In September Sky Arts premiered a documentary about New Order's magnificent 12 piece wall-of-synth So It Goes production with Liam Gillick. The film was directed by Mike Christie and includes interviews with New Order and Gillick, along with other key players including Peter Saville, Dave Haslam, John McGrath, Jon Savage, and more. Not only does the film chronicle the evolution of the production from initial concept to completion, but woven throughout is an overview on Joy Division and New Order, along with five performances from So It Goes.
New Order: Decades provides fascinating insight as to how the production came together -- how New Order chose the songs for the set, how their classics were split into various layers and subcomponents for the ensemble, plus other technical aspects concerning the ensemble members, programming of the music, and the production's visual aesthetic. Peter Saville also provided insight into his relationship between his iconic artwork and the music, and this documentary is worth watching just for his insight alone.
Overall the documentary was well done, though it was hard to watch some of the historical portions about Joy Division and New Order due to the absence of one of the driving musical and creative forces of both bands. Though he appeared in some archival footage and pictures, Peter Hook wasn't mentioned other than a slight acknowledgement during an interview with new members Tom Chapman and Phil Cunningham. During the archival sections of the documentary Hooky's absence made for awkward/difficult viewing for die hard New Order fans. If you can get past that, you'll enjoy the film.
The video likely won't stay up for long, so watch below while you can via You Tube or here. Thanks to Johnny586 for uploading, and for the heads up from Steve Smith via Joy Division/New Order.
Published October 8th, 2018
