New
Order: Item (Documentary/Music Video set)
Picture: B
Sound: B Extras: B- Program: A
Few bands have had to face the existence Joy Division did.
Rising out of Manchester to be the leaders of the
post-punk movement in the late ‘70s, Joy Division looked poised to conquer the
world after only two albums. But with
tracks like “Atmosphere,” “Transmission,” “She’s Lost Total
Control,” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” what albums they were. As influential then as they continue to be
now, Unknown Pleasures and Closer heralded the start of something
new, exciting, frightening, dangerous, pleasurable, painful, and
remarkable. Then, everything came
crashing down.
When Ian Curtis, the inimitable frontman of Joy Division
killed himself at the height of the band’s popularity, all seemed lost. And then it wasn’t, because out of the ashes
of one of the seminal groups of the latter 20th century came yet
another seminal group, New Order.
Comprised of members of the former Joy Division, New Order
picked up the pieces and carried on, resulting in one of the most exciting
bands to ever hit the globe. With hit
after hit after hit after hit, and remix after remix after remix, New Order
cultivated the dance-pop revolution in the ‘80s. “True Faith,” “Bizarre Love Triangle,” “Blue
Monday,” “Regret,” “Touched By the Hand of God,” “Round
& Round,” “The Perfect Kiss,” “State of the Nation” —
only some of the group’s many successes, those songs would constitute most
other band’s greatest hits packages.
For New Order, though, it represents only a fraction of what the band
has achieved during its existence, which is chronicled fabulously in Rhino’s
two-disc “New Order: Item.”
With one disc made up entirely of New Order videos—the
most complete collection of New Order clips ever assembled — and the other, a
new-to-DVD and expanded 1993 documentary, NewOrder Story, originally
aired on the BBC, Item is the ultimate look at the career of New Order.
The videos disc, NEW order A COLLECTION, contains
23 videos spanning the group’s entire career, even including three videos from
their latest album, Waiting for the
Siren’s Call. The quality of these
videos is remarkably good, with the only problems coming from the source
material the videos were shot on. So
while most look amazing, there are others done on grainy video that can only be
fixed so much.
All of the videos are interesting, even the “World in
Motion” clip which is nothing more than a promo for the English football
World Cup team. Highlights include the
Jonathan Demme-directed “The Perfect Kiss,” the Hair Metal parody “Touched
By the Hand of God,” the “24 Hour Party People” tie-in “Here to Stay,”
and the eerily prescient “Crystal,” which is a dig at hipster bands some
four years before they became ubiquitous.
(And a piece of trivia for all you music nerds out there, the video for
“Crystal” features a fictional band called The Killers. In fact, this
video is where the actual band The Killers got the name.)
In addition to the 23 videos are alternate cuts for three
videos, “Round & Round,” “Regret,” and “Crystal.” The most interesting of the group is “Regret,”
which was part of some ill-conceived “Baywatch” tie-in where New Order
“plays” their latest hit on the beach while bikini-clad women and dudes are
playing volleyball and generally frolicking.
It’s interesting as not only a cultural artifact, but also a New Order
oddity. There are also two new videos,
one for “Ceremony” and another for “Temptation;” a live cut of “Temptation”
from 1981; and a very interesting “Programme” feature, which allows the viewer
to choose from 15 of the disc’s 23 videos and create a set list of eight of
those 15. It’s a really neat bonus, and
is one that will surely occupy die-hard New Order fans for hours, trying to
out-create the best possible set list.
On the second disc, the “NewOrder Story” provides a
fascinating look at the beginnings of New Order and where they are right now
(that is, in 1993). There is a healthy
reuse of many of the videos found on the first disc of the set, but in between
those videos is an engrossing story, told ultimately first-hand by the band and
the people around them, about New Order, Factory Records, the Hacienda club in
Manchester, Tony Wilson, and Joy Division.
And that’s what will be of the most interest to New Order
fans. The time given to Joy Division is considerable, a good 15 or 20 minutes,
and it features video from a live Joy Division performance. The DVD content available chronicling Joy
Division is few and far between, so even this limited amount of footage is a
welcome addition to any music lover’s library.
The rest of the documentary is interesting if not a little
long. The number of full-on videos with
no discussion or talk from the band or its “people” causes the documentary to
lag in places. The good thing, though,
especially if you’ve already watched the videos collection, is that these parts
are easily distinguishable and can be easily fast-forwarded. But what problems this causes for the
documentary itself is more than made up for by the participation of people like
Bono and Quincy Jones. Both add
interesting insights and they make the “NewOrder Story” full and
well-rounded.
On the video side, the documentary looks great. Like with the videos, there is some footage
that can’t be fixed fully. But some of
the older stuff, like the Joy Division performance, looks—and
sounds—amazing. There are no extras to
speak of on the second disc, but that’s OK.
After diving head first into New Order and its history, the best extra
is actually going out and listening to their albums, as well as Joy Division’s,
and hearing their music in an entirely different way. The documentary is letterboxed 1.66 x 1 and videos have various
aspect ratios. The Dolby 2.0 Stereo
sound on both discs is stronger than usual for that format, but also varies in
the documentary via the time span of the material and Videos for their usual
variations.
Rhino should be commended for putting together such a
stellar package. But when has anyone
known Rhino to be anything but? The
work they’ve put into Elvis Costello’s catalogue is amazing, their Faces box
set is all-encompassing, and if you want to hear one of the best albums of all
time, look no further than their recent debut of Talking Heads’ The Name of This Band is Talking Heads. Not only does it sound like it was recorded
yesterday, the quality is so good it sounds like a lost Heads album. And, perhaps most astonishing, it surpasses
the brilliance of Stop Making Sense —
not something easily done. (And
speaking of Talking Heads, be on the look out for Rhino’s Talking Heads
DualDisc Brick box set, collecting remastered copies of the Heads’ eight
albums. It’s sure to be one of the
hallmark releases of 2005.)
With New Order, Rhino has put together a package that is
suitable for new fans as well as old one.
Newcomers to New Order will find much to enjoy in “Item,” and
people who have been following the band since they were Joy Division will find
a treasure in what is collected in this package.
- Dante A.
Ciampaglia
