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album reviews

The Fall



Live At The Witch Trials 8 ( 1979 )
Frightened / Crap Rap - Like to Blow / Rebellious Jukebox / No Xmas for John Quays / Mother - Sister! / Industrial Estate / Underground Medecin / Two Steps Back / Live at the Witch Trials / Futures and Pasts / Music Scene

The Fall were formed in Greater Manchester by dock clerk Mark E Smith. Martin Bramah, Marc Riley and Yvonne Pawlett rounded off the group, with Mark E Smith singing lyrics plugged in to documenting the real world around him. The sound of this album is relatively sparse, dominated by keyboards playing the main melodies with guitars 'scratchy' over the top of the rhythm section. 'Frightened' demonstrates the sound well and is especially striking for the vocal and lyrical content. Mark E Smith doesn't have a conventionally 'beautiful' singing voice, but he tries. It's a distinctive, northern voice which sets The Fall apart all on its own. It was obvious they weren't The Clash, you know? Following five minutes of often startling lyrical imagery, we have a more rattling, punky song with 'Crap Rap - Like To Blow'. Catchy little melodies sketched out by the keyboards and bass are notable with 'I LIKE TO BLOW, CONCENTRATION ZONE!' spat out in the chorus. It's good! 'Rebellious Jukebox' keeps things simple musically, the same combination of bass, keyboards and guitar along with simple yet effective drum patterns. The whole thing is jerky, groovy and fun! 'No Xmas For John Keys' has a huge helping of lyrical humour, not a song likely to top the festive hit parade, but a great piece of work all the same. 'What's this song about?", "Er, nothing", opens 'Mother-Sister!', 'Industrial Estate' is all pounding drums, keyboards and guitars - another fine song. Marc Riley joins in with 'distinctive' backing vocals, particularly audible all through 'Industrial Estate', and there you have it.

Side two kicks off with the searing guitar lines of 'Underground Medecin', the keyboards are still there but this is the most 'conventional' punk song on the album. 'Two Steps Back' by way of contrast is slow, with insistent rhythms, and includes a fascinating set of lyrics. It's an insidious song, another song with plenty of melody and it reaches a fitting crescendo towards the end. The title track is a bizarre spoken / shouted word piece led by Mark E Smith, 'Future Pasts' is another more straightforward moment, although not really. What was 'straightforward' for The Fall was strangeness and eccentricity itself for almost any other group 'Music Scene' closes the album and certainly isn't straightforward by any stretch of even a twisted imagination. Eight minutes of repetitive, trying, yet strangely hypnotic repeating rhythms. There isn't a great deal to complain about really, especially for a debut album. The keyboards running through every single song can get a little irritating, but on the whole, this is a fine, enjoyable record.

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Readers Comments graham pollock South London In my opinion this is the best FALL album ever, as it manages to convey an aural landscape with a distinctive keyboard-based sound. Yvonne Pawletts minimalist-sooty show sound is quite superb,and like nothing I have ever heard in my life! Certain tracks like FRIGHTENED and UNDERGROUND MEDECIN use a guitar sound by martin bramah that is at odds with the NEW WAVE style around in 1978 onwards. MUSIC SCENE is so avant-garde that it almost a deconstruction of traditional english rock-music structures.. Marc Rileys bass playing seems to perfectly compliment Bramahs guitar sound.. I dont think the FALL ever really bettered this post punk-psychedelic sound. I am a performance poet based in south london, and have written some poetry about the FALL. my e-mail is gpollock91@hotmail.com

Notable line-up changes occurred prior to this album. Bramah and Pawlett left, Craig Scanlon and Stephen Hanley joined on guitar and bass, allowing Marc Riley to switch from bass across to guitar. The sound of this album is worth mentioning at this point in the review. Let's just say that the engineer was thanked, 'for his trust'. The record sounds like it was recorded for £10. The sound, indistinct with quiet vocals unless Mark E Smith is shouting becomes part of the records charm. It's as much part of 'Dragnet' as the sound of 'White Light White Heat' was part of The Velvet Undergrounds notoriously uncompromising second album. Bearing in mind the line-up changes, the absence of keyboards for example, we have a much more guitar centred record here. Still 'Fall' guitars by the way, well, we've a couple of guitars here now. One will pick out a simple melody, the other will scratch and thrash away before disappearing again. Something like 'A Figure Walks', all six minutes of it, is a good example of the sound of this record. 'Psykick Dancehall' arrives first of all however with funky bass, catchy guitar and furiously shouted vocals. It's exhilarating, lo-fi, stupendous and exciting. I don't actually know of anybody else who was writing lyrics quite like these - 'my garden is made of stone, there's a computer centre over the road, I saw a monster on the roof....' is just one example of many. 'Printhead' and 'Diceman' are ALL GUITARS, both short songs and both deliriously happy punk songs. We have a little rockabilly rhythm here and there and drums that sound like the drummer is about to fall apart at the end of every phrase.

'Before The Moon Falls' is little drawn out and lacking in the catchy melodies of other songs here. 'Your Heart Out' is better, more incredibly simple yet effective guitar melodies and a classic, intriguing Mark E Smith performance. 'AND THEY TRY TO TAKE MY EYES OUT.... AND I DON'T SING I JUST SHOUT!', and so forth! 'Muzorewi's Daughter' is another great example of the sound of 'Dragnet'. Indistinct, but the band are playing loudly underneath. They switch to quieter sections mapped out by a guitar line and tribal sounding drums. 'Flat Of Angles' is hugely jerky and entertaining, sounds clearer than some of the other songs here. Not sure how, everything was recorded in much the same fashion. Well, 'Spectre VS Rector', all 7mins 49secs of it, sounds like it was recorded in a cave, underwater. A riff that sounds like somebody farting across the simple percussion. The guitar picks out a quite frankly scary sounding part and Mark is buried underneath hiss and noise and sounds at his most impenetrable thus far. If you've heard The Velvet Underground's 'Sister Ray' you'll have some idea of what to expect listening to this, but the lyrics are better. Something about exorcism, it's a brilliant, if disturbing listening experience. The closing 'Put Away' is all rockabilly rhythms, a jaunty song perfect to counteract the horrific 'Spectre VS Rector'. 'Live At The Witch Trials' had sold next to nowt, which perhaps partly allowed Mark E Smith to create an album as blatantly un-commercial as this. Well, the likes of 'Printhead' or 'Diceman' are commercial songs, of sorts. At least enough to earn the growing interest of Radio One DJ John Peel, who had been a supporter of the group from the very beginning. 'Dragnet' is one hell of an atmospheric record, an album that really draws you in and blocks out everything from the outside world. Yeah, that kind of record, a good kind of record.

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Readers Comments Stefan Emmental TMyers7669@aol.com I really like how The Fall mix it up on this elpee. "Psykick Dancehall" has a repetitive and quasi-monontonus incessant guitar riff-but it's a damn good riff! "Choc-Stock" is pop music for Fall people and "Muzorewi's Daughter" is like eqyptian reggae dub...hahahaha. "Spectre vs. Rector" is madness. "Diceman" is based on a really good book entitled-wait for it "Diceman" by Dr. Lucas Reinhardt. Get it, it's fantastic. Along w/"Printhead" this tune showcases the Falls other side. Whatever that means. One for the ages. mark o sullivan zapay1@hotmail.com i could'nt agree more. i bought this album when it came out and i was always beguiled by it. the start of a lifelong love. good work, thanx for the effort.

The Fall sign to Rough Trade and this live set was the first album issued for the label. There is some interesting additional material here as well as representations of songs from both the early studio albums As expected, given the way 'Dragnet' sounded, this isn't a high fidelity professional reproduction of songs! Having said that 'Fiery Jack' does sound like its studio counterpart, only better played. The guitar and the rhythm created, and held, is a thing to behold. Simple lines, lots of melody. 'Rowche Rumble' like 'Fiery Jack' had been an early Fall single. 'Rowche Rumble' with pounding tribal drums moving into loud guitar sections and a bass just going up and down...... is a great song and performance! The version of 'Muzorewi's Daughter' here sounds scary and exciting at the same time. The bass sounds deep, rumbling, frightening. The move into the faster shouted 'chorus' parts is great use of dynamics, and the transition gets to me every time. What's striking about this live album isn't how accurate the performances are, I'm not sure they were trying to replicate the studio versions. As I said, this isn't a 'polished' product but it is remarkable how many of the songs here, sound quality apart, sound so much better than their studio counterparts. It may be something to do with the bass sound. The bass guitar sounds wonderful throughout, more prominent than the studio versions on the whole.

'In My Area' is a typical Fall repetitive, hypnotic grind, 'Choc-Stock' a little catchy thing with a great, wired Mark E Smith vocal performance. It dissolves slightly into a mess of noise, but we don't mind that, do we? A mess of noise can be beautiful. Hey? Well, it can, I think so. Speaking of messes of noise, The Fall do a live rendition of 'Spectre VS Rector' that's shorter than the studio version and features an improvised introduction from Mark E Smith. The band sound hardly together here, feedback, Mark E Smith taking lots of liberties lyrically. 'I'll break it in easy for you', he says at one point. Well, I guess I can understand that, but 'Spectre VS Rector' is the first song here that doesn't sound either magnificent, or better than its recorded counterpart. 'I SAID SHUT UP-UH!' opens 'Cary Grant's Wedding'. which once it gets going, is an enjoyable 'Dragnet' style rockabilly romp with slower sections between featuring frightening guitar parts. 'That Man' was another early single side and is performed pretty straight here, lots of catchy guitar, more changed and improvised lyrics. 'New Puritan' gives a whole new meaning to 'amateurish' music, it seems to be very much a lyrical vehicle but is a difficult thing to enjoy for three minutes. 'No Xmas For John Quays' closes the set with prominent bass and 'entertaining' drums. We get some improvisation from Mark E Smith, and the band this time round. 'No Xmas For John Quays' is seven, nearly eight minutes long as performed here, very relentless. Not an easy experience, but enjoyable for fans.

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First impressions reveal shouted vocals and the absence of the murkiness that characterised 'Dragnet'. Further listening reveals lots of catchy guitar riffs and a helping of rockabilly. First and second impressions can both be applied to the opening cut here, 'Pay Your Rates'. A fantastic album opener that lets you know exactly what's in store for you and is also one of the finest songs on the album. The guitar riff contains exactly two notes but it's still a great song! Not everything sticks to catchy riffs and melodic, structured songs. Two of the stranger cuts here include the seven and a half minute long C'nC-s' Mithering, which features more drums than anything else, and the recorded at home speech and percussion of the strangely titled 'W.M.C Blob 59'. Keyboards return to The Fall for 'English Scheme' where the catchy guitars combine with keyboards and a kazoo. We find a wonderful shouted chorus for the deliriously enjoyable and immensely silly 'New Face In Hell'. 'Container Drivers' is an absolute highlight with it's speedy rockabilly guitars and great Mark E Smith lyrics and shouting. The fast drum rolls that appear at the end of each phrase are a joy, you keep waiting for the drummer to fail completely and make a hash of it, but he does keep going. It's just the sound of it all that appeals to me. The drum sound as demonstrated across this album would later go on to influence early Pavement, to give you some idea of what it sounds like. Oh, and by the way, I really love the little Rock N Roll guitar solo that appears two thirds of the way through 'Container Drivers'.

'Impression Of J Temperance' is back to the deep bass lines and 'tribal' drums that characterized aspects of The Fall's previous work. 'In The Park' is incredibly catchy and addictive for a song that's under two minutes in length, 'Gramme Friday' is taken at a more considered pace than some of the speedy rockabilly elsewhere but is still a good listen and an entertaining song. All of this just leaves the sheer glory of 'The N.W.R.A', or "the north will rise again" as it's actually sung. Nine minutes of music, it takes 'Spectre VS Rector' as a template but renders it in "Grotesque's" new murk free sound quality. 'The N.W.R.A' is more focused than 'Spector VS Rector' and Mark E Smith has an awful to say vocally. You can either concentrate on the repeating riffs and farting keyboards or listen attentively to the amazing and barely believable lyrics, It's your choice! 'Grotesque' as a whole could work well as a possible entry point into the world of The Fall, but it's still not a perfect work. There are those one or two stranger moments such as 'W.M.C Blob 59'. Amusing curios, rather than anything you'd want to regularly listen to, yet this is still a mighty fine album. With such a large catalogue of Fall 'product' it's useful to have records such as this to easily recommend to the curious and the fascinated.

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Readers Comments Ben P bpick99@hotmail.com This may be their finest hour of all. Hard to say for sure. Anyway, every song on here is a winner. 'Pay Your Rates' is a great way to grab your attention. Some great lyrics and a nice tempo change, with a highly energetic ending. 'English Scheme' is probably the most normal-sounding song on here, with a nice melody. 'New Face In Hell' is catchy as can be, with some cool lyrics about government schemes, surveillance, betrayal, I guess. Awesomely original guitar that Pavement ripped off. Now, 'C n Cs Mithering' is a great example of how Smith can take the most stripped down, seemingly boring musical background and turn it into something absolutely compelling - probably my favorite lyrics of this era of The Fall; "All the English groups, act like peasants with free milk", just full of great quotes. 'Container Drivers' is another highlight, this one about truck drivers, speeding for their wages, with their suntans and torn shirt sleeves. I guess it is appropriate for such a! driving, rockabilly song to be about, uh, drivers. 'Impression Of J. Temperance' has a cool as hell bassline, plus I like the falsetto-sounding line "Only one person could do this." This one builds up to a great climax on the strength of the repetition. 'In The Park' is kind of short, and has another of my favorite lines on this album "You thought it'd be great! You thought it's be great! But a good mind does not a good fuck make!" 'Gramme Friday' boasts another cool bassline. And 'The NWRA' is an epic song - isn't it awesome when he yells "Switch!" Overall, I agree with your review that this could make a pretty acceptable entry point into their large and intimidating catalog. Stephen stephendfall@yahoo.co.uk The Fall make modern-day folk music really, as is especially evident here. There is so much imagination, wit and creative genius bursting from this album that it remains astounding to this day. A good place to start if you are kurious...

A six track mini album, the essence of the more straightforward side of The Fall, at this stage. Well, musically at least, the lyrics are the same brilliant strangeness as ever. And, 'straightforward' just means six short songs in this context. 'Middle Mass' is all thrashing distorted guitars amid a repeating rhythm which Mark E Smith holds together vocally. 'An Older Lover' combines catchy bass and guitar lines with a clear production sound and Mark E Smith turns in a vintage performance. This is more 'minimalist' than previous albums floods of words. 'Prole Art Threat' follows and is a glorious slab of noise, catchy guitars, pounding drums and demented vocals. When the bass comes in all melody in the middle, the guitars carry on scratching and riffing, and the whole song picks up a notch. 'Fit And Working Again' may just be the finest, 'straight' song music-wise The Fall had produced thus far. It sounds completely magnificent with wonderful melodic bass lines, and a vintage Mark E Smith vocal performance. The bass melodies are the key to the song.

'Slates, Slags ETC' is a harder hitting musical track with biting guitars, biting lyrics and passionate vocals. A bass line repeats throughout the song a pounding, tribal drum pattern. This combination creates a wonderful, and very loud, musical track. 'Leave The Capitol' closes the album, and if possible, is even more insanely catchy than even 'Fit And Working Again'. Once more the bass sound and melodies are a joyous thing to behold. And so we have six songs, a mini-lp. Buy it on CD, and you get 'Part Of America Therein' as well which is pretty good value for money!

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Readers Comments Benj65 benjmorgan@hotmail.com I think Leave the Capitol is just about my favourite Fall track. The deftness of the lyrics ("and you know in your brain you must leave The CAPITOL"), the driving rhythms and the dense layer of sound... fantastic! Me and my best mates were Fall fanatics in 1981-82 at the tender age of 16 & 17 in far off Wellington, New Zealand. Shame they didn't play LTC in August 1982 when they played my hometown... but then why would they? They didn't bother playing Totally Wired despite it charting in the NZ Top 10 (!) the previous year... great concert, great days... Chris Jones futureproof381@hotmail.com Slates is a definite 10/10 for me...

This release collects together early Fall single sides in one place. Which is stating the obvious, given the albums title! Always a good singles band, The Fall. 'Repetition' is an odd way to open though, slow and grinding with plenty of, um, repetition musically. I suppose it makes a point about the groups music, of some sort! 'Bingo Master's Breakout' proves that The Fall deserved the term 'mighty' right from the start, an interesting story telling song about some bingo guy. Musically we have keyboards, guitars. The sound of The Fall circa 'Live At The Witch Trials' and a song better than at least half of that particular record. 'Psycho Mafia' opens with quickly played, pounding and primitive drums, guitars and keyboards come in, Mark E Smith arrives shouting and sounding like he's having a grand old time. I certainly have a grand old time listening to it. 'Various Times' is less enjoyable musically than it is lyrically, 'It's The New Thing' is all keyboards and guitars, 'Rowche Rumble' all tribal drums and shouted, exciting vocals. When the guitars do come in, they come in layered, creating a dense sound, a slightly different sound than The Fall usually went for during this era.

A fascinating document this release, it covers the early era as well as it can without including any of the longer songs out of necessity. This was originally a single vinyl LP, and served a purpose rounding up singles that were already unavailable, even just a year or two after they'd first been issued. The Fall didn't have great distribution, and changed record labels several times. The material here comes from a period they were signed to 'Step Forward' records. Apart from a few stand-out cuts, the material is rather standard if compared to later Fall but still better I suspect than material their contemporaries were putting out at the time.

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( 1982 )
The Classical / Jawbone and the Air-Rifle / Hip Priest / Fortress-Deer Park / Mere Pseud Mag. Ed. / Winter (Hostel-Maxi) / Winter 2 / Just Step S'ways / Who Makes the Nazis? / Iceland / And this Day

Well, The Fall leave Rough Trade for this and a subsequent album only to re-join again a year later or so later. The Fall never had much luck with record labels through their early years. They nearly signed to Motown Records, actually. A true story, it fell through once the Motown bosses had listened to about the first 30 seconds of the proposed opening song of the record! The lyrical content put them off, shall we say. After you're done, visit The Fall's official web site, the link is at the bottom of this page and go to the lyrics section. Find 'The Classical', and you'll understand why the deal fell through. Anyway, this was reportedly going to be the last ever Fall album, for reasons best known to Mark E Smith himself. It didn't happen that way, thankfully, but at the time that was certainly a serious intention. Therefore, everything was put into this album. It's very intense as a result, the guitar sound is layered and powerful. A second drummer similarly boosts the drum sound way beyond earlier Fall efforts. Sometimes the album is too intense, there isn't much let up at all, every song featuring dense guitars and very loud drums. Highlights? 'The Classical' is a great representation of the sound of the entire album, the seven minute long 'Hip Priest' which explodes from quiet to exhilaratingly loud noise is a highlight as well. 'Just Step Sideways' is the nearest we get to a straightforward, catchy little Fall song that could, in a parallel universe, pass for a pop song.

In actual fact, picking out high-lights as I've just done above doesn't do this record justice at all. Almost everything has something to recommend about it, so I'll say a little more. 'Jawbone And The Air Rifle' makes good use of the loud and layered Fall guitar assault, and also includes a catchy chorus into the bargain. 'Mere Psued Mag Ed' is incredibly loud, fast, dense and furious. It's rather good, you know? The only song here I don't really go for is 'Iceland', which is a little too minimal compared to much else of what's here. Then again, given that the song which follows it is ten minutes of glorious pounding repetition, perhaps 'Iceland' serves a purpose after all. A great album although perhaps a little too merciless and therefore not always easy to sit through - if everything was perfect, this wouldn't be The Fall.

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Readers Comments Baz Hmmmm...where to start. After "Eat Yourself Fitter" this was my starting point of The Fall, quite daring, but its worth it in the end. I don't think its THAT difficult to get into, much easier than say some of Tom Waits stuff. There is a few songs here that are absolute classics "The Classical" "Hip Priest" "Fortress/Deer Park" and "Just Step S'ways". All absolute gems of the highest grade. The album as a whole gels well together its just at the end it gets a little boring, luckily they sort this out on later albums i have. I should also mention that "Who Makes The Nazis?" contains beast like noises, very odd! Overall: 8/10. joeybougard@hotmail.com Apart from the fact that this album is actually called Hex Enduction Hour, this is a great review for an equally great record by Mark E. Smith aka The Fall. It's my introduction to the Fall, and it's a bloody good one too. This record is spawned with instant classics like Hip Priest (with those great quiet-loud dynamics), Jawbone And The Air-Rifle (a great guitar song with that powerful drumcombo all over the place) and the obscure and paranoid Who Makes The Nazi's? (I love the way MES pronounces "Nazi's"! Just love it!). Though it has its downsides as well, which would make a perfect rating a bit over the top. A song like Iceland keeps on dragging and dragging, and And This Day is a train wreck (which is not a bad thing, but it certainly is when you try to keep that powerful punch alive for 10 minutes in a row). So I guess your 9 is spot on. It's a must-have for every music lover around.

What happened? 'Hex' was intended to be the last ever Fall album, because Mark E Smith was pissed off at something or other - but lo and behold, 'Room To Live' arrived less than a year after 'Hex Enducation Hour'. We've thirty six minutes or so of music here compared to the hour long 'Hex', by the way. The first four songs at least are all prime Fall moments, so that's ok, more than ok. The closing three songs are a little more, a-hem, challenging. Still, 'Room To Live' remains the sound of essential Fall of the period, although 'Room To Live' is a little less intense than 'Hex Enducation Hour', all told. Still, less intense?? 'Joker Hysterical Face' combines all the greatest Fall elements. A simple yet catchy bass line. Scratchy guitar. Very loud indeed drums. Everything combines and the bass melody holds it together along with the charmingly simple yet still glorious sounding drums. Mark E Smith tells his story, makes the listener laugh - then screams a little a bit later. It's all here! 'Marquis Cha Cha' might just be one of the dozen or so essential Fall songs that demonstrates easily what's quite so great about them. Echoed vocals then Mark E Smith having plenty to say and saying it in very funny ways, as if he really does have some secret to the existence of the entire universe we were all previously unaware of. Yet, it sounds daft, the words and music both. Happily daft, gloriously daft. The bass line is stupendous for such a simple bass line and melody, and that my friends, is 'Marquis Cha-Cha', truly a Fall classic if ever there was one. 'Hard Life In Country' contains yet more fantastic bass guitar melodies - and you've got to give credit to a Mr Steve Hanley, the bass guitar man. The guitar scratches in true punk fashion, yet never ever, plays a single 'riff', as such. Just lots of tiny little melodies. The drums beat, and beat simply. There is a lot of space in the song for Mark E Smith to fill, but this time, he chooses to use his words relatively sparingly. "New romantics come over the hill and it gets a bit depressing." Social commentary, we have it, right here! 'Hard Life In Country' revolves and revolves and repeats and repeats yet still builds up on itself as it goes along. Hypnotic, and glorious. "The Bowie look-alikes permeate car parks", says Mark E. It's all true!

Ah... AH! The title song is the catchiest thing on this album and one of the great Fall catchy things. If 'Hex Enducation Hour' bludgeoned you to death with its fantastic assault on the senses, 'Room To Live', the song at least - retains the feel of 'Hex' in places, yet adds a bass line that is so catchy it really should have been banned. There's a weird little time signature change and the bass just keeps on going, playing the same five notes or so, over and over and over again. Mark E Smith does his stuff. It's more than enough. After which..... 'Detective Instinct' sounds like a demo, 'Solicitor In Studio' tries, it features good guitar sounds, weird and strangeness abound! But, it falls short of anything on the first side of the LP, although it's still fairly good, all told. The very closing, five minute long 'Papal Visit' has funny lyrics and Mark E Smith himself playing violin. It sounds like he doesn't even know what a violin IS, let alone how to play it. Still, his violin along with a single drum being beat via the medium of the drummers hands and the sound of a guitar being played by a comb - is pretty much what we have for 'Papal Visit'. From beginning to end, that's it. Avant garde?? Well, yes. Great?? Ummm.... possibly, but perhaps not. It's funny, but not something you surely want to listen to very often. Which leaves, added to the other songs following the title song - an album that's only really half an album, plus clear filler. Still, what a first half!

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Readers Comments Kevin Woodward kevin.woodward@lewisham.gov.uk Solicitor In Studio? Have to disagree with you about this one. Great song, hard and funky with some great feedback noise that blisters and burns. His voice sounds great too on this one.

A live set recorded in 1981 and released in a limited run through 1982. It's been reissued on CD and is now available on the same disc as 'Slates'. 'Hip Priest' is here in all it's glory and reasonably faithfully performed, although the guitars are too quiet in the mix, and the song loses appeal as a result. 'Totally Wired' opens in rather ramshackle fashion but it gets going. The bass is louder than the studio rendition although the guitars are quieter again. 'Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul' was a single released around the time of 'Hex Enducation Hour' and it remains a mighty song as performed here. The keyboards just about hold the melody together, the drums are very good and Mark E Smith does a fine job vocally, even if he does taken the chorus too slowly. Then again these are live performances, so differences in song representation are to be expected. 'Cash And Carry' is basically 'C'nC-s' Mithering' with new lyrics slagging off supermarkets. 'An Older Lover' is hilariously poor in sound quality, 'Deer Park' is better with more prominent guitars, even if the whole thing is surrounded in hiss. 'Winter' is performed well, and there you have it. Hardly an essential document, the sound quality does leave something to be desired, but what are you gonna do? As I said at the start of the review, get 'Slates' and you'll end up with this anyway. Treat it as eight bonus tracks and you'll be alright.

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Enter Laura Elise, soon to be Brix Smith, wife of Mark E. She doesn't make any notable writing contributions as yet, at this stage she was 'just' an extra guitar player and extra vocal voice. She did have a sweeter guitar style, and that comes across on a couple of the songs here. Confidence is important in any group. Confidence was low through the recording of the previous studio album and the arrival of Brix will have shaken things up a little bit. Maybe her arrival also made things a little more interesting for Mark? The numerous Fall line-up changes have, if nothing else, made things interesting! But onto the matter at hand. 'Eat Y'Self Fitter' is 'Hip Priest' without the quiet to loud parts yet with funnier lyrics in an attempt to compensate. They don't, needless to say. The drum pattern is fun though. OK, so 'Eat Y'self Fitter' is nothing at all like 'Hip Priest', but it's not the sound of The Fall moving forwards neither. That doesn't matter I suppose if the song is great, but for me, 'Eat Y'Self Fitter' is average Fall. 'Neighbourhood Of Infinity' is nothing new either but the bass sounds fantastic, and more than compensates for the lack of a new angle. It's a heavy pounding song and lots of fun. If I've just contradicted myself somewhere, I apologise, 'Perverted By Language' is that kind of record. Other familiar 'Fall by numbers' moments include both of the closing songs. Together with 'Eat Y'self Fitter', that makes up three of the albums eight tracks.

Things pick up. 'I Feel Voxish' has a wonderful sounding bass line running all the way through it, 'Smile' is one of the most enjoyable loud and demented songs The Fall ever produced. When Mark screams the songs title, it's scary as hell. The bass and guitars rise to the occasion with crashing cymbals somewhere in the background, and there you go! A highlight! 'Garden' and 'Hotel Bloedel' are both weird, strange, but strangely enjoyable. 'Hotel Bloedel' features Brix heavily on both guitar and vocals, a sign of things to come. From Brix we have a sweet vocal and guitar pattern over which Mark E Smith arrives and there is just something about this. The album as a whole is clearly transitional, a record on the way to something else, rather than being an accomplished work in itself. Well, that's an easy thing to say with hindsight, I suppose. This album just confuses me, so a confused review seems only appropriate.

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Another Fall live set! This one was recorded in 1982, so no it doesn't feature Brix. The 1997 CD re-issue was apparently mastered direct from an original vinyl bootleg copy.... "Good evening, we are The Fall" opens Mark E Smith and onwards we go through a pleasing selection of material featuring album tracks and singles mixed together. Unfortunately, the band sound completely out of it for a good portion of the performances. 'The Classical' is so ramshackle it has to be heard to be believed. Only a storming 'Prole Art Threat' where everybody seems to be playing out of their skins is at all engaging. Well, that's a little unfair. 'The Man Whose Head Expanded' works, the bass grooving nicely away and 'Mere Pseud Mag Ed' sounds suitably loud and demented and the little known 'Backdrop' appears to be a tuneless guitar assault that sounds like a 'Hex' out-take. So, despite a great track-list this really isn't an essential Fall purchase. The fact that it was mastered from a bootleg copy might have something to do with it, I don't know. Fall live albums are legendarily poor in sound quality as a general rule, although some overcome that better than others. Better than this release, anyway. But, I'm gonna give this a six. The set-list really is cool and there are a couple of great performances here.

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A mighty seven songs were added to the original vinyl issue to form the currently available CD versions of the album. And seeing as the CD version is the only one around now that's the one I'm reviewing. Besides, the extra tracks transform a decent album into a great album. But first, this. Brix is fully integrated into the band now, co-writing nine of the sixteen songs here. The Fall also managed to sign to a fairly decent and respected record label so had a reasonable amount of money to pour into recording for the first time - it wasn't just Brix that was responsible for this records more 'radio friendly' sound, although she surely had a big influence upon it. So, 'Lay Of The Land' is six minutes of loud drums and fast guitars, '2x4' is catchier than flu and with such a GREAT guitar sound. 'Copped It' and 'Elves' share this guitar sound but aren't quite as funky or enjoyable, although both still decent songs. The pop songs arrive next, originally these were single 'A' sides and 'B' sides, but all were recorded during the same period as the rest of the album so it makes sense to consider them a full part of the record. 'Oh Brother' has lovely 'la la la' vocals from Brix, 'Draygo's Guilt' is a catchy guitar monster, 'Creep' the best pop song The Fall had written, 'Pat Trip Dispenser' is slower yet still freakily interesting and so on and so forth. This middle section of the album is absolutely fantastic actually, even the slightly lesser songs such as 'Clear Off!' still manage to be entertaining songs. I love the little shuffling guitar part in 'Clear Off!'. I love the vocals, and shouted backup, I love the song.

'Slang King' kicks off side two of the album if we are talking the old vinyl version. Confused? You needn't be. The running order I've given above is the one you'll get if you buy this on CD now. Oh, right, 'Slang King'. Another poppy chorus, Brix with backing vocals and more sleek guitar work. What was that? Sleek? Yeah, Brix added a very different guitar sound, smoother but just as catchy melody-wise. On the other-hand, 'Bug Day' isn't smooth at all, it's strange as hell. It announces itself with a little bass line and quiet guitar and drum parts. 'Bug Day' sings Mark and he doesn't actually sing much else. Five minutes of filler this song I suppose, but the strangeness which I haven't really successfully described does keep you listening, out of curiosity if nothing else. 'Stephen Song' has the happiest guitar line ever invented, 'Craigness' is another happy song but only for the fact Mark E Smith screams out 'CRAIG' at the top of his voice and it makes you grin. 'Disney's Dream Debased' was the first true ballad The Fall had written. Shockingly, it's absolutely gorgeous and lovely. Mark E Smith makes a proper attempt at singing, no shouting here! And, he sounds lovely! It's very nice, enough to bring a little tear to the eye. 'No Bulbs' which was added to the vinyl album, actually makes a far better closer for my money than 'Disney's Dream Debased' would have done. 'No Bulbs' is all pounding bass and loud guitars. It's fun, fast and Mark E Smith sounds in fine voice. And, that's enough. This sixteen track album is more than enough, the sound of a band re-born and comes highly recommended.

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Sometimes 'Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul' is my favourite Fall song, ever! The Fall circa 1982 playing a pop song complete with two-drummer line-up is just stupendous. And yes indeed the drums are wonderful, all up and down. This isn't a heavy guitar song which is unusual for a Fall song of the period. Instead we get ourselves pounding and brilliantly melodius keyboard parts. We get ourselves Mark E Smith turning in a particularly vintage vocal performance and it's bloody fantastic! But, where was I? Ah, yes. 'Hip Priest And Kamerads'. Kamera was the name of the record label for 'Hex Enducation Hour' and 'Room To Live'. This compilation covers those records, adds in a couple of singles and a selection of live tracks. The 'Hex Enducation Hour' songs sound as great as ever, more so actually because of the different company they are keeping. Of the extra material 'Look Know' is particularly brilliant with a roaringly deep bass line which the whole song hangs upon. 'I'm Into CB' was originally released as a single, the flip side of 'Look Know' and is all jarring guitars and pumping keyboards. It's also very entertaining indeed. 'Room To Live' and 'Hard Life In Country' have both been taken from the 'Room To Live' LP. The former is a classic slice of Fall bass melody with 'percussive' guitar effects over the top, the latter song is less enjoyable, although does have an interesting set of lyrics. 'Fantastic Life' rounds off the studio material being almost as fantastic a song as 'Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul'. 'Fantastic Life' was in fact the b-side to 'Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul'. Quality stuff!

'Who Makes The Nazi's', 'Just Step Sideways', 'Jawbone And The Air-rifle' and 'And This Day' are the live tracks here. All are pretty groovy, pretty funky and very well performed. But, there is one small problem. Despite sounding absolutely frightening and magnificent, 'And This Day' has been included in a live version running to a monstrous sixteen minute length! If you didn't have a headache before listening to it, you will have afterwards. Just trust me on that! Of course, this compilation is rather 'assorted', rather haphazardly thrown together by the looks of the art-work, etc. But..... but. It's great. It's a wonderful listening experience, and one of the few places you can grab the two singles released post 'Hex' and pre 'Room To Live'. For those four songs alone it's well worth tracking this album down.

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This is another mid-eighties Fall album that adds extra tracks to the original vinyl selection. This time, it takes away rather than adds to the experience, the closing two songs not working within the context of 'This Nations Saving Grace'. I could pretend they don't exist of course, but that would be cheating. This is the version of 'This Nations Saving Grace' that exists today! It's not like those particular songs are even listed as bonus tracks, there is nothing to indicate that they are. As 'Wonderful And Frightening World' added such tracks all over its running order it's clear these aren't bonus tracks, rather 'extra' tracks for the CD issue. The cassette versions were the same incidentally. Why The Fall made a habit of issuing different vinyl versions of their albums, I'm not sure. It may have been down to the fact if you were the kind of guy who bought albums on vinyl and a fan of The Fall, you most likely were also the kind of guy ( or gal! ) who would buy 7" singles The Fall put out. That may have the theory. Anyway, I'm rambling, I'm rambling and I've not even begun to discuss the album! Shall I? Ah, let's do it. It's good!

Ok, a few more words might help I suspect. Here we have an album that builds up! The opening songs build and reach a climax of sorts with 'Barmy', which is all catchy guitar and vintage Mark E Smith sounding clear as a bell thanks to the wonderful John Leckie production. 'What You Need' has a repeating guitar figure but not much else, although it's still fun. 'Spoilt Victorian Child' is a fantastic and vicious song trek across the kind of delightful Mark E Smith lyrical imagery that makes getting drunk and waxing philosophically at a bar somewhere so much fun 'L.A' is spooky, hypnotic electronica, the first such instance of The Fall plugging into 'dance' technology. They do it well, mind. Sat in the middle of a couple of lack-lustre tunes is the perfect two and a half minute rocking 'Couldn't Get Ahead', 'My New House' wears a jaunty guitar very well, 'Paint Work' and 'I Am Damo Suzuki' are two of the more enjoyable 'strange' Fall song experiments. Which just leaves 'Petty Thief Lout' as a song of any substance unaccounted for. 'Petty Thief Lout' is a great, a perfect album closer but for the fact on CD and Cassette at least, two more songs follow. Dammit!

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Readers Comments Craig Aberdeen I like the site. This Nation's Saving Grace is an amazing album, up there with Grotesque and Hex as one of their best. One thing, though - I've got TNSG on tape and the extra tunes aren't on it.

Something happens to The Fall guitar sound here, something happens to The Fall, full stop. Maybe it was the growing influence of Brix but they sound more democratic, less Mark E Smith dominated. The guitars are sleek and some good songs are here too, although perhaps just not as many of them as previous Fall albums. Let's not quibble about such minor details as the two forgettable if breezy 'Shoulder Pads' songs or the very forgettable closing track. Let's just not mention them again, alright? But, what's this? 'Gross Chapel - British Grenadiers' is seven minutes long, yet unlike lengthier Fall song experiments in the past doesn't really warrant such length. This isn't the inspired hypnotic repetition of something like 'And This Day' or the hugely entertaining 'The N.W.R.A.'. This is just a song that hardly even sounds as though it exists at all. Not all is lost of course because 'Dktr Faustus, 'Living Too Late' and 'U.S. 80s 90s' in particular are as fine a triple selection of Fall songs as you'll find. The latter two build upon the electro work of 'L.A.' from the previous album, obviously so with the gorgeous 'Living Too Late', less obviously so with the storming 'U.S. 80s 90s'.

'Mr Pharmacist' was a single, and a mighty fine one too with riffing guitars, clashing cymbals and very much a ROCK rockabilly type of sound to it. 'Terry Wait Sez' features good Brix cameo vocal parts and reaching only 98 seconds in length is perfectly timed. No more, no less. Just enough seconds to make a few catchy guitar and lyrical statements. 'Bournemouth Runner' and 'Riddler!' are by no means classic Fall moments, but both songs offer something to the listener. A demented Mark E Smith enlivens 'Bournemouth Runner' no end, lots of shouting with eye-wide proclamations that make no sense whatsoever. 'Riddler!' showcases those sleek Brix guitar lines to good effect. Well, they could be Craig Scanlon guitar lines I guess. It doesn't really matter. So, 'Bend Sinister'? It's okay. It reached a growing Fall fan-base that would put The Fall inside the UK top twenty just two years later. Wow!

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Readers Comments gazza garyhess44@hotmail.com Im not as much a fall fan as you adrian but i do like bend sinister , and nations saving grace . Bend sinister especially for my favourite fall tracks mr pharmacist-living too late - us 80s 90s -dktr faustas . I was all primed to investigate this unique band further until i actually had the extreme displeasure of meeting the man himself. My Interest ended immediately and being a hot tempered scot hes extremely lucky i didnt knock him spark out ...

The best Fall compilation, hands down. Yeah, it only covers the years 1980 to 1983 and due to label contractual stuff doesn't include any of the 'Hex Enducation Hour' material, but even so. This is the best Fall compilation, hands down! Songs from 'Slates', those groovy little guitar pop songs The Fall did so well in the early Eighties are added to yet more single cuts The Fall recorded during their two spells at Rough Trade. The sequencing, running order, everything about this is perfection itself. 'Prole Art Threat' for example just flows so damn well into 'How I Wrote Elastic Man' which itself is a brilliant song anyway. But, a transition between songs is extra information, an extra thrill for the listener. Given the numerous and often shoddy Fall compilations on the market, 'Palace Of Swords Reversed' at least, gets everything right. The 'Hex Enducation Hour' songs wouldn't have fitted in actually, being altogether darker than this version of The Fall. A version full of rockabilly rhythms, catchy guitars, perfect pop songs played by an eccentric alternative rock group. 'Totally Wired' is a Punk / New Wave classic, not a generally acknowledged one perhaps, but to this day it's one of the finest things The Fall ever did. 'Marquis Cha-Cha' manages to escape from the 'Room To Live' album to reveal itself to be a fine song with a shuffling rhythm, groovy bass runs and odd percussion. 'The Man Whose Head Expanded' is so very happy, but deadly seriously groovy at the same time. Mark E Smith sings with eyes open wide and sets off on a series of wonderfully bizarre lyrical proclamations whilst all the while a repeating bass line moves underneath him.

A couple of very notable songs appear towards the end of this compilation, and these songs aren't easily available elsewhere. 'Kicker Conspiracy' has a stupendous drum sound and tribal rhythm moving up a gear for the chorus parts where the guitars join in, all melody. Mark E Smith complains lyrically about the English soccer federation, 'The F.A', so if you aren't exactly familiar with this, the lyrics won't make a huge amount of sense. They don't anyway, actually, but they remain hugely entertaining. 'Kicker Conspiracy' was just another in the long line of fantastic singles The Fall were putting out all through the Eighties in particular. And then 'Wings', one of the best songs ever. I was going to say one of the best Fall songs ever, but what the hell. And, that's it! That's your compilation! A ten, easy.

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Readers Comments meldrain@AOL.com A lot of your Fall grades are off at this point, as some of the newer editions feature vastly different track listings. Take Perverted By Language, for isntance, which has been ameliorated by assimilating a bunch of contemporanious singles, including the incredible Wings. That alone should up the rating. Grotesque has been revamped with extra tracks including How I Wrote Elastic man, and many other albums have been heavily altered as well (like the unlisted bonuses of Lie Dream Of A Casino and Fantastic Life on Room To Live). I'm not saying you should re-review them, just pointing out that some of your assessments have sadly been rendered obselete (not really obselete, but incomplete. They're still good reviews, and they still give a good feel for the albums, they just don't fully reflect the quality of the new editions). I for one am really happy about these bonuses, however, as I now own every single track on Palace Of Swords Reversed without buying the damn compilation. Let's hear it for saving money!

The Fall enjoy not one but two hit singles and reach the top twenty ( number 19! ) with 'The Frenz Experiment'. Sadly, the above facts are about the only notable aspects of a below-par Fall effort. Well, six of the songs are solo Mark E Smith writing efforts which is notable, not to say unusual. The group sound asleep on many of the songs, maybe Mark E Smith felt he needed to assert himself or something? There are a few faster, livelier tracks here, the best of which could sit comfortably on almost any Fall album and not embarrass themselves. On the otherhand, the likes of 'Tuff Life Booogie', the nine minute long 'Bremen Nacht Alternative' and 'Athlete Cured' are Fall on auto-pilot. 'Twister' is a horrible tuneless dance inspired mess, 'Guest Informant' better if only because Brix decides to scream the opening vocals. The guitars are pretty groovy as well, to be fair. Ah, let's talk about the hits. Not characteristic Fall moments, certainly more streamlined and commercial Fall moments, but not without charm even though both are cover versions. 'Victoria' is a reasonably faithful rendition of the magnificent Kinks song and 'There's A Ghost In My House' is just as fantastic a song as 'Victoria', Mark E Smith does his best and the guitar is cool. 'Hit The North' which has been tacked on to the end of this album is a Fall 'electro' experiment but it works, and is one of the better mid to late Eighties Fall singles.

Highlights? We had a few. 'Carry Bag Man' has a typically brilliant catchy and addictive Fall guitar line, 'Get A Hotel' is groovy rhythmically and 'In These Times' very enjoyable indeed. It's catchy and concise pop-rock music. Pop? Rock? How times change. Well, times are allowed to change, groups are allowed to change, but this time round, the change isn't good change. The Fall miss more often than succeed with 'The Frenz Experiment', although one decent song remains that i've not spoken of. 'Oswald Defence Lawyer' is a slow guitar grind, very slow, very much a grind, but it's addictive and good to listen to.

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So, how to shake things up, how to make life interesting? Why, record the music for a ballet of course! I mean, what else are you gonna do? One thing it did do was give The Fall an actual reason to record an album, other than out of habit. As a result, although not everything here works, a good half of it works magnificently, and the rest is never less than interesting. 'New Big Prinz' opens the whole shebang and The Fall sound more wired and alive than they had for a good couple of years, at least. A couple of years for The Fall being a long time, you understand! 'Big New Prinz' is stomping, storming, hand-clapping, the works. Mark E Smith sings and shouts, the guitar is catchy as the catchiest thing ever, and there you have it. A winner! The 'Overture' is a solo Brix tune, sung by her as well. It's a very pretty guitar tune, pretty of course not being a usual Fall descriptive word, but then, this isn't a usual Fall LP. 'Dog Is Life' marries William Blake and Mark E Smith in a seemingly bizarre coupling but it works fantastically well. First of all we have Mark E Smith spitting out the 'Dog Is Life' rant after which 'Jerusalem' annouces itself with strong drums and deep bass notes. When the guitar comes in, when Mark E Smith starts singing, you realise this is a close cousin to the opening 'Big New Prinz'. In actual fact, together with 'Big New Prinz' and 'Wrong Place, Right Time', 'Jerusalem' was issued as part of a three song EP by the group. All three of these songs are great, but 'Jerusalem' is particularly entertaining for the lyrical content when Mark E Smith starts to get all political on us.

'Kurious Oranj' deserves a special mention. It's a song that's been known to disgust non Fall lovers i've played it to, though i'm not sure why. Perhaps it's because the lyrics are completely daft and make no sense whatsoever. Perhaps it's because of the simplistic bass groove. It's an addictive bass groove though, once you get into it. It's a 'humorous' bass groove in line with the 'daft' nature of the song in the first place. Well, for all I know, the lyrics are dead meaningful. The end result is just sheer entertainment however, and that's alright by me. We have a number of softer, sweeter guitar songs on the second half of this record. 'Guide Me Soft' is a single exposed guitar with bare percussion and Mark E Smith half singing / half speaking. 'Yes O Yes' is the kind of song that wouldn't have sounded out of place on 'Bend Sinister' but it also shares the grinding, repetitive nature of certain songs from 'The Frenz Experiment'. 'Yes O Yes' isn't particular a highlight here but it works in context. 'Van Plague?' on the otherhand just works, full stop. A greatly underrated Fall song, it's not often spoken of by fans but this is one of the sweetest Fall songs I can think of and also one of the best 'straight' Mark E Smith vocal performances. 'Bad News Girl' isn't particularly noteworthy being a tuneless dirge, 'Last Nacht' is a lively dance experiment and the closing 'Big New Priest' merley an alternative mix of the albums opening cut. I'll mention 'Cab It Up!' as well. 'Cab It Up!' isn't original, the melody is obvious and goes round and round. It's a lively track though, and Mark E Smith is particularly lively vocally. When he shouts out 'cabbing it uptown, UPTOWN!' it's a great Fall moment, for me at least. And, there you have it. 'I Am Kurious Oranj'. Difficult to come to a definite conclusion about the whole thing, other than it's entertaining. But, entertaining is good!

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Enforced change, unplanned sometimes scary and potentially threatening change, often works out for the best. Thus was the result of Mark E Smith and Brix Smith parting ways. Mark E Smith promptly signed The Fall to a major label for the first time in the UK, whilst at the same time, not bothering to sign to a label in the US at all. Maybe no one wanted to sign The Fall? The expectation amongst certain critics was The Fall would flounder and fail following the departure of glamorous American Brix. In any event, major label money from EMI resulted in Mark spending more time down the pub ( probably! ) and also focusing his efforts on the recording of 'Extricate', which as the sleeve-notes tell us comprised material he/they had 'held back or just wrote over and through the tendril wires and chaos of the last 14 months'. Which says it all really! Another interesting aspect of the sleevenotes is that side one is labelled by Mark as 'subjective as usual' and side two 'objective, unusual'. All I can tell through listening is that side two has a few observational, story songs. Early fall guitarist Martin Bramah returned for this album, by the way. He'd last appeared on 'Live At The Witch Trials' years and years back. A fiddle player was hired to scrawl and wail all over the opening 'Sing! Harpy' which is all funky rhythms, good production and biting lyrics. It's also lots of fun. 'I'm Frank' is apparently "Craig's tribute to Frank Zappa". Really, it's just an addictive and streamlined Fall guitar riff. "gimmie gimmie gimmie it slowly, baby" sings Mark, and The Fall sound funky as hell! It was 1990, remember. The era of Manchester bands. Mark being responsible for The Fall, the 'original' Manchester band, no doubt was spurred on by the competition the likes of The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses provided, even if he wasn't exactly a fan of either group.

Signing to a major label usually requires some sort of compromise. There's no compromise here that I can see. Mark even refused EMI the chance to issue the gorgeous 'Bill Is Dead' as a single because he didn't think it was a good single. It did top radio one DJ John Peels end of year fans poll for 1990. And, it features Mark E Smiths finest ever vocal performance. Can the sound of Mark E Smith singing make you cry? Can The Fall be genuinely emotionally affecting and not just write cool alternative ( very alternative ) Rock music? Why, yes they can! 'Bill Is Dead' is absolutely gorgeous. 'Black Monk Theme Part 1' is a grinding stop start guitar workout, 'Black Monk Theme Part 2' is a techno/dance track, and rather fun for the Mark E Smith vocal, although the music is rather generic stuff. These two 'Black Monk' tunes are the least interesting things about 'Extricate' for me, even if 'Part 2' is unintentionally hilarious. 'Popcorn Double Feature' is some tune, 'Arms Control Poseur' a delightfully dissonant exercize in funky rhythms and noise, with a great twisted Mark E Smith vocal over the top. Dance/Techno artists and producers Coldcut helped out with 'Telephone Thing' and it's absolutely storming. This was the most sucessful dance/rock mix The Fall had yet acheived. 'Hilary' follows this dance funk monster very well. 'Hilary' is a very inoffensive jaunty guitar pop song, proof enough The Fall wouldn't cease writing pop melodies after the departure of Brix.

'Chicago Now' sounded like nothing else on earth to me back in 1990. It was the first Fall song i'd ever heard. I needed this album! I knew nothing at all about the group back then, didn't even know what Mark E Smith looked like, knew none of the history. 'Chicago Now' was just this spooky, haunting and genuinely great song i'd heard. 'The Littlest Rebel' announces itself with a blast of guitar upon which a different guitar arrives playing a patented Fall catchy as hell melody line. Mark E Smith arrives with funny, grin inducing lyrics, harmonica plays across several sequences of the song and the whole thing becomes an impossible triumph. Ok, this is a simple song. That doesn't mean it's not great, though. 'British People In Hot Weather' is an hilarious observational piece from Mark E Smith, 'And Therein' a deliourisly happy rockabilly inspired song with a vintage Mark E Smith vocal performance and the closing title song is another 'Telephone Thing' dance monster. What more could you ask for? Well, you could ask for the removal of a couple of songs, perhaps. I'd remove the two 'Black Monk' songs, even if one makes me laugh out loud. Minor quibbles, minor quibbles. The Fall were back, better than ever.

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Exit Martin Bramah, enter Dave Bush on funky dance keyboards, although this is no kind of dance record. 'Shiftwork' is in fact the softest album The Fall have ever produced. That doesn't mean 'Shiftwork' is bad of course, oh no! We still get a couple of biting, groovy guitar tracks and we still get the odd piece of eccentricity. But, the fact remains, this is straightforward for a Fall LP. Good songs, though. 'Edingburgh Man' for instance follows on from 'Bill Is Dead' in that it sports a Mark E Smith actually singing, and singing sweetly too. 'Rose' and 'You Haven't Found It Yet' are both pretty mellow, 'Rose' does feature some pretty flute work although 'You Haven't Found It Yet' isn't so interesting, but we'll allow The Fall the odd song here or there that isn't great. How generous of us! They've only gone and produced a billion songs in the past fifteen years!! 'The Mixer' is another mellow song actually, but this time with the dance stuff mixed in. A dance ballad? Fiddle can be heard, Mark E Smith adopts his 'Disney's Dream Debased' and 'Bill Is Dead' voice, and this is an interesting mix of styles and sounds. 'White Lightening' and 'High Tension Line' were the singles. Neither charted of course, although 'White Lightening', an old rockabilly cover, came close. On the eccentric side we have the delightful lo-fi casio keyboards and 'farting' sound that is 'Sinister Waltz'. It has no melody at all, well, not much of a melody. It's got very few vocals..... it's got noise yet it's quiet and disturbing. It'd sound great in a horror movie, a weird horror movie that made no sense, mind! Drums kick in and shuffling bass rhythms for the brilliant 'A Lot Of Wind', as in 'he talks a lot of wind'. A fine, wired Mark E Smith vocal enlivens 'A Lot Of Wind' no end and the fiddle helps add the required dissonance.

The title tune is a little too mid-tempo, a little uninteresting melody wise, 'The Book Of Lies' on the otherhand is absolutely brilliant, Mark E Smith sounds weird vocally, different, almost like a different singer. It might actually BE a different singer! Some guy called Kenny Brady ( the fiddle playing guy ) is also credited with vocals in the sleeve-notes, so some of the vocals here could well be him. Ah, it doesn't matter! 'The War Against Intelligence' and 'Idiot Joy Showland' are both guitar led songs on an album that's light on guitar, actually. Both songs do feature biting, bitter and clever lyrical work, 'Idiot Joy Showland' especially. Fiddle pops up again through 'The War Against Intelligence' and it's an important part of the sound of this 'Shiftwork' album. The guitars are mostly standard stuff, no distortion, little riffing or catchy guitar work. The keyboards provide melodies, the bass provides melodies. Everything works together, actually. But, the fiddle screetches over the top of several songs through 'Shiftwork'. I'm glad, it reminds me i'm listening to The Fall. Which, I've just realised, is a really dumb thing to say. There's Mark E Smith shouting through a megaphone with a rag stuffed in his gob all through 'So What About It?'! Of course it's the bloody Fall!!

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Well, what to say about this? I mean, FUCKING HELL!! The excitement of course is fully justified. The Fall sound like the greatest band on earth for a good portion of this album. They don't keep it up all throughout, but when the likes of 'Free Range' in particular arrive, you'll be jumping around the room knocking over plants and punching the wall, and shouting out loud, screaming with joy at the satisfaction gained from listening to the best damn Rock / Dance mix you'll ever hear in your entire life. And, I mean that! When Radiohead, of the 'Kid A' era played a mix on a late night Radio One show they opened by playing 'The Birmingham School Of Business School'. All beeps, all bass guitar, percussion. Proper rock guitar, well, proper Fall guitar comes sailing through and Mark E Smith growls and sings. Growls? Yeah, he does! 'Whoaoahahaujapoaha'. Something like that :) And then we get 'Free Range'!!!!!!!! 'FREE RANGE'!! Just do yourself a favour cock and listen to this. Turn it up, turn it way up. Dance beats, fantastic guitar, very loud drum beats and one of the finest EVER set of Mark E Smith lyrics and vocals. This is The Fall. Do you hear anything in it? It's a world removed from the likes of early classics such as 'Hex Enducation Hour' of course. It's just as magnificent though, if not more so. And then we get 'Return'!!! We get even more exclamation marks in this review!! 'Return' is a classic Fall catchy melody, mapped out by keyboards this time round with the guitar riffing away. The beats come in, Mark E Smith continues and continues. It's fucking fantastic, and that's official.

'Time Enough At Last' at last manages not to sound like the work of super beings from another planet. It's a beautiful song though, great vocals and strong melodies. 'Everything Hurtz' is cool, very cool. Biting vocals and guitars and The Fall sound positively inspired throughout. Another great one listened to loud, incidentally. The first failing of 'Code: Selfish' arrives with 'Immortality'. Well, it's still pretty decent, just a little repetitive with it's dance beats, a little lacking in the correct Rock / Dance mixture. And then, side two opens badly! What's going on? We had the best album, EVER! on our hands, and their pissing it away? 'Two-Face' is a six minute dirge of very little interest, although Mark E Smith tries his best. 'Just Waiting' is an odd cover version, pretty funny, but it doesn't withstand repeated, frequent listening. 'So Called Dangerous' is better, fast dance beats and an inspired Mark E Smith singing over little shuffling guitar parts. 'Gentleman's Agreement' picks things up even more, being an absolutely gorgeous mellow keyboard led ballad. 'Married Two Kids' has great guitar and odd rhythms amid a very fascinating Mark E Smith lyrical performance. It's haunting, it's 'Chicago Now' haunting from 'Extricate' and then some. 'Crew Filth' ends the album on an unusual note. Opens very dancey before it turns into a lo-fi home tape job where everybody sounds drunk out of their skulls. But, whatever. 'Code : Selfish' is a great Fall album, one of the best, even with it's obvious faults. We can overlook those faults to an extent, because the likes of 'Free Range' and 'Everything Hurtz' are that good!

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Readers Comments Steven Gordon Sorry Adrian but I feel that you are well wrong in awarding a 9 for this album. I truly believe that this was the beginning of the end of the once mighty Fall. Whilst I always looked forward to having a Fall album out each year, I do not think that it is possible to deliver quality every time. Yes, Free Range and Everything Hurtz are superb, but overall, the LP is average, especially in light of the previous two albums. The next two albums had their moments, but then arrived the very poor Cerebal Caustic. That was the last Fall album I bought on issue, I fell out of love with one of my all time favourite bands. I have recently bought Heads Roll cheaply on ebay, but whilst it's good, it's not great. Maybe I have just got older and my tastes have changed. I still listen to the older Fall albums and Dragnet remains my favourite. Keep up the good work, Steven Gordon

Quite why The Fall left a successful marriage with Phonogram / EMI, i'll never know. They did get paid twice for this album, though. Once by Phonogram, once by Permanent Records, their new home. Mark E Smith walked away smiling, especially when 'The Infotainment Scan' entered the UK charts at number nine!! Still, something isn't quite right here. Had The Fall met the 'zeitgeist'? Was this the pinnacle of The Fall's career, as close as they'd ever come to reaching the masses? Was it compromised? I can't answer any of those questions. All I can say is, it's good. It's by no means their worst album, but I just don't know what to say. Maybe there are too many cover versions here ( three out of the eleven songs in total ), maybe there is a little too much gloss or something? Whatever. The opening 'Ladybird' is nicely guitar led, although nothing astonishing. 'Lost In Music', which is of course a version of the Sister Sledge classic, gets given a Fall dance makeover and it's lots of fun. Mark E Smith takes huge liberties with the lyrics of course, but that's pretty funny ultimately. The best song on the album is 'Glam Racket' which contains as its title might suggest, a huge glam rhythm amid Fall guitars and typically brilliant Mark E Smith lyrics.

'I'm Going To Spain', written by S.Bent for those of you who want to know, was once voted one of the worst songs of all time. The Fall's version isn't anything as bad as that, but it's not great either. It's pleasant, it's nice, it's safe. 'It's A Curse' is much more like it, great Fall guitars, nice keyboards parts and a biting Mark E Smith performance. 'Paranoia Man In Cheap Shit Room' joins 'Glam Racket' in being a highlight of the set. Very guitar led, very heavy and dirty and with seemingly personal lyrics as well. 'Service' is a haunting keyboard led ballad, very beautiful actually. It's elegant, not a word you would usually associate with The Fall. Both 'The League Of Bald Headed Men' and 'A Past Gone Mad' rely very heavily on dance beats even if the former also contains a dirty guitar riff. 'Light-Fireworks' is a 'Sinister Waltz' or 'Crew Filth' style lo-fi embarrassment. It lacks the charm of 'Sinister Waltz' and isn't as funny as 'Crew Filth'. And then? Good god, 'Why Are People Grudgeful' is awful, terribly cliched dance type stuff, very commercial, the most blatant attempt at reaching the pop charts The Fall had ever made. It didn't even work, didn't make the charts, it just missed out. 'Infotainment Scan'? It's not upto the quality of 'The Phonogram Years' ultimately, yet still not quite reaching the full decline that would shortly endanger the future of the group. The best moments here are worth the whole price of entry.

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Readers Comments Chris Jones futureproof381@hotmail.com The Infotainment Scan stand shoulder to shoulder with all the very best Fall releases-yes there is the obligatory nonsense experiment(Light/Fireworks)and Why Are People Grudgeful? was a waste of time,but...Ladybird(Green Grass)is a classic 90s album opener ala The Joke,Lost In Music is a great cover,Glam Racket is probably in the top 10 Fall Songs of all time,Service is lovely and quite poetic("corny leather jacket"and all)Paranoia Man and It's A Curse rock,and the much-maligned I'm Going To Spain is pretty good really...

Doesn't the fact The Fall were signed to a label called Permanent Records strike you as being funny? It does me! Anyhows, here's another Fall album. It's not so dance oriented as the previous Fall album although a couple of the songs do continue that direction. It's no return to top form, although a few couple of the songs could pass as being fall classics. So, what have we here? We have guitars, although by and large they don't do anything interesting. They sound like Fall guitars, but 'professional' Fall guitars, if such a thing is possible. The opening '15 Ways' is pretty groovy, although once you've finished listening to it, you're not likely to remember how it actually goes. 'The Reckoning' is quite lovely though, slightly indistinct but featuring a gorgeous Mark E Smith vocal and nice keyboard lines too. 'Behind The Counter', unlike '15 Ways' is memorable, but it's not quite a classic Fall single. It does contain lots of noise, but it's hardly a 'Free Range', or going back much further in time, a 'Totally Wired'. 'M5#1' is a great guitar groove and very enjoyable, 'Surmount All Obstacles' is a very noisy Dance/Rock mix which almost, but never quite, takes off.

Still, some salvation at least, is at hand. 'War' is exhilaratingly storming, 'You're Not Up To Much' containing the single catchiest guitar melody on the entire record and 'Hey Student' is a furious guitar monster. 'Junk Man' is very silly indeed but makes me grin very loudly for the bizare insertion of Kazoo all through the track. '$500 Bottle Of Wine' is pretty fun and groovy, 'City Dweller' a pretty decent dance experiment featuring an inspired Mark E Smith and the closing 'Shut Up' is all noise and shouting. It's good! The album is patchy, but then, it's not all that bad. It's still The Fall, it's still Mark E Smith, Craig Scanlon and Stephen Hanley. They'd formed a core, the heart of the group, ever since 'Dragnet'. Sadly, things were about to change.

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Readers Comments Chris Jones futureproof381@hotmail.com Why more people don't rate Middle Class Revolt I'll never know-even the nondescript moments are better than parts of Cerebral Caustic and the best moments are wonderful-Behind The Counter,The Reckoning and You're Not Up To Much especially.Definitely an 8,but then i'd probably say that about most Fall releases(it's a curse).

Things were indeed about to change, Brix re-joined - Craig left ( or was sacked? ) but only after the recording of this album. 'The Joke' is a good indication of what to expect over the course of the whole album. Riffing guitars, a noisy sound but not a clear sound. The instrumentation sounds a little 'mushy' to me, everything thrown together. You can make out the guitars but then the guitars have been mixed louder than anything else. 'Don't Call Me Darling' is entertaining for Brix shouting the song title in the chorus. 'Rainmaster' lacks much substance but it sounds pretty great, so much so, it's enough to make it a highlight even if the song doesn't actually DO anything. The lyrics aren't interesting, the vocals are standard stuff. There is nothing innovative or new here for The Fall, but yeah. 'Rainmaster' sounds great! 'Feeling Numb' is an outing for Brix to flex her vocal muscles alongside her former husband. Brix co-writes half of the songs on the album, in fact. No wonder Craig was pissed off concerning her sudden re-emergence into The Fall. Ah, must leave out the unnecessary speculation! 'Pearl City' has fun guitar lines but not much else. Sounds pretty groovy listened to loud, but there's a sneaking feeling Mark E Smith in particular isn't operating 100%. His lyrics are, shall we say, minimal. Throwaway. But yeah, the guitars are good. 'Life Just Bounces' was a song that had actually been 'bouncing' around for a good few years, it was an early nineties b-side. It's re-recorded here and has nice ascending then descending guitar lines, but is too much standard stuff, too much Fall by numbers.

Two of my favourite musical artists meet for 'I'm Not Satisfied'. A Frank Zappa song performed with gusto by The Fall. Distubingly for The Fall however, it's one of the best 'songs' on the album. Previous Fall covers were entertaining diversions at best. 'I'm Not Satisfied' just shows how uninspired much of the original Fall material is here. The whole album is pretty much style over substance bar one particular little Fall gem. 'Bonkers In Phoenix' sees Brix write a pretty guitar ballad. Mark E Smith being Mark E Smith, he decides to place effects on her vocals and very loud electronic noises bursting randomly all over the place. The remarkable thing is, the extra noise actually makes the song the delight that it is. You can listen to Brix, listen to Mark sing out the songs title, laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole enterprise. It's by far the most entertaining track on the whole album! 'North West Fashion Show', 'One Day' and 'The Aphid' are more loud guitar tracks which sound great at an instant, yet simply don't stick around in your brain very long. A disappointing album, all in all. Brix rejoining the group only seemed to make the guitars louder, rather than improve the writing or anything actually important

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Readers Comments Mark Prindle mprindle@nyc.rr.com I know the riffs aren't the greatest on Earth, but you have no IDEA how much this album excited me when it came out. I had become dismayed at the Fall's apparently PERMANENT state of slickness and predictability, and this album blew all my preconceptions out the window. And aside from "The Joke" and "Don't Call Me Darling," I still basically enjoy every song on here! It was a necessity. Believe me, they NEEDED to get away from the clean sound. They were good at it, sure, but The Fall are NOT supposed to be predictable. And ever since they did this album, every CD they release is a surprise. You never know what you might get! That last sentence was kinda stupid.

A great set-list here if you love The Fall's material of the early to mid-nineties. Listening to a double CD album of live Fall material is a little trying though, too much information. Something like 'Return' suffers over its studio version because you can't hear the keyboards. 'Big New Prinz' is a delightful selection, the only pre-extricate song on this entire record. 'British People In Hot Weather' sounds like it was recorded in a toilet somewhere and Mark E Smith only gets a fraction of the original lyrics down instead preferring to repeat the songs title over and over again. 'Free Range' sounds a total mess, quite frankly. Nothing is balanced right, the sound quality is terrible, and there you have it. I could live without this massacre of a great Fall song. On the otherhand, 'High Tension Line' is performed with energy and the closing song on the first CD, 'The League Of Bald Headed Men' pretty well performed and very entertaining. Moving onto the second CD we have a decent if terribly hiss covered version of 'Glam Racket'. Even 'Lost In Music' gets a live outing, 'The Infotainment Scan' obviously being very much in favour with the group at this point in time whilst the 'Middle Class Revolt' album was almost all but ignored. Strange, really. 'Passable' is an alternative version of 'A Past Gone Mad' and actually, it's bloody fantastic. The electronic dance elements are mixed well into the rock band performance here for about the first time on the record thus far.

'Middle Class Revolt' sounds great here, better than the studio version by a mile, the guitars are loud and biting and everything is great apart from the actual vocals, but we can't have everything! 'Bill Is Dead' sounds sweet, the previously unknown 'Strychnine' sounds absolutely wonderful, very guitar heavy but full of energy with it. 'War' and 'You're Not Up To Much' are 'Middle Class Revolt' songs competently done, well, as competently as The Fall ever do anything live these days! And then, 'Noels Chemical Effluence' is a total hidden gem and earns this album a whole extra point all by itself. Six minutes long, a return to lengthier Fall song experiments, it has a strong guitar melody, deep bass, lots of care and attention to detail musically...... It also had a pretty hilarious set of lyrics and vocals. I hope the song actually is about the hideous British TV presenter Noel Edmonds. I've no evidence it actually is bar the name, but the mention of 'effluence' is a clue! Noel Edmonds is loathsome. 'Noels Chemical Effluence' is a top tune!

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The opening 'DIY Meat' is just as lacking in substance as much of 'Cerebral Caustic' but the band are fantastic, very raw and the bass of Stephen Hanley note-worthy in particular. It carries on, too. 'Das Vulture Ans Ein Nutter-Wain' is all bass groove for the first time in a Fall song since about 1985, I suspect. Noises and percussion, dissonant keyboards appear over the top - a great song, no question. Brix gets some vocal contributions on the catchy as hell 'He-Pep!' which also happens to be thrillingly noisy. If 'Cerebral Caustic' has a 'mushy' sound, 'The Light User Syndrome' has a production and mixing effort that allows you to clearly make out each and every part. Each and every part also just happens to be loud as hell and very exciting - at least for the first half of the album. The second half descends, drops badly. The likes of 'The Ballard Of J Drummer' and 'Sucession Man' are a world away from the storming 'He-Pep!', or the catchy pop melodies of 'Spinetrack', or the absolutely brilliant and life-afirming 'Chilinism'. 'Chilinism' once it gets going is just a thing to behold! Layered guitars, two drummers - the return of early Fall drummer and general eccentric Karl Burns, no less! Brix sings, Mark sings. Brix gets the best line, "Pink Floyd are short". Fantastic.

'Stay Away ( old white train )' is a weird but fun cover version where the vocals are sung by some guy called Mike Bennett. Quite why, i'm not sure, but whatever. I said a little earlier that the second half of this album 'descends'. Well, it does. Most of it is noticeably worse than 'Cerebral Caustic', very light-weight in terms of writing. 'Power Keg' does creates a cool mix of guitars and keyboards though. 'The Coliseum' although far too long, is a pretty decent dance experiment, though. There are a few songs here on the album that certainly can be classified as The Fall returning to form, but not enough. There is far too much filler for the album to be vintage Fall, yet it remains a step in the right direction.

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Readers Comments Martin Greggor marting@nildram.co.uk how can you not mention cheetham hill -which is an excellent dance/rock crossover with MES on top lyric form?

Brix left again, but a new creative force entered the group. Well, Julie Nagle had actually debuted on 'The Light User Syndrome' but following the departure of Brix The Fall found themselves reduced to Mark E Smith, Stephen Hanley and Karl Burns. Julia stepped into the breach! She played guitar, did the keyboards, co-wrote a bunch of the songs. Two session guitar players fleshed out the sound, and a new album was made. Produced by Mark E Smith, incidentally. The first Fall album that I can recall being self-produced. The sound is pretty lo-fi, and very strangely mixed! Take 'Masquerade' for instance. The programmed beats are twice as loud as everything else! It's a damn fine tune though, hugely enjoyable. 'Ten Houses Of Eve' kicks off the album with a brief burst of Jungle dance beats which are soon made to fit into a Fall song with bursts of noise and percussion and a great twisted Mark E Smith vocal performance. Everything goes quiet for a beautiful keyboard sounding like Piano interlude, before the beats kick back in. 'Hurricane Edward' is an astonishing burst of 'unlistenable' noise, and it's relentless. So relentless, so primal, it's actually pretty darn exciting. Even more exiciting is 'I'm A Mummy', a cover version apparently, but it suits The Fall down to the ground. "Look what happens when I walk up to somebody!" and the bass guitar thrases away, deep and fast, Paul McCartney is mentioned at one point in the lyrics and there's little in music to beat the shouted "I'm A Mummy" vocal part! One hell of a noisy song, a lo-fi exhilarating delight!! The strangely titled 'Quartet Of Doc Shanley' has Julie contributing a few spoken vocals to add to a few Mark E Smith mumbled vocals, whilst Stephen Hanley goes insane with a furiously wonderful bass groove. After all of this noise, 'Jap Kid' is a solo Julia Nagle keyboard piece, but pretty lovely. It works as a nice interlude on the album because the following track is even noisier than what's come before. '4 1/2 Inch' is simply brilliant. Very noisy, but structured with it. Mark E Smith appears to be totally mad judging by his performance here, whilst the sheer burst of electronic squeals, bass and guitar that appears is just, well, astonishing. A highlight not just of this album, but of at least half of the entire career of The Fall.

'Spencer Must Die' continues the album strongly with more deep and melodic bass playing. 'Jungle Rock' is a truly bizarre cover version very badly mixed, so much so, it's actually becomes a piece of unintended humorous entertainment! 'Ol Gang' rattles furiously, 'I Come And Stand At Your Door' sees Julia reprising her 'Jap Kid' keyboard instrumental interlude whilst the closing two songs are just 'regular' Fall songs. So? A good album! The Fall were back, again!! No classic this 'Levitate' album, it's maybe a little too odd for that, but it's damn entertaining.

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One of just many archival Fall live releases that were put out ( and still are being put out! ) by The Fall's own 'Cog Sinister' record label. It's back to the 'Hex' era Fall for this, a bit of a jolt after listening to late nineties Fall, but I did insist of reviewing these damn things in order of release, didn't I??? As usual for a Fall live recording, the sound quality leaves a little to be desired being covered in hiss, but the performances are pretty damn great here. 'I Feel Voxish' has a tremendous bass groove and lots of scratchy dissonant guitar, 'Hard Life In Country' is stupendous!! Far more entertaining than the already pretty OK studio version. This 'Hard Life In Country' is stretched out to a seven minute length, but not a single one of those minutes is even remotely dull or boring. The performance of 'I'm Into CB' captures all of the absurdities of the studio original and adds a few more in for good measure with what sounds like somebody chucking gravel around on stage. 'Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul' is of course brilliant, i've yet to hear a version of the song that wasn't brilliant, it's a fucking brilliant song! The sound quality is terrible, but just turn it up a bit, and everything will be alright. 'Solicitor In Studio' is interesting and fun, 'Tempo House' lots of fun although a little too long running to eight and a half minutes. But, yeah. It's still fun!

'The Classical' doesn't seem to have quite been nailed down here, a wayward performance to put it politely, but the guitars do get it absolutely right in places and Mark E Smith does sound totally insane. So, that's OK! The closing 'Marquis Cha Cha' is a speedy, manic performance from a band that sound totally wired here. Hey, totally wired!! Totally Wired?? Ah, forget it! Damn good live album, this.

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The entire band left this time, bar Mark E Smith of course but also bar Julia. Which is fairly odd when you consider Mark E Smith had gotten himself into lots of trouble for basically beating her up live on stage during an American tour. The loss of Stephen Hanley was lamented by fans initially, but not once they'd got their ears wrapped around 'Touch Sensitive', a classic Fall single if ever their was one. The album continues strongly with Mark E Smith teaching his new band the delights of rockabilly with a crystal clear sounding version of a song called 'F-Oldin Money'. 'Shake Off' opens with a wash of keyboards, Mark E Smith has plenty to say and seemed to be taking control of proceedings during an unsure period for the group. In any event, 'Shake Off' sounds brilliant with strong guitar and bass performances. A special mention goes out to the drummer here, who plays with lots of energy. 'Bound' is a classic slice of Fall catchy guitar rock, and given the fact this WAS a new band pretty much, should make you realise just how important Mark E Smith really is to the sound of The Fall - it's his sound. 'This Perfect Day' opens with drums before the guitars and bass mess together to create one hell of an enjoyable racket! 'Antidotes' is enough to make you wonder whether The Fall hadn't just found themselves a total new guitar hero in Neville Wilding. 'Antidotes' is one the loudest and heaviest guitar assaults the group have ever recorded.

'Inevitable' has the strongest bass groove on the album, 'Anecdotes + Antidotes In B#' is another strong guitar assualt, the two 'crying marshall' tunes forming almost a conceptual suite and 'Birthday Song' is a very sweet song co-written by Julia. This being a Fall album, it ends strangely. 'Mad Men Eng Dog' is a home tape job with much messing around, 'On My Own' features House beats over which Mark E Smith mumbles and sings pretty interesting lyrics. They may make no sense, but then, this is The Fall. A different Fall, but still The Fall. A triumph, considering!

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Readers Comments Mark Prindle mprindle@nyc.rr.com I don't think he beat her up on stage, did he? It was in their hotel room, I think. I actually saw them together the night before the arrest, and they looked just like any other couple heading to the bar. And as far as I can tell, it wasn't a Tommy Lee-type incident. They were just a very violent, drunken couple. She hit him in the face with a telephone. A couple days later, he beat her up. Although I do think it's kinda neat that I saw the third-to-last show featuring Stephen Hanley, Simon Woolstencraft and Karl Burns, they put on a horrific show. Absolutely dreadful. Their organ had been stolen so Julie was playing one she borrowed that wasn't at ALL in tune with the rest of the band. And it was hiked up about twice as loud as the other instruments. Really really bad. Was Simon even still in the band at that point? Hell, I can't remember who was there. I never even knew the guitarist's name! The Fall are one of my top 3 favorite bands in the world and at this time, I can - in all honesty - name exactly one member.

Grant Showbiz ( fabulous name! ) producer of such notable Fall albums as 'Dragnet' and 'Grotesque' was quoted as saying prior to this release "this line-up could really do some amazing things if only they can stay together". Is there just a hint of underlying tension in that sentence? Grant Showbiz returned to produce Fall album number three hundred and seventeen and The Fall for their part manage not to change a band member from one album to the next! Of course, following the release of this album and a few tours, the entire line-up would leave ( except Mark E Smith of course ) and it was back to square one for The Fall once more. Still, for a while there The Fall were sounding like the greatest band on earth again. Yes, sir, 'The Unutterable' is a huge return to top-notch Fall form! A huge swathe of keyboards amid rattling drums mark out opening song 'Cyber Insekt'. The kind of guitar fury that enriched parts of 'The Marshall Suite' forms the basis of 'Two Librans'. Not only guitar actually, the rhythm section sound pretty darn great, Mark E Smith sounds inspired and 'Two Librans' becomes an instant Fall classic. "She studied bees" sings Mark E Smith, but whatever the hell the song means isn't important, it rocks!! The sound of the catchy and memorable Fall guitar of the 1980 to 1983 era returns for a number of songs here, most entertainingly of all with 'Hot Runes'. Slightly spacey yet utterly melodic keyboard lines add to already impressive sounding 'rock group' based instrumental tracks through most of the songs here, and it's a good sound The Fall manage to create.

The dirty riffing guitar of 'Two Librans' and the previous albums 'Antidotes' returns for the likes of 'Sons Of Temperance' and the remarkably autobiographical ( or so it would seem ) 'Dr Bucks Letter'. The Fall return to Dance for the entertaining 'Way Round'. "I hate roundabouts" sings Mark E Smith as the dance beats and keyboard lines move forwards, sideways, and generally have a grand old time! 'Serum' and 'Octo Realm' are lesser moments stuck in the middle of the album, the former a far too messy sounding dance/rock mix, the latter a song in two parts neither of which are particularly interesting, although the second half is at least funny. The title song features what sounds like a guy bashing pots and pans whilst Mark E Smith does a minute long spoken word piece over the top. Thing is, remarkably, it works! This sudden change of ambience throws you completely and leads perfectly into the 'Extricate' and 'Code Selfish' sounding 'Pumpkin Soup And Mashed Potatoes'. So, we've had the sound of The Fall circa 1981, The Fall circa 1992? What else? We have 'Dr Bucks Letter' a song quite unlike any The Fall have done before. "I lost my temper with a friend" sings Mark, and you believe him given the turmultous recent history of The Fall losing band members left right and center. 'Hands Up Billy' is a punk song song which Mark E Smith neither writes, sings or plays on. The rest of The Fall get the chance to do something minus Mark E, the result of which is a loud sounding, pretty decent punk song.

Of course, this wouldn't be a 'proper' Fall album without its share of stranger, more eccentric oddities. 'Midwatch 1953' runs a casio keyboard alongside computer beeps, drums and Mark E Smith. Remarkably it works amazingly well and even manages to become a highlight of the entire album! 'Devolute' is an incredibly noisy sounding dance track with Mark E Smith doing his best to turn it into unlistenable noise. All he actually manages to acheive is to inject a huge chunk of personality into the thing, rescuing it completely. The closing 'Das Katerer' is a Fall group performance of a song that previously appeared on a Mark E Smith spoken word album. The programmed dance/drum beat from 'Free Range' re-appears. Groovy bass appears and Mark E Smith twists and stretches his vowels, "stick with me, stick with me, I am the caterer" - the drums beats boom and blare out, and that's it. Silence, so reverse back to 'Cyber Insekt' and play the album again. You'll want to, believe me.

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Readers Comments Stephen stephendfall@yahoo.co.uk Play Joni Mitchell's The Jungle Line (from The Hissing Of Summer Lawns) back-to-back with Dr. Buck's Letter to see where The Fall got the music for that track from...

A live album recorded in Reyjkavik 1983, it covers much the same ground as previous live Fall releases. Quickly running through, we get a nine minute version of 'Tempo House' to open, a song i've never been terribly fond of - the best part of this version is Mark E Smith opening with 'Good evening, we are The Fall', the same greeting he's used for every Fall gig ever as far as I can tell! 'The Classical' gets an eight minute workout but the guitars sound far too quiet. 'The Classical' needs LOUD GUITARS! Dense, layered and thrilling guitars. This version doesn't have those. Now, that may just be down to the mixing, I don't know, I wasn't there to say it was any different 'in person'. 'Eat Y'Self Fitter' reaches eight minutes as well, but this is rather entertaining. "What is a computer?", "Eat Y'self Fitter!" - and then the guitars riff away and Mark E Smith sings words, starts making 'br br drrr drrr!' sounds! It's all here!! 'Hexen Definitve' is welcome if only because it's the first song here under five minutes in length, 'I Feel Voxish' suffers from poor mixing, the guitars virtually non-existant. 'The Man Whose Head Expanded' is fun, if only because this is the only live version of the song i've heard. The same can be said for 'Garden' which is actually a total triumph, if not a song that obviously lends itself to a storming live rendition! And then 'Kicker Conspiracy'!! It's groovy, fun and glorious. 'Look Now' is perfuntory the closing 'Backdrop' twelve minutes of guitars and bass although very little discernable sense of melody. And, that's it! Not one of the finer Fall live releases, it must be said.

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A compilation covering alternate versions, live tracks, etc. This was originally a bootleg released in 1994. Come 2001, Mark E Smith, deciding there weren't yet quite enough Fall albums for the fan to chose from turned the bootleg into an official Cog-Sinister archival release. 'Marquis Cha-Cha' is the regular studio version, 'Bremen Nacht Run Out' is just the guitar groove from 'Bremen Nacht' of The Frenz Experiment drawn out to a four minute length. The word 'inessential' doesn't even begin to describe it. 'Mark'll Sink Us' is an old Fall b-side from the eighties given a live performance, 'Lucifer Over Lancashire' the same sort of thing. The latter has some entertaining guitar groove, the former is totally forgettable. Mid-Eighties single 'Hey Luciani' ( orginally a glorious slice of Fall pop music ) appears here in an alternate mix. Well, it could be a live version. The sound quality is so tinny it's hard to actually tell. 'Wings' 'La' and 'US 80s 90s' are all weak live performances and it's not until 'Guest Informant' we get a great Fall live rendition, a 'Frenz Experiment' song, surprisingly. It sounds totally glorious here, far better than the original studio version. And, oh joy! What's this? Why, it's 'Backdrop'! This is the same recording as appears on the 'Fall In A Hole' set as far as I can tell. It's better than the 'Austurbaejarbio' version at least.

'Dresden Dolls' is a Fall song previously unknown to me. Mark E Smith sounds like he's singing in a shed. 'Strychinne' is noisy as hell and 'Race With The Devil' is a live recording of a Gene Vincent song performed for Radio One DJ John Peel's fiftieth birthday. Mark sings in his best 'loud impenetrable mumbling' style, the bass is good and this is OK. 'Plaster On The Hands ( Pilsner Trails )' is a nice slice of Fall guitar whilst the closing 'Mark E Smith Interview Segment' makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. This album makes no sense, the bootleg nature of this release just 'shines' through and nothing that appears here comes anywhere close to being essential Fall.

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American group 'Tackhead' completely miss the entire point of The Fall with their cover of a very early Fall song, 'Repetition'. Mark E Smith guests on a live performance of Fall influence Iggy Pop's 'Now I Wanna Be Your Dog'. It's easy to tell Iggy was an influence when you listen to this, Marks vocal is so spot on, it's scary! 'Plug Myself In' is a fantastic dance track on which Mark E Smith provided vocals and 'I Want You' by The Inspiral Carpets provided one of the televisual highlights of the entire 1990's when Mark E Smith finally got to appear on 'Top Of The Tops'. The memory of which is etched onto my memory. The studio audience looked positively appalled at this tramp top twenty single charting regulars The Inspiral Carpets had 'dragged' on stage with them. Mark had a megaphone through which he sang all of his vocals. Well, if my memory is playing tricks on me, I apologise. In any event, IT WAS AN EVENT! Mark E Smith on 'Top Of The Pops'? It happened! The glory of the collaboration 'I Want You' was also evidence Mark E Smith could work with virtually anybody and turn them into The Fall. Which, given subsequent goings on, is just as well! The first CD of this compilation puports to be a Fall 'best of the nineties' but it's really no such thing. Given a similarly flawed 'Best Of The Nineties' style Fall compilation had been released just months earlier, the selection of tracks was of neccessity, limited.

A glorious reason or two to own this compilation? 'Kimble' is fantastic, a slice of The Fall doing reggae that never fails to make me smile. 'Ed's Babe' was one of the very finest early nineties Fall singles which ludicrously was only released on 12" in a very limited run. Believe me, though. It's totally fantastic with lovely backing vocals and a gorgeous melody. There's a bunch of really obscure stuff here on the second CD, which for the most part is dubious listening, but nice to have in one place all the same.

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The Fall are back! One strange thing. In the first song, i'm sure they sing 'we are the new fall'. Now, THERE's optimism for you! First impressions? Apparently there was too much 'art' on display on their previous 'Unutterable' album for Mark E Smith's liking. So, you may well go into this album brimming with optimism that here will be a straightforward set of songs in the best Fall pop stylings. No! This is actually one of the most bloody difficult and irritatingly wonderful set of recordings he's ever put out! 'Jims The Fall' which contains the lyric mentioned above is actually a straightforward moment on here. Short and with a good guitar sound. Mark E Smith's vocals are pushed a little into the background to emphasise the guitar work. 'Bourgeois Town' is a cover, mid-tempo and very bare. You notice a complete lack of keyboards at this point. No keyboards! A pure guitar record! All their albums since god alone knows when have featured keyboards. 'Crop Dust' has a really weird eastern sounding riff amid an intense dirge of an atmosphere. It sounds incomprehensible but repeated listening reveals it's charm. Very addictive, actually. 'My Ex Classmate's Kids' is one of the more straightforward moments here. It would be even the more impressive than it already is if it wasn't a re-recording of 'I Wake Up In The City'. That particular song came out on a limited edition 7 inch given away free and was MUCH MUCH BETTER! Damn Mark E Smith!

'Gotta See Jane' is a cover done as only The Fall can. It's full of charm and makes you smile. Now, we move onto....'Ibis Afro Man'. You thought their 'Spectre Vs Rectre' was long, strange and challenging? This is like ten minutes long, a song in sections. Lots of noise, samples, weirdness. Very very funny nonsensical lyrical bits from MES. He wanted less 'art'? What the hell was that then?! I was smiling, then frowning, then grinning and off in a hypnotic daze. Some achievement, actually. Although, and I must stress this, VERY VERY challenging listening! On the other hand, two songs that follow this 'The Acute' and 'Hollow Mind' are straightforward, feature good playing and are both pretty wonderful, actually. Good job too as the closer is another long weird grin inducing work-out. Grin inducing but not a good entry point into The Fall. It does sound unique but makes you laugh and cry in equal measure. This is another good Fall album though, and for that, we should all be thankful.

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Readers Comments Steve H steve.herries@btopenworld.com I am an old fan of the fall I bought bingo masters break out blah blah just got are you missing winner for £5 in Fop records this pm I agree with your review it is a good fall album iS there a bad one? Keep up the good work Mark e Smith nomination for rock and roll hall of fame NOT

Always different, always the same, always The Fall. Delayed for five months because reportedly, Mark E Smith was unhappy with the mixes. Featuring seven song co-written with the groups bass player, Jim Watts. He's apparently, so i've heard, the reason behind the delay. M.E.S. was unhappy with the mixes - Jim Watts duty at the time. M.E.S. has apparently overseen an entire remix of the album himself. The #2's next to two of the songs interest me as well. I can guess these two songs were changed more than others, but I don't know. Anyhow! Mr Jim Watts sounds pretty good, in this new mix, at least. Not like Fall bass players of old ( step up and take a bow, the immortal Stephen Hanley ) but rather just... Oh, I don't know. Playing something interesting. Melodies and stuff like that. The guitarist does fine things in places, not least all through track four, 'Contraflow', but more of that later. If you are wondering what's changed since the last LP, well, i'll tell you right now. Mark E Smith's new girlfriend plays keyboards. The return of keyboards into the sound is most welcome. The Fall sound urgent throughout the LP, betraying their age as a group. What is it now? Is 2004 the 25th anniversary of The Fall? Will they have a big tour featuring all seven hundred and twenty two former members??!?!? I'm joking and being silly, and besides, Mark E Smith probably doesn't go in for that kind of thing.

Good god, i'd love to know what the lyrics are to 'Contraflow'. Well, we've got the chorus down pretty well. It's a giant god of a Fall chorus, an immortal refrain to lend the album it's theme and title, I suppose. But, ah, ah, AH! This is one fine song, an instant Fall classic to rank right alongside the finest of their many classics through the years. "I hate the countryside, oh so much. I hate the countryfolk, oh so much" sings M.E.S. Then, the guitar kicks in. It kicks in and really grooves. The rhythm se