Classic Album: Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures

Each month we take a look at a classic track or album and discuss it from a music production perspective, examining any sonic innovations that took place during its recording. This month we focus on Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, released on Factory Records in 1979.The album was recorded and mixed over three successive weekends at Strawberry Studios in Stockport, near Manchester. It was produced by Martin Hannett, who was working almost as an 'in-house' engineer for Factory Records at the time. Hannett was an unconventional and difficult character, but he was also a visionary producer. In particular, he was obsessive in his search for the perfect drum sound, which could often drive the bands he worked with to distraction.

Stephen Morris, Joy Division's drummer explains; 'At that time he wanted complete separation. He wanted the bass drum on its own with nothing, no spill, so he could treat it one way and treat the snare drum another way. He wanted it as clean and as treatable as he could get it, which meant you couldn't really play a drum kit because you would get spill. And you could forget playing cymbals. You had to basically take the drum kit to pieces and play each bit separately. At the time I thought he was just doing it to drive me mad – which he did, quite successfully.' Hannett had other ways of achieving specific drum sounds too – he famously made Morris set his kit up on the roof of the recording when the band came in to record 'She's Lost Control'.

His key innovation, however was his use of digital delay on drums. Tony Wilson, the head of Factory Records recognised Hannett's achievement in creating a truly new sound: 'That early digital delay was his true era. I knew that at the time. What I didn't know was that, with that digital delay, he had found a new, fresh, innovative drum sound… we were so lucky to stumble across a producer who had found his true moment in technical evolution… he came of age with that drum sound, as all great producers come of age linked to a particular piece of equipment.' The technique itself is explained in greater detail by Vini Reilly of The Durutti Column, who also worked with the producer: 'Martin used that digital delay not as a repeat echo delay but to make a tiny, tiny millisecond delay that came so close to the drum it was impossible to hear.' The result was a drum sound quite unlike anything that had gone before.

Peter Hook, Joy Division's bassist, spoke about the album and Hannett's production much later on: 'It definitely didn't turn out sounding the way I wanted it,' Hook revealed to Mojo in 2006. 'But now I can see that Martin did a good job on it. There's no two ways about it: Martin Hannett created the Joy Division sound.'

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