Customer Reviews

Warsaw

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the material that would become Joy Division. Early may '78 recordings, Having just acquired Stephen Morris as a drummer, who skeleton-ized their style, completing it, giving some structure upon which to hang the flesh, blood and bile. The band would walk away from these sessions- in pert because a producer added some synth to the final mix, so as to temper the punk style. warsaw didn't like that, it would seem. ultimately, this was used to attempt to barter a deal with RCA- a project that was eventually abandoned... now it's this import.

When you compare this with what they were doing less than two years later on 'Closer,' you kinda have to marvel. Such evolution is like time-lapse photography. It boggles the heart and soul...

So: Joy Division in their early pupal stages. If you like your music sloppy and punk- true, late-70's punk- look no further. Also, you can hear the vocals and words quite clearly (good cuz no lyric sheet here- just a short history). Always a good thing. Still, this is pretty Stooged-out stuff, stylistically. damn good. The sound production is uneven and it lacks the idiosyncratic attentions of uber-producer Martin Hannett. They're feeling out their own style and it's exciting to hear. The thing is, for the most part you can get most of these songs on Disc 3 of the "Hear and Soul" box set. The versions there are mainly as good if not better than these. These are crustier...

"The Drawback," think, is the exact same cut on both editions.

"Leaders of Men," a classic track, played faster and thinner than the box set. Ian sounds haunted.

"They Walked In Line," is a bit faster, I think, than the box set version. Scratchier. Echo vox on chorus.

"Failures," a short romp through this bare bones punk tune. I dig the box set version more: more guitar noodling that adds to the mood. Still, this is a rollicking good time. Shout along chorus. Thumping bass.

"Novelty," is, IMHO, the best version of this song. A dated song- not as good as later stuff, it suits this raw style. The later cleaner version just sounds bland to me. I like this quick cutting version better. Works well as a punk tune.

"No Love Lost," is TOTALLY different (much longer) from the box set cut, with rattier vocals and a longer build-up time (more jittery, telegraphic guitar) and a different second verse. I love this version. It stands up with the fuller version one on the box set. I like the way Ian tries to rhythmically rhyme out the second chorus... Neat!

"Transmission," is uniquely odd. Full of what the spaceballs guy would call, 'the beeps, the sweeps and the creeps.' Long version, very urgent. Good vocal tone. Thick drums. Great version that sounds like no other.

"Interzone," sounds raw as hell. The drums are nice. Brutal. The howls are nice. Ron Asheton is channeled in the guitar riff.

"Livin In the Ice Age," fuzzy version. A tad repetitive. Can't hear the thick bass. This was before Hook adopted the high-register/melodic bass-stylings that would become a JD staple. I still like it, though...

"warsaw" Again- the damn bass. This time too much- too loud and thick. The box set version is vastly superior in terms of sound quality. fast.

"Shadowplay" is raw and spare. similar to the box set, but shorter. GREAT TUNE! Great early recording. The vox are ominous and bratty- you can hear the influences of Iggy and Bowie on Ian, he sounds like jagger towards the end ("I did evrythin. Evrythin I cud dew"). bass is screwy again. I like this a lot.

"As you said" is exactly the same two minutes of odd, spacy, dance-synth instrumental hokum as on the box set. I always wonder about this rack as it utterly sucks. the creeping doom of New Order is emerging here- beware!!!!

The final five tracks are demos cut at pennine Studios in July, '77. Steve Brotherdale on drums. They are typical punk. Bread and butter 70's punk rock. Thick bass/screaming/chanting vox/insipid lyrics/sludge guitar/bland drums... Nothing great or eve interesting here, I think. Occasionally the instrumental bridges are indicative of later musical directions... A horrible version of "The Kill," always bothers me.

All in all: worth it for fans of the era or obsessive, cranky, JD purists who have to possess every shred of music the band ever dallied with. People Like Me.

This is a bootleg, rather than a band-sanctioned official release. Three of these songs also appear on the "Heart and Soul" boxed set (The Drawback, Shadowplay, Interzone), and the sound quality is notably better there than here. However, the sound quality of this bootleg is really pretty good; you can enjoy the music unimpeded. There is, however, apparently a pristine sounding German bootleg out there somewhere.

The final five songs constitute the band's earliest demo, from July 1977. At that point they were called Warsaw, and you can hardly perceive Joy Division in the breakneck punk frenzy. Interesting evidence of how quickly the band evolved, but little more.

Five months later, the band (now nearly called Joy Division) recorded the excellent e.p. "An Ideal for Living," which is included in full on "Heart and Soul" and "Substance." In May 1978, they did sessions for a planned RCA album, which never saw release. This "Warsaw" cd includes those sessions in full. To my knowledge, only three (of the total eleven) recordings from these sessions have been released officially (see above). Because all four songs from the "Ideal for Living" e.p. are rerecorded here (in, I think, inferior versions), that puts the burden of value of this cd on a mere four remaining songs.

And they're pretty damn cool: a crisp (vocals all intelligible) "Walked in a Line," a slower "Transmission," a fiestier "Novelty," and a solid "Ice Age." The well-known recordings of these songs date from a year to two years later, so these are quite distinctive. If you're a fanatic, you want everything on this cd. If you're simply a big fan, these four tracks are worth checking out.

This is a strange record with many confusing aspects to it. Its Joy Divisions first time in a recording studio with an album which never appeared. Some of the best tracks were re-recorded for the infinitely superior Unknown Pleasure. Here the sound is more primitive (badly produced and mixed) and hasnt shaken off its sex pistol inspred roots to form the new kind of music which Joy Division pioneered. Some of this tracks were relesed on An Ideal For Living EP, which appear on the Heart + Soul boxset. Some also appears on Substance. But this is the complete set. But for the life of me I don't know why they tout it as Warsaw. It must be some obscure legal reason, as when they went into the studio they were already called Joy Division. Only the bonus demos are really Warsaw songs, and a very intereseting glimpse into how the band started out (rubbish but enthusiastic- so YOU too could end up being great, just keep practicing) A good historical document then. But another confusion arises over the inclusion of a pulsinf piece of electronica from the CLOSER sessions. As You Said. Not only is this not WARSAW in era or name it also sticks out like a saw thumb, like putting a New Order song on a Sex Pistols record. But we'll forgive the makers for giving an official release to a fans favourite bootleg...

If you want early joy division without the processed drums, intense reverb and the heavy darkness, this album is for you. I pretty much learned how to play GOOD punk guitar by listening to this music. Raw British tone with childlike blasts up and down the blues scales make this record full of energy and great sounding riffs.

I especially like the version of "interzone" found here. It is much more stripped down and punk. The drums sound real and live, unlike that (...) drum machine tone on the later version. The vocals are similar to the Keith Morris era of black flag, high and dry.

If you are into wire (pink flag) and gang of four (entertainment) -- (and for some strange reason aren't hip to the warsaw trip), you've gotta get this.

I owned this album for two decades as a bootleg tape that got passed around the Berkeley punk scene in the early eighties, and it never failed to become the favorite music of anyone I turned on to it. Joy Division always seems to sound better (to me) at their rawest, and the lower sound quality adds an edge of doom not found on the sanctioned version (of course this could just be that it reminds me of scratchy records). Either way, if you're a fan of "Closer" or New Order, I'm pretty sure you won't dig this. If you were immediately hypnotized by "Unknown Pleasures" like I was at fifteen, this is essential.

This is great for many reasons:

1) It's a good chance to hear the band as it just started to shed its early punk sound and become much darker-sounding. Its also a chance to hear them without any fancy Martin Hannett production trickery.

2) It's a remarkable document of just how much Ian's voice changed in a very short time. This is a snarling, snotty sounding, angry young man at the mic - nothing to even hint that in two years he'd be crooning like a despondent Frank Sinatra on songs like "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "Heart And Soul". Listen to "Walked in Line" on this album and compare it to the version from "Still." Its hard to believe they were only done a year apart.

3) It's got a couple of what i feel are the best versions of Joy Division songs: "Shadowplay," "No Love Lost," "Leaders of Men," and "Novelty" all sound better here, even in their somewhat rough recordings, than any other version I know of.

4) Only 3 of the 11 songs here are included on the box set.

5) For sheer comic value, you have to love the last five songs - these are the earliest, rawest recordings of Joy Division. Sometimes I just crack up listening to these incredibly primitive cuts - "You're No Good For Me" could have been done by any number of booze-soaked louts. But even as early as July '77 Ian's lyrics were already chilling: "Human beings are dangerous and they call me in the dark" (At A Later Date), for example. Plus you get the immortal "Warsaww!!!" howl at the beginning of "Gutz."

This is a very good "punk" album and a very interesting Joy Division album. Highly recommended.

Joy Division was a rock band. That comes through on this album. The sound is raw as is the recording but for me it's the best one, the least compromised one the most rebellious one. Great band never to return. One of those inexplicable "clicked".

I haven't actully heard this version, but I have the original bootleg mentioned in the Amazon critics review that this came off. My records have been in storage for 8 years so I just heard the officially released compilation 'STILL' and the bootleg after about nine years. My first reaction is to blame Martin Hanett who on STILL absolutely smothers the original takes in wash-over and wash-out production. Frankly, when you consider this was first recorded in 1977, anyone familiar with that era should realise Warsaw's demos were already far superior to 99 percent of official releases that year, both in concept and in delivery. I put it in the same category as Televison's Marquee Moon in terms of blowing me away from the first listen, and now I am in my late 40's I find that a lot of the Punk and New Wave stuff sounds dated now, but not this. Since I am writing this, I may as well throw in that I have also found the first SImple Minds ALbum (Reel to Reel Cacophony) another which has stood the test of time and should by rights be remembered as their best record. If this Warsaw album is as good as the bootleg I have, any self respecting JD fan (who doesn't already have the original) should rush out and get this.

'Warsaw' contains 11 tracks that were to have made up Joy Division's debut album, before it was scrapped. Allegedly the band protested because an engineer added keyboards to the album (gee, what a difference a couple of years would make!). The album showcases the group in transition between the raw sloppy punk of their earliest cuts and the dark artistic beauty of `Unknown Pleasures'. Many songs still have a punkish energy to them, Ian Curtis has not developed his shadowy moan yet, and Martin Hannett's production is absent. But there is already something distinctive about the group; Curtis' lyrics are bleak and introspective instead of angry, and the bass and drums are already taking the lead role on many tracks.

The album consists of the four tracks that eventually made up the 'Ideal For Living' EP ('Warsaw', 'Leaders Of Men', 'No Love Lost', 'Failures'), others that would pop up a year later around the time of 'Unknown Pleasures' ('Shadowplay' and 'Interzone', plus the single 'Transmission' and its B-side 'Novelty'), and a few that didn't see official release until much later ('Drawback', 'Ice Age', 'They Walked In Line'). And for some reason the Kraftwerk-like synth piece 'As You Said' from 1980 appears on here as well, despite having no connection to the Warsaw era and sounding completely out of place.

While all of these songs later appeared elsewhere, `Warsaw' is still a very worthwhile and interesting album for Joy Division fans, since early every song here sounds different from the later "official" versions. One obvious reason is the absence of Martin Hannett's production, which cuts both ways. Yes, the songs do lack that eerie mystique that characterised later Joy Division masterpieces. But on the other hand, the simple production allows the songs' raw punky energy to come through in a way that Hannett's thick mixes never could. But there are other differences too; the changed lyrics of `No Love Lost' and `Novelty', the sped up `Leaders of Men' and a much slower `Transmission' (which to be honest, doesn't suit the song at all). Ian's "punky" vocals also give the songs a more direct drive than his processed moan on later albums; `Novelty' in particular sounds better in this context than the version on the B-side of `Transmission'.

Special mention must be made of 'As You Said' which, despite being utterly out of place on this album, is a nice rejoinder to those self-serious Joy Division fans who allege New Order "sold out" by exploring electronic and dance music. New Order always claimed that had Ian lived, Joy Division would gone down the electronica path anyway (witness 'Isolation', the 12" mix of 'She's Lost Control', etc..), and this two minute spacey, Krautrock-y track is probably the most explicit pointer in that direction. So those so-called fans can stop being so precious now.....

As a "Bonus" of sorts, the album also includes five of the band's very earliest cuts from 1977. As another reviewer notes, this has something of a comedy value, as we witness just how raw and primitive the band were in the beginning. It's actually quite funny to hear Ian screaming tunelessly over rough-as-guts sludgy songs recorded with bare-bones production values. There's very little here, apart from maybe a hint of something in Ian's lyrics, to suggest where Joy Division would end up a mere 2-3 years later, let alone that they'd be whooping it up as New Order a few years after that!

In hindsight, it's a real pity that this album never saw release at the time, since it represents a crucial bridge between the raw sloppy punk of the band's very first cuts and the dark artistic beauty of 'Unknown Pleasures'. It's good to see it finally available, and it provides serious Joy Division fans with a clearer insight into the band's punky roots, as well as some interesting alternative takes on many well-known tracks. Recommended.

Man, I hate to give this four stars instead of five. But I'm much more attuned to the Gothic aspects that surround Joy Division.
I would first like to point out that these sessions were not recorded when the band were called Warsaw--but they were infact Joy Division for several months prior to the recording.
This was a very important move for the band, they had an intact sound--but still were searching for their particular click. Very heavy and raw. Much more like their live sound. They all had a lot to improve upon performance and technique. Basically, this is great as a time-piece. And allows you to hear how the band built themselves to become as great as they eventually would.
The "bonus" tracks are the first recordings when they were called Warsaw--that's some of the heaviest punk you'll ever find. All good stuff. A must for all Joy Division fans.