Crucial Music: John Foxx- Metamatic (1980)
One of the reasons I wanted to start a blog was to shine a spotlight on some of the albums, movies, and books that I found interesting, influential, etc... Stuff that people may be quite familiar with, know about, but otherwise tend to overlook for their importance; an importance that may stem from my own idiosyncratic tastes, but still have an air of the "crucial." Hence, the first installment of "crucial music."

It is fitting in many ways that John Foxx's first solo album post-Ultravox would kick off this segment. Early Ultravox had a monumental effect on my formative years; the first three albums: 'Ultravox! (1977),' 'Ha Ha Ha (1977),' and 'Systems of Romance'(1978) seemed to capture in their quirky, mechanical beats, detached lyrics, and peculiar melodies everything I loved about dark music. Only David Sylvian and Japan came any closer to fully embodying that spirit.

I argue that 'Metamatic' is Foxx's most realized work; saturated in the grey, existential cyberpunk tones of J.G. Ballard, drowned in colorless monotone drum machines that hypnotize, and wrapped in a haze of 4AM, you can't get much better than this. From the very beginning, 'Plaza' hits the veins like a sweet taste of heroin.

Recently released on DVD, Control is a movie well worth a look for fans of post-punk.

What follows will be a few of my thoughts on Anton Corbijn's feature film debut, Control. Based on Touching From a Distance, Deborah Curtis' book about her life with Ian Curtis, Control depicts the life of the late Joy Division frontman (Sam Reilly gives a fantastic performance, and even sang the songs in the movie) from his beginnings as a glam-rock crazed teenager to his death at 23. Watching the film, one is immediately struck by how iconic Corbijn portrays Curtis- one need only take a cursory glance at several of the shots throughout the film to get the picture: Ian Curtis as the sorrowful young Werther, forever frozen behind glass in his poetry and tragedy. He is almost godlike in how he is shot. The visual messages are all the more striking in the black and white Corbijn uses as his media.
I found this film, unfortunately, quite empty in places. Devoid of real passion or emotion, the bleakness turns to downright boredom in spots. The actors portraying the rest of the band do an admirable job, but at 2 hours, the film seems paradoxically too long and too short at the same time. Too many key moments in the band's career are either short-changed or passed over, while a couple of key dramatic scenes just drag. However, this is not necessarily Corbijn's intention: this is a film about Ian Curtis, not the band. The key is internal drama and pathos, not the nuances of Joy Division itself.
Despite its flaws, 'Control' is hardly a bad film- far from it. Fans of Joy Division will enjoy it based on the soundtrack and passionate >performances alone. The ending of this film sent the wrong message: a bleak shot of a Manchester sky as Corbijn deifies Curtis, and perhaps romanticizes his tragic end. I wouldn't call Control a total success, but it is an admirable first outing for Corbijn.