Martin Hannett

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Martin Hannett (May 31, 1948 (1948-05-31) – April 18, 1991 (1991-04-18)), sometimes credited as Martin Zero, was a record producer who helped develop Joy Division and co-founded Factory Records with Tony Wilson. Hannett's trademark sound, most apparent on Joy Division's debut album Unknown Pleasures and its follow-up, Closer, is sparse and eerie, complementing frontman Ian Curtis' baritone vocals.

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[edit] Career

Hannett first came to musical attention when, as Martin Zero, he produced the first independent punk record, the Buzzcocks Spiral Scratch EP. Under the same moniker he produced early records by punk poet John Cooper Clarke, whose Salford monotone was complemented by drum machines, simple synthesiser motifs and Hannett's own bass playing. As Martin Zero, Hannett appeared on Top of the Pops playing bass on Jilted John's eponymous single, which he also produced.

Hannett became most closely associated with Joy Division. Hannett's meticulous production, heavily influenced by dub, created a space at the heart of Joy Division's sound, pitting the band's spartan, jagged instrumentation against a spacey void, the latter being created by adept studio manipulation. For these purposes, Hannett often utilized looping technology to treat musical notes with an array of digital filters. His techniques are especially prominent in regard to the band's drum sounds, which use reverb, the notes echoing and reverberating through a spare sonic backdrop. Also evident from his dub influences was the mixing of the bass and drums higher in the mix than usual, and placing the other instruments further back. Hannett also ran his own tape machine through Joy Division and New Order recording sessions and often also created mixes of their tracks that he did not play to the band. Material from these tapes, which he apparently deposited with friends and members of his family, has been released as Martin Hannett's Personal Mixes (2007).

As a producer, Hannett obsessed over drum sounds, never being content until they completely coincided with the sounds in his head. Legend has it that he once forced Joy Division drummer Stephen Morris to take apart his drum kit during a recording session and reassemble it to include additional parts from a toilet. He also reputedly had Morris set up his kit on a first floor flat roof outside the fire escape at Cargo Recording Studios, Rochdale (Hannett's favourite studio in his early years of production). This building (now empty) formerly Cargo Recording Studios and Tractor Music, Kenion Street, Rochdale has become a shrine to Joy Division fans as much of New Order and Joy Division's bass equipment was built here downstairs from the studio in Tractor Music with the designs for the equipment being suggested by Hannett to Chris Hewitt. The Rochdale studio was used for the recording of Digital, Glass, Atmosphere and Ice Age. Hannett's unorthodox production methods in the Rochdale and other studios, resulted in drum sounds mixed with synthesisers that were both complex and highly distinctive. One can hear these distinctive drum and synth sounds on many Joy Division recordings. According to Hannett: "There was a lot of space in their sound. They were a gift to a producer, because they didn't have a clue. They didn't argue. The Factory Sampler was the first thing I did with them. I think I'd had the new AMS delay line for about two weeks. It was called 'Digital'. It was heaven sent."[1]. The two original AMS digital delays that belonged to Hannett and the three studio screens that he recorded the Joy Division instruments, drums and Curtis's vocals behind are preserved in a studio in Cheshire. Hannett was instrumental in the early development of these particular AMS delays asking the engineers in the AMS company to try and recreate within the electronics the sounds he was hearing in his head.

Hannett's production can also be heard on Basement 5's album 1965 - 1980. Like many British bands of their time (e.g., The Clash), Basement 5 had a harsh, punk attitude borne out in their dystopian lyrics referencing the perceived injustices (e.g., those concerning the council estate youth of the late 1970s and early 1980s) of the early Thatcher era. However, musically, they draw from a slightly wider palette than many of their punk peers, utilizing a variety of Caribbean influences, particularly reggae. With the help of Hannett, they blended such traditional styles with tuneful, contemporary synth-pop, yielding a sound that balances the rustic and the futuristic, in much the same way that Joy Division managed to meld primal, Kinks-ian riffing with a menagerie of studio effects and manipulation. Hannett remixed some of the tracks from 1965-1980 for In Dub, which features dub versions of Basement 5's material.

In 1981, Hannett was name checked by the Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra on their track "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!," which appears on the In God We Trust, Inc. EP. Biafra introduces the track by saying, "This is 'Fuck Off', overproduced by Martin Hannett, take four." The comment was tongue-in-cheek; Hannett never produced for the Dead Kennedys. A similar quote precedes the song "Fuck Me" by "Mihi" as appears on "Regret", the first volume of the I've Girls Compilations.

Hannett worked briefly with U2, New Order, and Factory Records band Stockholm Monsters. A rift formed with Factory and he sued them in 1982 over a financial dispute; the matter was eventually settled out of court. At this point, Hannett's career had spiralled into decline due to his heavy drinking and drug use, especially his use of heroin. His weight eventually doubled (to roughly 26 stone, or 364 pounds), and he died of heart failure in 1991 at the age of 42. Hannett is survived by a wife, daughter and a son. In 2008 Hannett's son has started to show an interest in entering the music industry.

Hannett was portrayed by actor Andy Serkis in the 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, which was based on Tony Wilson's career as the co-founder of Factory Records and The Haçienda nightclub. In the DVD commentary, Wilson notes a review that described Hannett as Serkis's "strangest role," and points out that Serkis is best known for his portrayal of Gollum in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Wilson concludes that the reviewer's implication is correct, that indeed, Hannett was far stranger than Gollum. Hannett was portrayed by Ben Naylor in Anton Corbijn's film Control.

[edit] Selected discography

[edit] Albums produced

[edit] Singles produced

[edit] Compilations

  • Martin: The Work of Record Producer Martin Hannett (Factory Records, 1991)
  • And Here is the Young Man (Debutante, 1998)
  • Zero: A Martin Hannett Story 1977-1991' (Big Beat, 2006)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Savage, Jon, "Faster, but slower", Mojo, May 2006

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Joy Division
Ian Curtis • Bernard Sumner • Peter Hook • Stephen Morris
Terry Mason • Tony Tabac • Steve Brotherdale
Albums
Compilations
Live albums
Singles and EPs
Related