporate Indie history (a terrible thing to happen - JD and Factory have nothing to do aesthetically or ethically with material like Killers, Delays, Kaiser Chiefs or any of the other current mediocrities). The package reflects the way time changes and distorts meaning and status, and the shock of this. It is a meditation on time and the effect of time on a legacy. Conceptually this recovers the brilliance of Factor and Peter Saville all these years later after years of extremely poor repackaging that reduced all the originality, impact and excitement of Factory packaging - the material, the feel, and typography - to horrible repros in jewel cases like any other High St CD.
The price and the packaging: The box set is extremely expensive. Materially, we are paying £50 extra over the individual reissues for the concept and the box. The price hike takes this set into the charging-for-rarity territory that has been exploited by underground artists like Coil and The Hafler Trio for some time, but from a corporate it does look cynical. In addition, the box while brilliantly conceived as a fat (3cm), flanged arrangement with a material that seems to be made of strands of all three albums (black, white, grey) is not particularly well made. Edges are not exactly square; there is some fraying and poor cutting of the fabric; corners are not as crisp as they could be. The LP sleeves are similarly fine but not fantastic - again, not exactly square sometimes etc., colour difference between Still's outer cover and gatefold (which I don't remember from the original [I never owned the hessian version so can't check right now]) and labels are not highly impressive either. The pressings, I find, have some crackle and sticks which indicates that pressing quality is not of the highest.
The music: You know it. As Alex Turner notes, the sound is compressed and comes across beefier. The compression brings things out in interesting ways. Interzone, for example, sounds very poppy and Ian's vocal transatlantic - it sounds like a potential current hit! I don't know if I prefer these mixes to the originals; the comparative brittleness of the original mixes also worked conceptually, but the ambient soundscaping seems to be brought out better here too in some cases, the swells and waves of Heart and Soul really making an impact, the scraping and keening of Sumner's guitar on Exercise One sounding pretty extreme - ominous and troubling. The remaster is subtle but it does what a good remaster should - refresh the material and make you see new things in it.
London should be congratulated for making/letting this happen. There is cynicism involved naturally - they know very well that JD's following are middle-aged with more disposable income; box sets are proliferating for this market (Pink Floyd and Genesis, for example, have expensive current packages out) that are being used to resell already-owned material into the nostalgia market. This music, that was once raw, shocking, and on the cutting edge, is now repackaged as an expensive leisure item for the relatively affluent middle-aged. There is something sad about this, but also something right in honouring these legacies in a very different time - Ian Curtis long gone, Tony Wilson now passed on, New Order apparently split with the members seemingly inactive, and mainstream rock music reduced against all expectation to cynical, meaningless bricolage with virtually all innovation and opposition gone. This box set is expensive and imperfect. But it is fantastic anyway. Practically free of signification, it stands for much and I have no regrets about buying it.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
misleading product info, 2 Oct 2007
I got my copy of the Joy Division box set today - and was at first bewildered, then angered. The packaging has been reduced to plain sleeves with no product info, no track listing or artwork whatsoever! The set is however advertised on Amazon as (and I cite) "All three titles are presented in their original packaging" which is clearly misleading.
While I understand the "total redux" concept employed by the makers, the patently incorrect product info will anger many - and lead to quite a few boxes being returned! I for my part will hang on to this - but only for profitable resale at some later date.
If you are looking - as I was - for facsimile vinyl copies of the original Factory Records editions, then don`t fall for this (very expensive) set - you will need to get the individual releases!
Why, finally, even the sticker on the box`s shrink wrap reads "all in original artwork" is absolutely beyond me, as this is clearly untrue.
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37 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unspoilt By Label Copy, 23 Sep 2007
The manufacturer's representation of this product has been, I feel, misleading. The picture shows a grey box with the edges of three records fanned out behind it. On the face of it, one might imagine that this is a collection of the newly remastered albums available separately, and that we are being invited to pay double their retail price because this set is a) limited, and b) in a nice box. And while, yes, that is in a sense true, we are also paying for something else, something you won't read about on Amazon's description, but something that makes this set oh-so-special.
That something is this: the Joy Division box set is 'unspoilt by label copy'.
To be honest, when I read this (at other online stores) I wasn't really sure of the implications. At first glance, it seemed like a concession to the fact that these were originally released on Factory Records, and therefore any reference to the current owners - London Records - would be omitted. Which sounded good. But then, I thought, maybe it wasn't this after all. For what exactly is 'label copy'? Well, that's text relating to the contents of whatever has been labelled. Fine. Avoiding the more obvious (and seemingly ludicrous) conclusion, I wondered if this implied that the sleeves weren't strewn with endless interviews and essays attempting to contextualise the original releases. Fair enough, I thought, that stuff is okay for CDs, and maybe even the individual versions of the vinyl re-releases, but not for this super-duper expensive box set. Oh no, at this price it's authenticity we're after.
Wrong.
As I opened the box and incredulously described its contents to my partner, she murmured, "Emperor's New Clothes." She had a point. You see, in this context, Unspoilt By Label Copy means Unspoilt By Any Text, Or Indeed Any Artwork Whatsoever.
Should I have realised this? Maybe so, but then would it have hurt anyone to come right out and say exactly what was on offer? Why didn't the blurb read: "These records are labelled 'All New Artwork' which means they are missing all the original artwork and typography to be replaced by...nothing. Save for a few small details on the actual disc labels that nod towards the arrangement of the original information (a line here, two lines there), the labels and sleeves, inside and out, are completely and utterly blank."?
There is, however, an information sheet included, which titles the set, 'Joy Division In Memory', perhaps as in 'you have to remember what tracks are on what disc from your old copies, 'cos these new sleeves won't remind you at all'.
I'm being facetious, of course. This is an excellent set. The presentation is faultless. (No, really!)
Despite how New Order are traditionally announced onstage, Joy Division really only exist in memory, and this specific reincarnation of their seminal output works to reflect this fact. Its essentially different form emphasises the newness of the remastering process. It does not feign authenticity, but situates itself clearly in the present, only glancing over its shoulder. A bit like the chunkier - read: compressed - mixes in evidence. (Well, what else did anyone expect?) Peter Saville and his cohorts are playing with the preconceptions of Joy Division's older fans, and out of this process, something new and different is born.
Delivered of markings, the texture of the paper - closely matched to the original stock - is brought to the fore.
Opening the box, with its thick hessian of black and white thread, we are presented with the cross-hatched, gloss black of Unknown Pleasures, the smooth, matte white of Closer, and the recycled grey of Still. This is primary memory - pure sensation. On a black information sheet hidden at the back, barely visible type offers the absolute minimum of information, but even that is perhaps unnecessary, given the intended audience.* Even though the result is something quite different from what is generally implied by the photo and the rest of the text, the blurb is correct in describing this as 'a highly collectable work of art'.
This set exists as the final extreme of an experiment Saville and Joy Division began all those years ago, one that saw many refinements through New Order's output, namely the reduction of information on record sleeves. It was a secret code between the band and its fans, a special record shop thrill that existed only for the Joy Division / New Order clique. By this essential difference, you could spot a New Order record a mile off. Perhaps that situation doesn't translate well to the more prosaic online world, but more effort could have been made. By explaining this design choice in context of its history, London could have been clearer about what was on offer, and still made it sound cool.
So, what about the individual remastered vinyl albums, the ones that, together, only cost about half the price of this box set? Given that the limited box splashes out on the correct paper stock, one might presume that the standard remastered vinyl copies - the ones 'spoilt' by label copy - are printed are on suitably standard cardboard and paper. But this is not so. Indeed, the individual editions are perfect. They use the same stock as those in the box set, and Still even has its hardcover and ribbon. Furthermore, despite being sullied by their photos of tombs, or by their depictions of radio waves born of collapsed stars, or indeed by their fancy-schmancy lettering, they are all virtually free of any reference to London. Attached to the shrink-wrap, there's a mention on the barcode sticker, and alongside Joy Division's traditionally oblique run-off groove scrawlings, there's a new, anonymous serial number scratched in. Other than that: nothing. It's all Factory-this and Factory-that. Great stuff.
So, in conclusion, this box set complements both the original albums and their remastered incarnations and also stands alone as a beautiful piece of design, but if you wanted a complete modern facsimile of the originals, you might be a little disappointed.
*A small point, but as this information sheet aims for an essentialist approach, for example, eschewing the usually predominant Factory catalogue numbers, why does it follow the suit of the Still label copy where a track name was omitted for sake of visual symmetry? The audibly present 24 Hours goes unmentioned on the sheet, even though the song titles are merely listed and not distinctly arranged.
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~ Joy Division
~ Joy Division
~ Joy Division
~ Various Artists
![Control [DVD] [2007]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mGfESiZoL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Sam Riley
See all 10 tracks on this disc
![Vinyl Box Set: Unknown Pleasures/Closer/Still - Remastered [VINYL]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41EoHH2GR4L._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Unknown Pleasures [VINYL]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51B4SPuQX8L._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Joy Division [DVD] [2008]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41cxrP7hAhL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Closer [VINYL]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41n-L6yYrfL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
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