Joy Division - 1979 - Unknown Pleasures

It even looks like something classic, beyond its time or place of origin even as it was a clear product of both — one of Peter Saville's earliest and best designs, a transcription of a signal showing a star going nova, on a black embossed sleeve. If that were all Unknown Pleasures was, it wouldn't be discussed so much, but the ten songs inside, quite simply, are stone-cold landmarks, the whole album a monument to passion, energy, and cathartic despair. The quantum leap from the earliest thrashy singles to Unknown Pleasures can be heard through every note, with Martin Hannett's deservedly famous production — emphasizing space in the most revelatory way since the dawn of dub — as much a hallmark as the music itself. Songs fade in behind furtive noises of motion and activity, glass breaks with the force and clarity of doom, minimal keyboard lines add to an air of looming disaster — something, somehow, seems to wait or lurk beyond the edge of hearing. But even though this is Hannett's album as much as anyone's, the songs and performances are the true key. Bernard Sumner redefined heavy metal sludge as chilling feedback fear and explosive energy, Peter Hook's instantly recognizable bass work at once warm and forbidding, Stephen Morris' drumming smacking through the speakers above all else. Ian Curtis synthesizes and purifies every last impulse, his voice shot through with the desire first and foremost to connect, only connect — as "Candidate" plaintively states, "I tried to get to you/You treat me like this." Pick any song: the nervous death dance of "She's Lost Control"; the harrowing call for release "New Dawn Fades," all four members in perfect sync; the romance in hell of "Shadowplay"; "Insight" and its nervous drive toward some sort of apocalypse. All visceral, all emotional, all theatrical, all perfect — one of the best albums ever.

		1		Disorder	Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner	3:36
		2		Day of the Lords	Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner	4:43
		3		Candidate	Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner	3:00
		4		Insight	Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner	4:00
		5		New Dawn Fades	Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner	4:47
		6		She's Lost Control	Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner	3:40
		7		Shadowplay	Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner	3:50
		8		Wilderness	Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner	2:35
		9		Interzone	Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner	2:10
		10		I Remember Nothing	Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner	6:00

¡Aquí!

Arco Iris - 1979 - Mañana Campestre

1. Mañana campestre
   
2. Vasudeva
   
3. El niño, la libertad y las palomas
   
4. Soy un pedazo de sol
   
5. Kukuriku
   
6. Abran los ojos
   
7. La savia verde
   
8. Detrás
   
9. Llegó el cambio
   
10. Sudamérica

¡Aquí!

Fall - 1979 - Live At The Witch Trials (2CD)

That the first Fall album in a near endless stream would not only not sound very punk at all but would be a downright pleasant listen at the start (thanks to Yvonne Pawlett's electric piano on "Frightened") seems perfectly in keeping with Smith's endlessly contrary mind. His inimitable drawl/moan and general vision of the universe (idiots are everywhere and idiotic things are rampant) similarly sprawls all over the music -- there's no question who this is or whose band it is as well. That said, most of Live at the Witch Trials is co-written with Martin Bramah, whose guitar work here is noticeably much more inclined to chime and ring instead of brutally scratching away like Craig Scanlon's awesome work would soon do. Bramah's not just there to sound tuneful, though, and the killer Marc Riley/Karl Burns rhythm section both keeps up the energy and provides surprising grooves. On chugging tracks like "Two Steps Back," it's not hard to tell Smith's Krautrock fandom is coming into play. With Pawlett's keyboards providing a pretty garage kick on top of it all, the result is an all-around treat. Brilliantly scabrous tracks are everywhere, one of the most memorable being "Rebellious Jukebox," simultaneously one of the most tuneful and aggressive songs from the early lineup, Smith pouring it on along with the band as a whole. The driving funk of "Music Scene," meanwhile, redefines misanthropy (and more) with a particularly central Smith target in mind. "No Xmas for John Quays," meanwhile, almost establishes the Fall formula on its own -- Smith chanting and yelling over a quick, semi-rockabilly shamble and attack punctuated with unexpected stops and starts. Note -- the Cog Sinister CD re-release of the album, in keeping with similar perverse reissues in the Fall's back catalog, is mastered directly from vinyl, and more than once sounds it.

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Schulze, Klaus - 1979 - 1024-Live At Stokvishal, Arnhem

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Magazine - 1979 - Secondhand Daylight

Secondhand Daylight, the second Magazine album, sounds like it must have been made in the dead of winter. You can imagine the steam coming out of Howard Devoto's mouth as he projects lines like "I was cold at an equally cold place," "The voyeur will realize this is not a sight for his sore eyes," "It just came to pieces in our hands," and "Today I bumped into you again, I have no idea what you want." You can picture Dave Formula swiping frost off his keys and Barry Adamson blowing on his hands during the intro to "Feed the Enemy," as guitarist John McGeoch and drummer John Doyle zip their parkas. From start to finish, this is a showcase for Formula's chilling but expressive keyboard work. Given more freedom to stretch out and even dominate on occasion, Formula seems to release as many demons as Devoto, whether it is through low-end synthesizer drones or violent piano vamps. Detached tales of relationships damaged beyond repair fill the album, and the band isn't nearly as bouncy as it is on Real Life or The Correct Use of Soap -- it's almost as if they were instructed to play with as little physical motion as possible. The drums in particular sound brittle and on the brink of piercing the ears. Despite the sub-zero climate, the lack of dance numbers, and the shortage of snappy melodies, the album isn't entirely impenetrable. It lacks the immediate impact of Real Life and The Correct Use of Soap, but it deserves just as much recognition for its compellingly sustained petulance. Even if you can't get into it, you have to at least marvel at "Permafrost." The album's finale, it's an elegant five-minute sneer, and as far as late-'70s yearbook scribbles are concerned, "As the day stops dead, at the place where we're lost, I will drug you and f*ck you on the permafrost" is less innocuous than "All we are is dust in the wind."

		1		Feed the Enemy	Devoto, Formula	5:45
		2		Rhythm of Cruelty	Adamson, Devoto, McGeoch	3:03
		3		Cut-Out Shapes	Devoto	4:43
		4		Talk to the Body	Devoto, McGeoch	3:34
		5		I Wanted Your Heart	Adamson, Devoto, Formula	5:13
		6		The Thin Air	Devoto, McGeoch	4:10
		7		Back to Nature	Devoto, Formula	6:40
		8		Believe That I Understand	Adamson, Devoto	4:00
		9		Permafrost	Devoto	5:25

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Young, Neil - 1979 - Rust Never Sleeps

Rust Never Sleeps, its aphoristic title drawn from an intended advertising slogan, was an album of new songs, some of them recorded on Neil Young's 1978 concert tour. His strongest collection since Tonight's the Night, its obvious antecedent was Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home, and, as Dylan did, Young divided his record into acoustic and electric sides while filling his songs with wildly imaginative imagery. The leadoff track, "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" (repeated in an electric version at album's end as "Hey Hey, My My [Into the Black]" with slightly altered lyrics), is the most concise and knowing description of the entertainment industry ever written; it was followed by "Thrasher," which describes Young's parallel artistic quest in an extended metaphor that also reflected the album's overall theme — the inevitability of deterioration and the challenge of overcoming it. Young then spent the rest of the album demonstrating that his chief weapons against rusting were his imagination and his daring, creating an archetypal album that encapsulated his many styles on a single disc with great songs — in particular the remarkable "Powderfinger" — unlike any he had written before.

		1		My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)	Blackburn, Young	3:45
		2		Thrasher	Young	5:38
		3		Ride My Llama	Young	2:29
		4		Pocahontas	Young	3:22
		5		Sail Away	Young	3:46
		6		Powderfinger	Young	5:30
Composed by: Young Performed by: Neil Young & Crazy Horse
		7		Welfare Mothers	Young	3:48
Composed by: Young Performed by: Neil Young & Crazy Horse
		8		Sedan Delivery	Young	4:40
Composed by: Young Performed by: Neil Young & Crazy Horse
		9		Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)	Young	5:18

¡Aquí!