The Sound
Jeopardy

"I can't escape myself"

Rock is a strange thing. You discover a well-known artist, fall in love with them, buy their CDs (if anyone still does that) and literally wear them out. Then you find out that someone, in the underground scene, has done something in the same genre, maybe even at the same time, more intense and heartfelt, and paradoxically much less known. Has this ever happened to you? Personally, yes, and this is yet another proof: I adore Joy Division, but since discovering The Sound I have been able to explore a side of music that is even more intense, vibrant, and desperate, without taking anything away from Curtis's immense group. 

Post-punk '77 sounds and haunting keyboard and synthesizer phrases, for this ill-fated group. The style follows in the footsteps of Joy Division; sharp guitars, stripped-down drums in service of a dark sound, rich in reverbs, and paradoxically also full, when keyboards come into play to weave poignant melodies. Unlike the dirtier sound of Joy Division, here we have an extremely well-crafted, precise, clean, vivid production.

Eleven tracks, almost sixty minutes and among the many qualitative peaks worth mentioning, there's the introduction, the splendid "I Can't Escape Myself". Anguishing, always on the verge of bursting into an annoying chorus, which punctually gets aborted at birth. Unforgettable lyrics. He can't escape himself, he never could. The singer, as well as guitarist, will die by suicide nineteen years later (the album is from 1980, a glorious year for the genre) crushed between the jaws of common indifference. This work, and all his in general, will sell miserably, practically nothing. Perhaps this pushed his self-esteem beyond the maximum limit, it couldn't get any lower, add a dose of certified schizophrenia and there's a casualty. Fate (and the press, of course) lumped him with Curtis, sure, but do you know how much he cares about that now? Not a damn...

But back to us. The fate of the artists we like is always interesting... But, in my opinion, the so-called fandom is rather inconsiderate: many people suffer every day, and glorifying artists "just" for this reason doesn't make sense. It makes sense to judge, and love, their music, that's for sure. 

Throughout the album, there's an alternation of almost rock'n'roll ballads of excellent craftsmanship and more dramatic pieces. The keyboards are always at the forefront, the bass truly recalls Hook, and Borland's voice captivates immediately, contrary to the Curtis-esque one, apparently colder and certainly more impenetrable. Pieces like "Missiles" reveal a whole dramatic vein to explore, but there's fast-paced and frenetic stuff like "Heyday", breaking the tension. Precisely "Missiles" I consider the group's masterpiece, however: an almost heart-wrenching crescendo, accompanied by inherently almost ridiculous lyrics (who the hell makes these missiles?) but sung by a voice like this, it takes on truly frightening connotations. And you can't quite put your finger on why. The screams tear at the heart because so much raw agony is hard to listen to. It’s pure suffering put into song, perhaps that's what frightens so much. At a certain point, the reverbs become more pronounced, the echo takes hold of the now truly desperate voice, the keyboards are pushed to their maximum, and everything veers toward an implosion that becomes more and more imminent. And when it comes, it’s almost a relief.

In general, the songs start slow, sometimes very slow, and explode at the end, another typical characteristic of Joy Division. Here and in Curtis's group, tension reigns supreme, and sometimes you really come to wish the song would end because it’s a psychological torture. 

The only somewhat derivative piece seems to be the nevertheless splendid "Desire", which has a bit of Bauhaus (not that it's a bad thing, eh!) the rest is probably (but who knows?) inspired by Joy Division; but what is astonishing is how, despite this, they manage to have their own easily recognizable identity. 

Summing up: drama, emotional tension, despair, and apathy, sparse and sharp sound, harrowing lyrics... Joy Division 2? No, the ideal continuation of a path.

Highly recommended.