Nick Cave. It is also notable for
the fearless guitar playing and
songwriting of Rowland S. Howard.
Howard’s approach to the guitar
was simultaneously discordant and
atmospheric, interspersing jagged
rhythmic seizures with dense, haunting
textural work. His style combined
elements of blues, rockabilly, punk, jazz,
and other difficult-to-define elements
into a strikingly original instrumental
whole. Listening to a track like “Nick
the Stripper,” from Prayers On Fire one
can easily discern the dramatic influence
Howard’s playing has had on players like
The Jesus Lizard’s Duane Denison. It was
also a catalyst for nearly every goth rock
band to follow.
Bernard Sumner
Bands: Joy Division, New Order
Also existing at the dark end of post-
punk’s long and winding road was Joy
Division. Formed by guitarist Bernard
Sumner and bassist Peter Hook in the
aftermath of a Manchester, England
Sex Pistols gig, Joy Division initially
began as a fairly straightforward
punk outfit. However, by the time of
Unknown Pleasures, the band’s first
full-length record, it had naturally
settled into an entirely unique sound
that combined Hook’s driving, melodic
basslines with Sumner’s minimalistic
guitar textures. This interaction, along
with Ian Curtis’s dark vocal delivery and
Stephen Morris’s creative, yet robotic,
beats, propelled the band over and
above its peers in the scene. Sumner’s
spacious guitar playing stands out for
its blend of melodicism and rhythmic
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accompaniment, alternatively leaving
space and filling it as necessary, while
a