they keep calling me...

(Joy Division live at Prince Of Wales YMCA, London UK 2 Aug 1979, photo by Jill Furmanowsky)

If you're a Joy Division fan, and you purchased 2007's reissued 2xCD packages, you would have seen in STILL's liner notes a blurb about "Ice Age" being at the wrong pitch/speed (it's too fast making Ian Curtis sound like a chipmunk), and had been so since its initial release in 1981.

Here's my returning-the-favor:

Ice Age at proper concert pitch, as it should have been.



JOY DIVISION - Ice Age
(pitch-corrected, from the 1981 Factory LP FACT40 STILL, reissued in 2007 by Rhino)

And a bonus!

"Colony" from Closer, and "Dead Souls" from STILL (and 1988's Substance collection) also are not at proper pitch/speed. Whether this was intended as such by the band and legendary producer Martin Hannett, or not caught at the mastering session and is an error, it's interesting to hear them at proper "concert" pitch (matched up with live performances and properly tuned guitars).

I'm suspecting they should have been at this corrected pitch/speed all along, it's likely they were futzed-with in studio to help Ian sing in a more natural key for him during their respective recording sessions ("Dead Souls" at Cargo Studios 10/79 with "Atmosphere" and "Ice Age"; and "Colony" at Brittania Row, 3/80 for the Closer sessions), but weren't brought back to proper speed/pitch at mastering time.


JOY DIVISION - Colony
(pitch-corrected, from the classic 1980 Factory LP FACT25 Closer, reissued in 2007 by Rhino)

-- and --

JOY DIVISION - Dead Souls
(pitch-corrected, from the 1981 Factory LP FACT40 STILL, reissued in 2007 by Rhino)