By 1988, post-punk was well on its way to being back underground, out of a pop limelight that would increasingly soon include hip-hop, new jack swing and hideous combinations of both. Unless you were R.E.M. or U2, post-punk participants of all sorts went their separate ways, on to careers as respectable singer-songwriters or out of the business altogether.
When I say that the last year that Ronald Reagan was in office marked the "end of post-punk," of course I refer to the era in which those bands sold the most records, and, by and large, had the biggest profiles. Although the prime post-punk forms, such as gothic rock, hardcore, mope rock, etc. would thrive in their own respective little scenes, the chances for parlaying say, your Jam-influenced garage band into massive chart success was in the late 1980's very small indeed.
Also in 1988, the remaining members of Joy Division released "Substance." As a companion to the New Order album of the same name from the previous year, the posthumous Joy Division record collected singles and rarities from the band's brief career, including several tracks from their early days, when they were known as Warsaw.
The album - not an album properly recorded in the studio, but cohesive nonetheless - is important for several reasons. Firstly, "Substance" recalls a time when bands regularly concentrated on the singles format; a song needn't always be a preview of a forthcoming album, but rather could stand on its own. The post-punk era was famous for this type of recording, such as Bauhaus "Bela Legosi's Dead," and the early works of bands like Depeche Mode, Sisters of Mercy, and The Cure. (American audiences were always a bit more hesitant than their U.K. counterparts to spend cash on Extended Play singles; hence The Cure releasing their early singles in the states as an "album," "Boys Don't Cry.")
Secondly, the final Joy Division release - not counting "best ofs," live LPs and box sets, of course - simply contains some of their finest work. On compact disc, the songs sound stellar, reproduced even from the 1977 Warsaw EP, "An Ideal for Living." Although the early stuff ("Warsaw," "Leaders of Men,") lacks Joy Division's ultimate vision, it does provide for a snapshot of a band under development during the very height of the punk era.
"Digital," the bouncy, Devo-ish first single, showcases Peter Hook's defining bass work, as well as providing an early peek at singer Ian Curtis' inner ghosts. "I feel it closin' in," Curtis intones ominously, "day in, day out, day in, day out!" "Autosuggestion" suggests a heavy Bowie-Berlin era influence, and the brilliant, frighteningly intense "Transmission," one of Joy Division's very best songs, spins a sinister Hook bass line into a diatribe against (celebration of?) modern music. That song also contains early indications of Curtis' well-published relationship troubles in the lyrics, with the unforgettable line "touching from a distance, further all the time."
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