Post for New Order fans
So I've really been enjoying the new New Order album lately ("Music Complete"). For those who haven't heard it yet, it's one of the best things they've done in ages. Ironically, it's also the first album they've done with out their legendary bass player, Peter Hook, who left the band a number of years ago. For those unfamiliar with the band, Peter Hook had a very iconic style of bass playing that often supplied the melody as much as it did the bass line.
It got me thinking about Peter Hook's bass parts, and how pretty much all of his really classic bass parts came from either Joy Division or really early New Order songs. Ceremony, Transmission, Disorder, Leave Me Alone, Love Will Tear Us Apart, etc. They were all in the real early days of the band. As the band progressed, and became more electronic and production heavy, Hooky's bass lines became more just added flavor on top of the songs, instead of something integral to the music. The real bass would end up being supplied by synthesizers, and Hook's part was just something added on top. Even on the track's that were more rock-guitar based, his part was not nearly as interesting and intertwined as it was on their early material.
I think part of it is the way they changed how they wrote music. In the early days they were rooted in the punk movement. Each song was crafted for the four of them to play live, probably largely written in collaboration in a room together. The bass, guitar and drums all work in sync, puzzle pieces that were designed to fit together. Even the early synthesizer lines were intertwined in this same way, written in a live setting to be played in a live setting.
As time went on, though, they began adopting the more modern, heavy production techniques that's dominated most mainstream music. With the exception of some indie type bands, songs are no longer crafted by a group of friends in a room together. Instead, they're often driven by layering different ideas on top of each other in a studio. The recording ends up being more complex, but the result ends up being harder to pull of live, and the individual elements are rarely anything special in their own right.
New Order's latest album is no exception to this. In fact, it's probably the heaviest production they've done yet. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just a different thing. But it also explains why Peter Hook's bass lines were no longer what they used to be. I think if Hooky wants to really re-capture the class Joy Divison, early New Order sound with his new endeavors, he'd be wise to try and really strip down the production to old school punk levels again. Make the bass part the focus of a song, with some minimalistic guitar and drums intertwined. That was the formula that worked so great on all those early classic songs. It'd be interesting to see him try to recapture that again.
It got me thinking about Peter Hook's bass parts, and how pretty much all of his really classic bass parts came from either Joy Division or really early New Order songs. Ceremony, Transmission, Disorder, Leave Me Alone, Love Will Tear Us Apart, etc. They were all in the real early days of the band. As the band progressed, and became more electronic and production heavy, Hooky's bass lines became more just added flavor on top of the songs, instead of something integral to the music. The real bass would end up being supplied by synthesizers, and Hook's part was just something added on top. Even on the track's that were more rock-guitar based, his part was not nearly as interesting and intertwined as it was on their early material.
I think part of it is the way they changed how they wrote music. In the early days they were rooted in the punk movement. Each song was crafted for the four of them to play live, probably largely written in collaboration in a room together. The bass, guitar and drums all work in sync, puzzle pieces that were designed to fit together. Even the early synthesizer lines were intertwined in this same way, written in a live setting to be played in a live setting.
As time went on, though, they began adopting the more modern, heavy production techniques that's dominated most mainstream music. With the exception of some indie type bands, songs are no longer crafted by a group of friends in a room together. Instead, they're often driven by layering different ideas on top of each other in a studio. The recording ends up being more complex, but the result ends up being harder to pull of live, and the individual elements are rarely anything special in their own right.
New Order's latest album is no exception to this. In fact, it's probably the heaviest production they've done yet. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just a different thing. But it also explains why Peter Hook's bass lines were no longer what they used to be. I think if Hooky wants to really re-capture the class Joy Divison, early New Order sound with his new endeavors, he'd be wise to try and really strip down the production to old school punk levels again. Make the bass part the focus of a song, with some minimalistic guitar and drums intertwined. That was the formula that worked so great on all those early classic songs. It'd be interesting to see him try to recapture that again.