The Fall: Imperial Wax Solvent

32 years in, and Mark E. Smith shows no sign of quitting, with the 27th(ish) Fall album out today. Good.

There are, apparently, still some people who remain wilfully blind to the genius of The Fall, and I suppose at this stage it's too late for them; I can only pity them and the drab lives they must lead.

Because there is not one band who has managed what Smith and his many cohorts have achieved: to sustain a career in this strange beast we call rock and roll for three decades that maintains an extraordinarily high quality level (I maintain they've never released a bad album: sure, there are Fall albums that are less good than the others, but their slightest effort is still several rungs above almost anyone else) and still retains its full creative force and originality.

Having established recent incarnations of The Fall as the Ur-garage band, Smith on this album seems to be playing with that sounds, pulling it apart and reconstructing it from the inside out. So what we get are a lot of startling jump cuts between textures and tempi, which seem to bring The Fall's latent Beefheart influence to the fore. now Beefheart's not someone you can emulate unless you're very sure of yourself, and of course The Fall manage to let that sound come out without ever once sounding like anything other than the Fall, which of course is the essence of their genius.

It's compelling, genuinely adult music ("I'm a 50-year old man, and I like it!" exclaims Smith) ; a big thick juicy steak of a record, in comparison to the thin gruel so many bands serve up. And it's great to dance to, too. The Fall come from the land of Northern Soul, remember; they understand the value of dancing.

Tuesday Link-o-rama

Oh, has it come to this? Am I now on that slippery slope to being just another blog with a bunch of links to the words of other, far more intelligent and interesting people than me? I'll try not to make a habit of it. Anyway, in the absence of anything interesting to say coming out of my brain, here are a few things to read:

EMI's planned job cuts have been delayed by some piddling legal process. Damn those pesky Europeans with their crazy ideas that big multinational corporations can't just shit on people as they please.

The Graunaiad is publishing daily extracts from one of the Defeatist's number one heroes, Mark E. Smith. Part one is here and part two is here.

Harrison Birtwistle's new opera The Minotaur premieres tonight. Here are some interviews with the composer, director and protagonist. I'm interested in the way the media seem to have moved from portraying Birtwistle as a terrifying figure to almost the cuddly face of modernism.

Happy Smith-Day!

I'm reminded by an entertaining article on BBC4's Front Row that today is Mark E. Smith's 50th birthday. Happy birthday, Mark!

Of course, in the unlikely event that he actually read this, he'd probably tell me to fuck off, middle-class wanker. He'd be right, of course.

You can hear Stewart Lee, among others, talk about why the Fall are great via the BBC's splendid listen again facility.


(Lego Mark E. Smith from here.)

The Fall marathon 11: Reformation Post TLC

When I was a lad, there was one irrefutable proof that you were a true fan of a band. When talk turned to a classic record, you would know that you knew and loved this record better than anyone if you could declare: "I got it on the day it came out".

Of course, as age encroaches and the matter of bills and other such mundane use of money envelop our souls, we realise that it doesn't really matter what day you get a record on. It'll still be there next week, and it'll sound the same. And so we slide into a gentler relationship with our bands, and they slowly cease to be ours.

Sometimes though, you have to say to hell with maturity and keep the flame of obsessive passion alive, to keep a faith that this incidental luxury called music can be a transformative, vital part of life. So, here is the new Fall album, and I got it on the day it came out.

This is, of course, a brand-new lineup since "Fall Heads Roll", and there's a certain feeling of the band bedding in. Initial impressions: this year's style is minimalist - I'm reminded of the Monks album I was listening to the other day in the pounding, aggressive, repetitive riffing on display through much of this album. There's a lengthy and testing collage-y track ("Das Boat") the like of which hasn't been seen on a Fall album for a good while, and this seems one of MES's more belligerent outings of recent years. Plenty of sly humour if you want to find it, though - "I think they've over-done the Trout Mask thing" comments Smith at one point, only to quote "Veterans' Day Poppy" from that album a few tracks later. And "The Wright Stuff" offers a very funny lambasting of Celebrity culture, all the better for being delivered dead-pan by Elena Poulou (aka Mrs Smith) to an unexpectedly synth-pop backing. And the cover of "White Line Fever" is surprisingly affecting.

You need a few listens of any Fall album to get your head round it, really, so who knows what I'll make of it next week? That's the joy of it - knots to unravel, puzzles that twist and turn and shape-shift with every new look. As John Peel said - always different, always the same.

This is the end of the Fall marathon... for now. It's also my 100th post on this blog. I didn't plan it that way, honest.

Fall marathon 10: The Unutterable/Are You Are Missing Winner/The Real New Fall Album/Fall Heads Roll

The Unutterable gives the sense of a well-drilled band who are probably shit-scared of their leader. At the time it came out I thought it was one of the Fall's best albums for many a year, even more satisfying for coming after a period when many in the press speculated that it was all over. Little things like "Das Katerer" - effectively a re-write of "Free Range" - give a sense that MES has to some extent reconciled himself to his past, and I guess from hereon there's a sense of the band being more willing to draw on its own history, less worried about pointedly refusing to revisit old ground. Especially welcome is the humour, more evident on this album than it had been for quite some time.



After "The Unutterable"'s fairly flash production, Are You Are Missing Winner contrarily reverts to a resolutely lo-fi sound. I remember being disappointed by this album when it came out, but time's been kind to it - the hyper-garagey tone stands up well, even if this isn't one of their best. There's probably a lesson about the perspective of hindsight to be had here.







The Real New Fall LP (Formerly "Country On The Click") is a step up again, though. Xyralothep sounds a convincing Lovecrafty name, but extensive research (i.e. a few minutes on Google) suggests that the name is MES's own creation. It's an opportunity to note the sci-fi element to the Fall, though. "Sparta FC" is brilliantly belligerent, how they got away with using this as the theme to Final score I'll never know.

And so to Fall Heads Roll, the most recent (until 12th Feb) album. It seems almost like a meta-Fall album, embodying the quixotic (beginning with an extended country-reggae number?!) the relentless grind (the wonderful and frightening "Blindness"), a reference to an old song and a tribute to Bo Diddley.

after 30 years, it's remarkable simply that The Fall are still around. It's positively astounding that not only is MES still here, but he's still at the top of his game. Having gone through all these albums over the past couple of months, I can honestly say that, some variation in quality aside (perfectly natural over such a long time) there isn't a single one that isn't good. I can't think of any other band of whom that can be said over thirty years.

These days it's very easy to think of the Fall as existing in some sort of separate time continuum, where each individual album fades into one huge welter of sound. it's nice to have been able to remind myself of each record's individual merits, and make some surprising connections. Who'd have thought that one of the constant threads that seems more and more prominent with the passing years would be dance music? Mark E Smith, for one, probably.

Fall marathon 9: The Light User Syndrome/Levitate/The Marshall Suite

The course of these three albums saw the biggest upheaval in the Fall's line-up yet. First to go was long-time guitarist Craig Scanlon (incidentally, the one sacking M.E.S. has subsequently admitted regret for). So, following her unexpected reappearance on "Cerebral Caustic", Brix appears on the sleeve of this album, perhaps significantly, between M.E.S. and the rest of the band. Is the tile of The Light User Syndrome a suggestion that after the previous few years, when speculation had been rife in the music press about whether his notorious liking for a drink was getting the better of him, we are witnessing a more sober Smith? If you were to suspect that it meant one of the Fall's more easy on the ear moments, you'd be wrong. I didn't think of it like this when it came out, but listening to it now it's striking how minimalist and industrial it sounds, lending it an almost brutal quality. The moment at the end of "Chilinism" where the song apparently winds down, only to stutter into a fierce low-fi riff at the bark of "Chiselers!" is a classic Scary Fall Moment. All in all, it's mostly the scowling, vituperative Smith who's mostly present here. It's a thrilling and often terrifying album. Having said that, it's a typically unpredictable gesture to throw in a brass section at the end.

The Fall do Drum and bass? Well, why not? One of the things that's been surprisingly prominent going through all these albums is how consistently the Fall adapt all forms of dance music, and Levitate does just that. The sound here is less industrial, more cavernous, with not only breakbeats but fierce garage rock and even smooth jazz (!) thrown into the mix, though as ever the result sounds like nothing but the Fall. This album seems to have fallen through the cracks a bit - I suppose that after the previous one had put the band firmly back on track (as it seemed at the time), it seemed like business as usual, and maybe I took it a bit for granted, something you should never do. Coming back to it now it reveals new riches, and is definitely one to spend some time with.


It was at this point that the notorious New York gig happened that saw the entire band sacked onstage in chaotic circumstances. At the time the press reported it as the end of the Fall. Smith simply hired a new band and carried on (memorably asserting that "if it's me and you granny on bongos, then it's a Fall gig"). The Marshall Suite shows no sign of letting up, in fact at the time, after all the turmoil, it was thrilling to hear Smith back on top form. I guess the evolution of the band's dynamic is here complete, anyone who might be thought of as M.E.S's peer is gone, and the band now consists of a group of young musicians under his iron hand. Thus the impression here is very much that of a tightly-drilled garage band, with Smith exuding a resurgent energy, defiant and malevolent. it's also one of the most sheerly loud albums so far!

Fall marathon 8: Cerebral Caustic

Cerebral Caustic got some decidedly iffy reviews when it came out, as I recall, although I also remember that no two reviewers seemed to agree which tracks were good and which weren't, which may say something. At the time it seemed like an unusually retrograde step, away from the electro influences that pervaded the early '90s albums and back towards the krautabilly sound of early-mid 80s Fall. This may not be unconnected with the entirely unexpected reappearance of Brix.

As it happens, there is a clear return to the pop riffs of Smith(L.E.)'s first stint with the group, but there's a lot more noise and distortion layered over the top, which gives a combative feel to proceedings. I can't help but think that there must have been some unresolved issues between the former Mr & Mrs Smith, as there seems to be a recurring theme of sparring between the two through most of this record, most extremely in "Bonkers at Phoenix", where an out-and-out bubblegum song sung by Brix is overlayed with extreme electronic dissonance and M.E.S.'s barbed comments on the festival scene.

Hindsight's a wonderful thing, and the sense of retreading old ground that made this a slightly disappointing outing first time round has receded with time, so much that I feel inclined to declare this record a Neglected Gem. Not to mention that it has a damn fine title, and an excellent picture on the cover. And how can you not like an album which includes the line "On TV today somebody claimed their dog had been molested by a textile chemist"?

Jesus Christ!

Mark E. Smith is to play Jesus on telly!

Fall marathon 7: The Frenz Experiment/ I Am Kurious, Oranj/ Extricate/ Shift-Work/ Code: Selfish/ The Infotainment Scan/ Middle Class Revolt

Frenz=Friendly? The Frenz Experiment seems on the surface to take the Fall sound into a more mainstream, even chart-friendly place (it's even got a hit single on it!). It's not that simple, of course.

Slightly un-nerving that "Athlete Cured" shares a riff with Spinal Tap's "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock you tonight".

This isn't one of my favourite Fall albums, really. Not that it's bad, it just seems a bit too polished for my taste. It's got a vibe that could almost be described as amiable (almost!).

I Am Kurious, Oranj, on the other hand, crackles with malevolance. I guess the ballet theme got M.E.S. worked up good and proper, not least in his corruscating take on "Jerusalem". Add in such delights as the title track's warped reggae, and the reworking of "Hip Priest"'s line "He is not appreciated" into a battle cry, and you've got a splendid album, perhaps smaller in scope than a typical Fall record, but none the worse for that.

I'm trying (somewhat perversely) to avoid talking about lyrics in these posts, but there's no escaping the fact that Extricate was recorded in the aftermath of M.E.S.'s split from Brix, and there's a bilious quality that comes from that. I see the Amazon review reckons tht the Brix/pop influence disappears here, but I don't think I'd agree with that - it's certainly more abrasive than "The Frenz Experiment", but there are plenty of hooks there. Once again the Fall are ahead of the pack in their collaboration with Coldcut. And there's some wonderful humour amongst the bile, not least Smith's explanation of the origin of the title "I'm Frank". I've always loved this record, and it's still a corker.

Falling as it does btween two of my favourite albums, Shift-Work has always slightly fallen between the gaps in my perception too, as it were. So it's good to return to it and be reminded just how much good stuff there is on it, ranging from the angry (Idiot Joy Showland), the funny (A Lot of Wind) to the tender and moving (Edinburgh Man, Rose). Anyone who thinks the Fall are just about beligerence and bloody-mindedness should listen to these last two in particular. This album came out in the middle of the "Madchester" scene, and effortlessly appropriates those beats while surpassing the young upstarts. Overall, though, I can't shake the feeling tht this sounds like a transitional record.

I make no excuse for loving Code:Selfish purely for the reason that it has a song that namechecks Birmingham (albeit not in a flattering manner - though what else wopuld you expect?!). The electronic sound that has ben developing through the previous two albums blosoms here, and what you have is a dance-rock album, but about a million times better than such a thing has any right to be. Bizarrely, I found myself thinking of Bob Dylan when listening to "Just Waiting", not a connection I've made before. This album's obligatory field recording, "Crew Filth", appears at the end, which seems unusual in that I'd expect such a "difficult" track to be put in the middle where it's harder to skip. "Free Range" is as fine a single as The Fall have ever released, and retains its relevance in our world of continuing misadventures in Iraq, sad to say.

The last three albums were released by Fontana, but the label then sacked the band, who responded by scoring a top 10 hit with the first single from their next, The Infotainment Scan. This is where the dance/rave experiments blossom fully, industrial-strength production giving the whole album a meaty feel. It also features possibly their most unlikely cover version, Sister Sledge's "Lost In Music". Probably the nearest the Fall ever came to a party album.





Middle Class Revolt seems to take a step back from the dance influence, there are several songs here (e.g. "Hey! Student") that mark a big swing back to the rockabilly influenced side of the Fall. I remember being slighty disappointed with this at the time, partly due to the version of "M5", which I thought wasn't really a patch on the version they'd done for a Peel session the previous year. It sounds better thanI remember (although I still think the Peel version was better!), but there are moments on the album that feel slightly like Fall by numbers.

Fall marathon 6: This Nation's Saving Grace / Bend Sinister

I've always thought of This Nation's Saving Grace as being in a continuum with Wonderful & Frightening World, with TNSG being maybe the less poppy side of TWAFW's sound world. However, listening to them now, they sound almost the opposite. WAF has more obvious "pop" elements in its makeup, but the way they're put together, caked on top of one another, drenched in dischord, makes it seem much more abrasive than I remember, wheras TNSG, while it doesn't trade quite so obviously on pop riffs and the like, has a sparser, more warmly recorded sound, that would remind you of Can even if there wasn't a song on it called "I am Damo Suzuki".




Bend Sinister occupies a place somewhere between the two, more pop hooks again, but with the sparser sound of "Nation". And unlikely electro influences in "U.S. 80's-90's". Although I should know by now that nothing's unlikely with The Fall. With the benefit of hindsight, "Terry Waite Sez" seems an unfortunately mis-timed gag, but bollocks to hindsight, it was funny at the time.

This period is probably the most stable the Fall ever had in terms of line-up. It's difficult to know how much this contributes to the consistency of these albums. I suspect there may be a connection between this and the way Smith's working methods changed later, but I'll come back to that on another occasion.

Fall marathon 5: Perverted By Language/ The Wonderful & Frightening World of The Fall

I've always had a problematic relationship with Perverted By Language. It's highly regarded by many, and, hey, it has "Eat Y'self Fitter" on it, which is marvellous, of course. But there's something about it that doesn't quite gel for me. I guess it feels like a transitional album, the stabbing atonal sound of "Hex Enduction Hour" and "Room To Live" is being left behind - rightly, I think, one of the Fall's best aspects has always been their ability to avoid becoming routine - but the poppier sound that emerged once they signed to Beggar's Banquet hasn't really emerged (albeit there are traces, not entirely unconnected to the fact that this marks Brix's appearance in the line-up) and it feels slightly unfocused to me. There's a lot to enjoy, but somehow it comes out less than the sum of its parts. As far as I know I'm the only person who thinks this, mind.

The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall, on the other hand, marks a real paradigm shift for the band, with its gloriously skewed take on transatlantic guitar pop. It's all great stuff, though I have a particular fondness for "Bug Day", which is pure bubblegum laced with something definitely mind-altering. "Elves" is clearly a rip-off of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" by the Stooges, but it doesn't matter at all. I love that. Plus the CD has a load of singles bunged on too, including the mighty 7'51" version of "No Bulbs", a song I could happily play over and over again, and occasionally have, much to the consternation of neighbours.

Fall marathon 4: Room To Live

"Room To Live - Undilutable Slang Truth!" is an album I only heard for the first time a year or so ago. My mate Jason, who got me into The Fall, didn't have the album (the only one he didn't have) and it was long out of print, so until it was finally re-released last year it remained a mythical, reputedly un-listenably obscuritan beast. Which of course is a red rag to a bull as far as I'm concerned.

Now, the line-up for this album is essentially the same as "Hex Enduction Hour" (quite unusual for the Fall) and it was recorded hot on the heels of that album, so it's no surprise to find a lot of the same dense, angular feel of that album. And Smith's lyrical concerns are certainly obtuse, even for him. What's more surprising listening to it now is that it seems to be an idiosyncratic take on easy-listening music. joker Hysterical Face and Marquis Cha-Cha in particular coming across like Lounge-core from Hell. Hard Life In Country starts off as another mantra-drone minimalist Fall track, but is embellished by a guitar line which wouldn't be altogether out of place on a Spandau Ballet song. The effect of this funky disco strumming set against the oppressive repetitiveness of the rest of the song is extraordinarily disorientating, and coupled to Smith's paranoid lyrics the overall effect is one of claustrophobia. "Room To Live" is in classic Fall-rockabilly vein, but with the sort of john Barry-esque cimbalom flourishes that would later become familiar from Portishead. "Detective Instinct" is just terrifying! Solicitor in Studio comes across like an evil Madness. "Papal Visit" is not really like anything else you'd be likely to hear on a pop album, and almost seems like "anti-music"; Smith has suggested that at the time this record was meant as a two-fingered salute to the record industry (and possibly a farewell), which explains that, I guess.

Probably not the Fall's finest hour, but a neglected and underrated gem, I think.

Fall marathon 3: Hex Enduction Hour

There's a moment during Hex Enduction Hour that seems like an encapsulation of everything that's great about this record. we're at the end of the near 8 minute lanquid spinning of "Hip Priest", which fades away, to be replaced by... a bontempi organ beat. This is wildly incongruous, and very funny. That is then swamped by a fierec guitar attack reminiscent of the Magic Band or Zappa, which then seques into a driving garage beat, before ending up in the same territory as the Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray", wailing organ and all. And this all happens in the space of about 2 minutes. But without ever sounding like anyone other than the Fall.

This is the sound of a band on the verge of combustion, the savagery and violence of the invective on opener "The Classical" palpable. There's a story that, incredibly, The Fall almost signed for Motown during this period. It never happened, and you have to wonder what they made of the tape they were sent of this, Mark E. Smith spitting out such user-friendly lines as "Where are the obligatory niggers? Hey there, Fuck Face! Hey there Fuck Face!" As he spews out bile in the general direction of British pop culture. "Jawbone and the Air-Rifle" adopts a wryer tone... "Who'd have thought they would do harm?" asks Smith in a mild tone that belies the subject matter of war and violence. "Hip Priest" was memorably used in "The Silence of the Lambs", and it's easy to see why, its languid spinning paranoia and mantra-like delivery providing a chilling contrast to what's gone before. That's what this record's about, really - long quiet, bleak expanses punctuated by sudden violent, frenzied activity, often laced with black humour. It's like a cut-up presentation of the Apocalypse.

By the time we get to "Iceland" it feels we're on the other side of the universe from "The Classical", floating in a sparse and pallid landscape.

Then we're abruptly dragged into "And This Day", a relentless march that takes us further beyond. it makes me think of those characters of lovecraft, abandoned in the antarctic wastes, attempting to articulate the undescribable majestical horrors they have witnessed. Ai Cthuhlu! An appropriate reaction, I think, considering thast at the time the band thought this might be their final album. If it had all imploded, this would have been one hell of an exit. There's so much depth to this record, compared to the vapid posturing that makes up so many bands' output. It's a record that needs to exist.

Fall marathon 2: Grotesque/Slates

One thing that keeps coming to mind as I go through these early albums, which isn't something generally associated with The Fall, is how much they groove. Everyone knows about the more angular influences - 60s garage rock, Beefheart, Can, etc. - but it's too easily forgotten that they come as much from a background of Northern Soul (and attendant amphetamine culture), and those kind of influences can be discerned in tracks like "C'n'C-s Mithering" from their third album, "Grotesque (after the Gramme)". Smith's caustic sense of humour seems to come more to the fore on this album, through such songs as "The Container Drivers" and "English Scheme", where barbed comments on the UK music scene reveal another of his perennial bugbears. All the elements from the first two albums seem to click into a greater whole on this album,

and the result is their most satisfying long-playing outing so far.

"Slates" is, strictly speaking, an E.P. rather than an album, but it's one of my favourite Fall records, so I certainly wasn't going to skip it. I remember an interview with Steve Albini In one of the inky music papers where he named it as a favourite album, describing it as "a weird band at their weirdest", and that certainly holds true, not just for the angular, atonal guitar stabs in opener "Middle Mass", but the surprisingly emotional "An Older Lover etc", as well as the heartfelt "Leave the Capitol". it's only 6 songs long, but this is as substantial a record as any they've made, and I'm tempted to say it's the first truly essential Fall record, one that belongs in everybody's collection, whether they're interested in the Fall or not. And it prepares the way for an absolutely blinding record, which is next on my pile...

The Fall marathon, part 1

The Fall, who are just about my favourite band in the world, have a new album out in February. In celebration, I have decide to listen to every Fall studio album between now and then in chronological order. Today I listened to their first album, "Live At The Witch Trials", and the follow up, "Dragnet".

What's remarkable about these two albums is how complete the Fall were right from the start. There's no sense of finding feet, the sound's pretty much right there from the off. "Witch Trials" has some superficial similarity with the nascent post-punk scene (e.g. P.i.L.), but the soul of it is entirely Fall-ish, Mark E. Smith's idiosyncratic vision apparently emerging fully formed. One thing that does startle after so many years not hearing this early stuff is how clear Smith's enunciation is compared to the bilious drawl he's latterly adopted - not that that makes understanding his oblique lyrics much easier.

It's worth noting that by the time they recorded their debut album, the Fall had already been through several of the line-up changes that would become a recurring feature of their career.

Some people think all the fall's records sound the same, but then again some people think all Haydn's music sounds the same, and they're wrong too. "Dragnet", made within a year, sees the band determined to push forward and avoid repeating themselves - an admirable attitude that many bands now would do well to note. So the sound here is denser and more intense, with a harder, rockabilly-inspired edge coming to the fore. There's even an oblique nod of the hat to the disco craze of the time, evident in "Psykick Dancehall". If the core influences of '60s garage bands aren't quite as deeply ingrained as they were to become, there's always Smith's voice to lend the distinctive tone. And the grinding paranoia of "Before the Moon Falls" and "Spectre vs. Rector" needles its way into the skull in a way that many more recent bands would love to be able to do.

When I first decided to dig out these old records, I wondered how well they'd come up after all these years. I'm happy to report that they sound wonderful, incredibly fresh, and with a grating lo-fi sound that sounds positively subversive in these super-smooth digital times.

As Smith says in the intro of the excellent live album "Totales' Turns" from this era, "The difference between you and us is that we have brains!"

Captain America cheers me up

Some days you just wish you hadn't got out of bed. We have this irritating Nazi phone system at work which works on the assumption that all we do is sit around waiting for the phone to ring. So when you're busy doing something it sometimes feels impossible to make any headway, as you're constantly interrupted by phone calls from people who want things doing NOW! NOW!. We also had a visit from a large group of librarians today (god knows why) who spent a long time milling around right in front of my desk drinking tea, which made it impossible to concentrate on work for the feeling of being in a goldfish bowl. And also made it impossible to get at the kettle and make tea for myself. Oh, and they've put this new door in the office which you need one of those fob things to open, but as i haven't yet been given a fob thing whenever I leave the office I'm locked out and on my return have to stand at the door knocking and looking through the glass trying to capture someone's eye like an abandoned puppy. GRRRR! At least I had the mighty Fall in the CD drive to channel the irritation. And I have this splendid picture on my desktop, which makes me laugh, in that way that only rude words can :