Backbone

Unknown Pleasures was recorded over three weekends in April 1979 at Strawberry Studios in Stockport, produced by Martin Hannett, whose unorthodox methods, among them recording Stephen Morris's drum kit piece by piece - gave the album its spectral, cavernous sound. It marked a sharp turn from the band's punk origins toward something colder and more architectural, anchored by Peter Hook's melodic, lead-register bass and Ian Curtis's flat, haunted vocal delivery. "Disorder" and "She's Lost Control" carry the record's tension, while "New Dawn Fades" and "Shadowplay" show its reach into something closer to dirge. The cover, designed by Peter Saville, used a black-and-white plot of radio signals from a pulsar, an image now as recognisable as the music itself. This pressing is the 2015 Rhino reissue, cut from the 2007 remasters, on 180-gram vinyl with a textured sleeve replicating the original artwork.