+-

Joy Division's catalogue has been repackaged many times previously but this collection of 7" singles is a great way for fans or new listeners to enjoy their music.The sound quality from the vinyl is awesome when played on a high quality turntable through a hi fi.Remastering is always a contentious issue when it comes to such familiar music but in my view Frank Arkwright has done a great job.This collection comes with a code to enable purchasers to download MP3 versions of all the songs from Rhino and I'm pleased to report that the Bit Rate is 320kps so the sound quality is acceptable as far as MP3s are concerned.The artwork is the let down of this collection.What appear to be photocopies of the original sleeve artwork is not really acceptable in this day and age in a product costing in excess of £50.I'd have rather seen new artwork by a modern sleeve designer capable of interpreting the essence of the originals.I wasn't surprised that the downloadable versions don't have any artwork at all!

One of the real originals. I had been looking for Licht Und... since its release but a price of around £600 put me off. To get the 10 CD box set for £25 a real bargain

great item quick delivery

I had been waiting for this for sometime so you can imagine by disappointment when it arrived. It is supposed have been done with Stephen Morris and that makes it even more disappointing. Why didn't they do a beautiful job of re-creating the original sleeves I do not know - so much of what JD is about is the work that Peter Saville did with them. This is not the boxset that fans have been waiting for. Hate to say this but save your hard earned money until something better is released.

This is just a beautiful box set its excellent Thank You

The art work is a bit dispointing and I was expecting a download code, but hey ho the music assauges this. I am impressed by the quality of the remastering. If you're a JD fan and you want to treat yourself, go on buddy!

When the majority of the Joy Division back catalogue was reissued back in 2007 to coincide with the "Control" biopic, both of the band's studio albums were given the remaster treatment alongside the compilation/live album "Still". Unfortunately the 1988 Factory Records compilation " Substance 1977-1980 " was excluded from the campaign for unknown reasons and so a large chunk of the back catalogue was left out including one of the band's most famous singles "Transmission" and the Warsaw-era "An Ideal For Living" EP.Fast forward to December 2011 and we have "+-" which is basically "Substance 1977-1980 Deluxe" retitled and spread across 10 CDs. The sound quality of the remastering is indeed very good and certainly brighter than even the 2007 reissues. After well-documented Joy Division and New Order remaster screw ups in the past they've thankfully done well here. The extra tracks here not on the original Factory compilation include "As You Said", "Love Will Tear Us Apart (Pennine Version)", "Heart and Soul" and "Isolation" which believe it or not, cleverly mops up what the original 1988 release missed out.Five stars for the music but I have deducted one star because I think restricting 2/3 songs per CD was misguided and while that particular concept may have suited the 7" vinyl version well it's a complete waste of CD's 80 minute capacity. Indeed, the first thing I did was rip all the tracks individually as lossless files then re-burn them to a blank CD; all 21 tracks clocked in at just over 76 minutes in total. Also, if you are as fond of the original "Substance 1977-1980" compilation as I am then you can re-burn the tracks in a different order to produce your own remastered version of the original Factory release.I can understand some people's irritation that the Joy Division barrel has been mercilessly scraped bare but this release was justified to make up for the lack of a "Substance 1977-1980" remaster from the earlier reissue campaign. Plus the price of £20-25 is far more reasonable than the price of the "+-" 7" vinyl version which was excessive and designed to extract the maximum amount of cash from collectors.Buy it, compile it to a blank CD, store the original away for safe keeping and then listen LOUD.

This in its form is an excellent release. The "original tapes" have been mastered with a sensitivity of some kind. It's not perfect but what do you expect? The covers are presented as photographs of the covers because that was the best way of giving a visual unity to the collection, it's not 100% successful because the print quality isn't quite right. But if you are a fan of Joy Division you would want one of these, so I'd say get one while they are still available.Like the last JD boxset in 2007 it's v. minimalistic - there is nothing new - but this is a thoughtful release that I'm happy to recommend to the die hards.