Although I, personally, am not the biggest Joy Division or New Order fan, I do appreciate them and own a couple of “greatest hits” collections. However, I am assuming that there must be quite a few Joy Division fanatics amongst the Dangerous Minds readership, and y’all are in luck because a fellow going by the monicker of “50 Pound Note” has, with some like-minded collaborators, “restored” the JD/NO singles with the finest versions possible to assemble.
Basically what theyve done is make an all-encompassing box set of the original singles. In some cases, where there was a live recording used, they went to other, better, tape sources that have turned up since the original 70s and 80s vinyl versions were issued. This is a unique contribution to extreme music fandom and I applaud their efforts. From the Recycle: Joy Division & New Order project’s mission statement:
A careful restoration of Joy Division/New Order’s years on Factory Records (and maybe a little before and after).
All tracks were taken from the best/earliest possible sources to avoid modern mastering techniques which crush the dynamics. Tracks sourced from vinyl have been carefully cleaned and EQ levels have been tweaked for consistency. The artwork was scanned at the highest possible resolution and the type was reset when possible using the original fonts.
All of these singles are out-of-print. Many of the tracks have never appeared on CD. This was a labor of love from a small, devoted circle of fans.
These singles changed my life. I hope they change yours, too.