The Argus: Brighton Festival 2012

It went without saying that the Heritage Orchestra are amazing musicians, creating a soundscape that combined traditional orchestration with a basic rock set-up.

But throughout Live_Transmission the question had to be asked: if Joy Division hadn’t been connected to this concert, would the Dome be as full as it was?

The show never pretended to be a Joy Divison tribute concert but aside from a few obvious nods to the classic Manchester band, the orchestra could have been playing a whole new unrelated piece of contemporary music inside the gauze box that took up most of the Dome floor.

The opening few minutes drew heavily on the titular Transmission, borrowing classic bass and guitar riffs, drum patterns and even a sample vocal to create an almost Mogwai-esque remix.

And at the end the lyric to Joy Division’s most famous three minutes, Love Will Tear Us Apart, was transposed onto a beautiful string arrangement.

But the rest was based around sudden crescendos, room-shaking bass as opposed to Peter Hook’s trademark high-fretted playing, Taxi Driver-style stabs of noise and occasional half-heard musical references.

The concert largely ignored the fact a major part in Joy Division’s appeal wasn’t just in their other-worldly playing – which owed much to Martin Hannett’s production skills – but to Ian Curtis’s amazing lyrics and jittery vocal performance. The only reference was a projected set of lyrics from Isolation midway through.

Despite a strong start and a development of Peter Saville’s Unknown Pleasures cover, many of Matt Watkins’ projections ignored the rich visual trappings that accompanied the band, instead relying on hoary old clichés such as kaleidoscope effects and lightening bursts.