best Fall album for starters

Slates = teh sequel to Grotesque's first side.

I love GATG now, but when I first bought it, it was certainly a challenge...

Side B suffers in its midsection, true. Swap 'WMC-Blob 59' and 'Gramme Friday' for almost anything else they were playing around that time, and it would be a lot stronger.

There's no denying 'Slates' is incredible.

Well, exactly, Drugs A. Money! I wouldn't kick Grotesque out of bed NOW, but I certainly would NOT give it to someone who hadn't heard the Fall before.

Also anyone who might want to have long conversations about The Fall's discography up through Extricate is especially welcome to send me emails and/or chat with me. Thank you.

hooray!

should have added that I never really got Detective Instinct until someone pointed out to me the intermittent 'ff ff's in the background of the song. What they're all about I do not know, but love them I do.

I'm listening to Detective Instinct, now, though and I don't hear anyone going "FFfs" in the background. So I'm not sure what you were talking about. Can you describe the sound better?

xpost Bimble where were you when I was doing the whole Hotel Bloedel thread?

It's very subtle, and doesn't come through well on the copy I've got (sounds like a CD reissue mastered from vinyl).

Listen in the right-hand channel around 0:57, and again a bit later—I guess you could describe it as a faraway aerosol can being sprayed twice in quick succession. It shows up again intermittently throughout the song, in different places all over the mix.

Ah! The Hotel Bloedel thread. Shit, dude, that thread was WAY outta my league. I read it but I really had nothing to even begin to contribute.

Re: Detective Instinct - Ah! a CD reissue - hmm. I have Room To Live on vinyl. The version I'm listening to though is a downloaded version. I will break out the vinyl soon and see if I can spot the mysterious "FFs" sound there, thanks. You're sure it doesnt' mean "For Fucks Sake", this FFs sound? LOL

Shit, dude, that thread was WAY outta my league

lol, it was way outta my league, too.

No, I heard the sound! I gotcha now. It sounds like one of those...round things, whatever that musical instrument is that is round and you move it from side to side. Shaker? I don't know what they call those things.

Bimble do u seriously not rate any Fall albums after Extricate?!?! Cause there are many glorious sonic riches to be had there.

"MY RAZOR BLADES WILL CUT DOWN YOUR ENTRANCE."

Shit dude, we should bring The Fall into the children's classrooms. Start them off with good music early. IN-DOC-TRIN-ATE. Then by the time they're 20, they'll be musical geniuses and will start amazing bands.

No, that isn't true, Sleeve, re: after Extricate...I love Shiftwork...Light User Syndrome's quite good...and uh...well...I dunno. Steven Hanley was never adequately replaced in my book, but okay.

Steven Hanley was never adequately replaced in my book, but okay.

Agreed. Still, MES has come out with a couple amazing albums this decade alone (The Real New Fall LP, Imperial Wax Solvent) that should not be
passed up.

Plus, 2g+2 rox!

and The Unutterable!

I also think the highlights of the two Matador LPs (Infotainment Scan and Middle Class Revolt) would have made one of their best albums. Levitate is also quite good.

valid point about Hanley, you could say the same about Scanlon in my book. I think most of their successes in the last ten years have come from MES trying to move beyond the limitations of the rock band sound, but then again there are times like SParta FC where he just nails it all perfectly. The first time I heard that song I thought it was some lost classic from the 80's.

you could say the same about Scanlon in my book.

Yeah, see, I almost mentioned him when I did Hanley, but I thought I'd keep it lite and not go there yet, but I'm with you.

I can't remember if I've heard Sparta FC or not. I thought Imperial Wax Solvent was quite good, but nevertheless I didn't feel the urge to listen to it very much. Von Sudenfed I listened to more.

By the way, how come no one on ILX that I know of has mentioned this new MES project with someone named Ed Blaney? The album just came out yesterday???

"MY RAZOR BLADES WILL CUT DOWN YOUR ENTRANCE."

Shit dude, we should bring The Fall into the children's classrooms. Start them off with good music early. IN-DOC-TRIN-ATE. Then by the time they're 20, they'll be musical geniuses and will start amazing bands.

*************

This might be a good place to talk about my future plans to score "Solicitor in Studio" for marching band...

DAMN RIGHT

hey bimble btw you still have ur blog? what is it?

Well, my blog has kinda petered out aside from gratuitous You Tube clips, but I've met a new friend near here who is about to provide me with some fresh post-punk inspiration to post. He's got a post-punk compilation I've never heard before and am very curious about and he's gonna rip it for me. So we'll see.

Here's the link for my (now in decline, glory days long since past) blog:
http://windyweather-bimble.blogspot.com/

cool thx.

Ha, I've had that blog bookmarked for months now and never put two and two together to figure it was by THAT Bimble.

I'll show myself out.

LOL

Also anyone who might want to have long conversations about The Fall's discography up through Extricate is especially welcome to send me emails and/or chat with me. Thank you.

hey Bimble, you out there? What do you think of Dragnet?

I love Dragnet! Yes I'm here. Too bad we can't chat. You need AIM!

yes...and no...

yes I need AIM but no bcz I fear it...

Dude then like, I dunno...write me an email. Do it right now. Thanks.

email? how? how, I say?

the email thru yr blog?

yeah, or through ILX. You should know. You sent me one the other day and I responded.

oh. did you respond...i never found it. how do i find it?

Look in your spam folder? I'm newdawnfades.

also you keep writing me from that robot address which I don't understand either. I don't think you got the last email I sent back to that address, either!

yes bcz i sent an email fom the link in one of yr posts, from now on i will just send it from my email address...

also ignore the captchas comment

Arright. :)

email sent. sry bout that.

I'm listening to Detective Instinct, now, though and I don't hear anyone going "FFfs" in the background. So I'm not sure what you were talking about. Can you describe the sound better?

― Hot Pants Floyd (Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You), Thursday, 16 October 2008 02:57 (3 days ago)

Listen carefully! Or (horror) maybe they've been remastered out! Christ. No, anyway, it's someone in the background going 'ff ff'. I had to have it pointed out to me.

On a connected but more general not, those little sounds and mutterings and strange background washes are often what make Fall songs so good, among all the other things.

And whoever said there are great sonic riches to be had after Extricate is quite Korrekt - I was getting a great deal of enjoyment from the opening 30 seconds of Two Face for example - however, in terms of albums, high-water marks are Levitate, The Unutterable, Are You Are Missing Winner (nay stare not so) and The Real New Fall LP. But of course all of them are necessary really.

I think Scanlon in some ways was more of a loss than Hanley, although both tower above the earth like musical colossussesses-ah.

Von Sudenfed immensely enjoyable. And their gig last year was one of the best I've seen.

How I envy anyone just getting into the Fall for the first time.

First discovered the band in early 87 after buying a copy of It's the new thing 7" from a great record shop in Colne purely on the basis of the cover. Couldn't believe what I was hearing. Went out immediately and bought Bend Sinister which is still one of my all time favourites and ordered copies of Witch Trials and Dragnet along with the German Line records white vinyl copies of Hex Enduction Hour and Room To Live. The whole concept of music just twisted 90 degrees in my head and it's never gone back to how it had been before...Total joy!

Aw sod it...just get the blummin lot of them...they are worth having, even mid 90's stuff and some of the post Scanlan/Hanley, pre, new-millenial-renaissance stuff have tracks of breathtaking scope and imagination.

I'm sorta getting into The Fall! The three albums I have are The Light User Syndrome (awesome, awesome), The Marshall Suite (pretty good) and Perverted By Language (very cool stuff) and some Fontana years compilation I haven't listened to yet. I will expand my collection at some stage.

Ned Raggett is an anagram for "Get Dragnet" -- his recommendation?

ned?

I'd start with Slates. It's short and sweet, and one of the best things they ever put out. Quite representative, and real variety. There's their angular pop side with Leave the Capitol, the creeping menace of An Older Lover, the 2-chord vamp/rant of Slates, Slags etc, and a glorious blast of punk noise in Pink Press Threat.

> "Personal starting point for me was Palace of Swords Reversed. FUCKING GENIUS."
> Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 October 2002 19:18 (7 years ago) Bookmark

I think I was pretty much happy with Slates and This Nation's for a long time. Been listening to Dragnet, Perveted by Language, Hex Education, The Wonderful and Frightening World..., Grotesque over the last week and loving it all, mostly. Re-listening to Slates and that is just one of the best records ever, on a track-by-track basis with no hint of a drop-off but its weird to think of The Fall as just a band that releases records rather than a world that was mapped out by MES, Brix and these scruffy looking people from a part of Manchester. I wouldn't want to listen to Slates in isolation anymore.

I'll look at the Unutterable sometime.

IMO everything they did in the studio from 79-89 is worth your time. After that it's hit or miss, I know there are plenty of people who will rep for individual albums after that but I find the 90s almost completely covered by "A Past Gone Mad" and "A World Bewitched" compilations. Even the esteemed "The Unutterable" is let down by a string of tracks towards the end. I much prefer my 00s playlist, all killer no filler. But then again, no two Fall fans will agree what tracks fall into which category.

Is your playlist public, Gerald?

The run from Dragnet to Bend Sinister made them my favourite band growing up, but there was a really swift drop in quality after that. Smith suddenly seemed to lose intensity and lyrical focus from The Frenz Experiment onwards, with Seminal Live being a particular nadir - the live songs on it weren't seminal, and the few semi-demi-seminal songs weren't live.

Yes, Stewart Lee did a really good job in compiling A Past Gone Mad for the 90s output, and individual 00s songs such as the Peel version of 'Blindness' still have the power to surprise. My attention wanders whenever I try to listen to a whole 00s album though. The best songs on the last few albums tended to be the ones where the band locked into a riff and Smith's vocals were almost incidental, such as this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l6FkGXjULQ