brilliant, brilliant post. seems churlish to take issue with it really, but i will on two points: 'rock' and conservatism, as i don't think this quite gets it. i mean there IS something very sun sessions about hannett, cavernous echo for the sake of the epic, mythic- but then at the same time he's working on something as totally un-rock as the first durutti column record, a collection of classical guitar pieces where hannett himself does practically everything else on synths and drum machines- also the 'test card' things which were solo and are terrific- especially 'second aspect' which is exemplary hauntology, a melted echoscape with very little precedent in rock whatsoever, but maybe some in the bbc radiophonic workshop. and while yeah, JD are an apothesis of rock of a sort, they never sounded like the doors. they sounded like very serious young men trying to play 'ring my bell'.
i guess though there is by hannett (obv you can hear this in ACR or ESG) the imposing of a fundamentally rock aesthetic on disco...? and funny that you say 'movement' is slapdash, its always struck me as almost too driven and obsessive in its relentless mournfulness and vast, over-detailed sound...
