Joy Division - "Disorder" [live]. Taken from Joy Division's superb live record, Les Bains Douches. Recorded in Paris, December 18th 1979. Joy Division can be a hard band to discover. For those of us who didn't grow up with Closer playing on either our stereos or those of our older siblings, it's a difficult and somewhat baffling listening process. The first response tends to be one of distaste: this is cheesy 80s moping, weak on hooks, with a lame-sounding echoey production. Whereas New Order is able to break through the generation gap through its similarity to contemporary dance-punk and electro, Joy Division can sound embarassingly dated. Les Bains Douches, however, puts a new face on the aesthetic of the J.D. studio releases: it is nimble and visceral, and it strikes me dumb with its fury. The songs become frenzied, rock'n'roll, and I can hear an anger that the track seems to direct against its own debauchery. It's dance-rock that's tearing itself down, nails out. Eyes blackened, booze spilled.
Wiley Kat - "Bird Tune". What I've heard of the new Wiley record I like a whole lot. I'm a pansy, so it helps that he feels nicer than Dizzee Rascal, but I also appreciate the skewed organic sounds that bruise his productions. "What Do You Call It?" is totally charming to me - it's the horns that do it, punched through with brittle garage tics. "The Game" is great too, like G-Unit after a punch in the gut. "Bird Tune," though, is older - and in this case, it's not a vocal mix. The track is hollowed out, a little desperate: a captured bird that squirts out song like a creaky door, steam from a valve. It marches on with a kind of sick determination, tabla hanging on like a craven accomplice.
[minor edits at 5:13pm]