It's definitely the sonics of it that took the most amount of time to sink in with me - I had never really heard 70's post-punk stuff when I first listened so that's what I was hearing, rather than what makes JD so different from the other 70's post-punk bands.
Listening to it now, it's not following any obvious rulebook on how to make a good sounding record, it's all so thin and flat and enervating - I can imagine a song like Insight was roaring when played live but here everything is underpowered and missing half the frequencies... no loss by my reckoning considering it's not like there was a lack of roaring noise bands at the time (or now). My understanding is that this was all Martin Hannett in search of some abstract sound he figured they were too thick to understand. Without him they'd likely just have been just another so-so gloomy post-punk band with a few decent highpoints.
It's a real case of the right people (with the right levels of skill) in the right place at the right time, unrepeatable except as tribute, pastiche or parody. There was no way they could have kept it up much longer either.
Listening to it now, it's not following any obvious rulebook on how to make a good sounding record, it's all so thin and flat and enervating - I can imagine a song like Insight was roaring when played live but here everything is underpowered and missing half the frequencies... no loss by my reckoning considering it's not like there was a lack of roaring noise bands at the time (or now). My understanding is that this was all Martin Hannett in search of some abstract sound he figured they were too thick to understand. Without him they'd likely just have been just another so-so gloomy post-punk band with a few decent highpoints.
It's a real case of the right people (with the right levels of skill) in the right place at the right time, unrepeatable except as tribute, pastiche or parody. There was no way they could have kept it up much longer either.