Transmission is the brilliant first single from Joy Division. After a momentary ambient stillness, a pulsing bassline comes in, joined by machine-like drums. Bernard Sumner plays a basic two note guitar riff, dropping it an octave at 0:20, then slightly expanding on it at 0:26. The creepy atonally nasal vocals of Ian Curtis appear at 0:39:
Radio, live transmission...I love to mimic his voice, as I'm sure many others do. It's so peculiar but ordinary, not a stretch to achieve (unlike say, Freddie Mercury or Mick Jagger). His lyrics paint a bleak picture of society's tendency to conform to whatever message mainstream media disseminates:
We would go on as though nothing was wrong
Hide from these days, we remained all alone
Staying in the same place, just staying out the time
Touching from a distance, further all the time
Sumner's guitar splits the air at 1:42. The song builds, guitar chords roar, ambient keyboard sounds quiver, Ian's voice increases in passion. Dance dance dance dance dance to the radio. Artists are good at pointing out life's problems, but in the end we all have to figure things out for ourselves. Poor Ian wasn't able to find his way.
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