Out Now: FACTORY RECORDS: USE HEARING PROTECTION

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Joy Division’s UNKNOWN PLEASURES, an album that put Factory Records on the map and arguably changed the face of music forever...and if you think that’s hyperbole, just ask an old-school New Order fan and see what they have to say. We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at just how right we are.

To commemorate this anniversary, Rhino has just released USE HEARING PROTECTION: FACTORY RECORDS 1978-1979, a unique box set that features facsimile editions of the first 10 numbered items released on Factory: four vinyl records – THE FACTORY SAMPLER EP; A Certain Ratio’s ALL NIGHT PARTY; Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s ELECTRICITY, and, yes, Joy Division’s UNKNOWN PLEASURES – along with three posters, a short film, Factory stationery, and an egg-timer design. (Factory was kind of all over the place at the beginning.) There’s also a 60-page book containing archival interviews with Joy Division, Tony Wilson, Rob Gretton, and others, along with photos by Kevin Cummins and text by James Nice.

The set is housed in a lift-top box, and it also contains a bonus 12” single along with 2 CDs of heretofore-unheard interviews with Joy Division. Oh, and just in case the general uniqueness of its contents didn’t give it away, this is very much a limited-edition situation, with only 4,000 numbered units being released.

Ready to secure your copy? Just click right here!