#rip mes

[hippriestess]

Fantastic Life (Mark E Smith 1957 - 2018)

When I started this blog, it was something of a displacement activity. Not a distraction, that would be too simplistic.

The Fall’s catalogue was something I saw as a jigsaw - whilst each piece could be full of strangeness (like a rich painting), these seemingly disparate missives were connected. There were lyrical themes, musical ones too and yet there was never an easy path or line one could draw. Complex and confrontational, The Fall were puzzling in the best of ways. And there was plenty over which one could puzzle. This is what I was seeking in 2012 - a lifelong conundrum was approaching a single solution and that solution was terrifying. The Fall were my *other* puzzle, the thought process that could take over when my mind was exhausted from the anxiety and stress of my transition. 

The point at which I abandoned the page is interesting in retrospect. I was cross with Mark E Smith and his attitude to his former colleagues as well as to his past works. Part of this was down to him, most was down to me - I felt let down my him; I'd spent all this time on the clues and allusions he had left, only for him to dismiss them with little more than a wave. But there was another truth - I was in a whole other place and my day to day life gave me enough to think (and write) about and I no longer needed to approach The Fall this way. 

I kind of lost them. I wasn’t sufficiently enthused by “Sub-Lingual Tablet” to feel like writing about it. I listened to The Fall less and less.I remained interested and still watched their progress and I still looked forward to and bought new music as well as some reissue material. But I didn’t really get The Fall back until early in 2017. I had been in hospital in Brighton for just over a week for my gender reassignment surgery and was back in Glasgow recovering. I was housebound for a fortnight and would not return to work for a further 6 or 7 weeks. I needed comfort and distraction and it was inevitable that music would provide this. I added albums and catalogues to my phone - Autechre, John Coltrane, Manic Street Preachers....I was almost nervous about adding The Fall but I did and within a week or two, I had 307 Fall songs on shuffle for a couple of hours a day. Released from the self-created pressure of analysis and conscious diversion, I began to just plain enjoy them again. By the time I was back at my desk, The Fall were back to being my favourite band in the world again. Full circle - I had regained that sense of wonder, the delightful confusion they could create, the sheer exhilaration of their attack. “New Facts Emerge” had plenty to please and, battling depression once again, I managed to drag myself out to see them in Glasgow on 4th November 2017.

So. That’s that. It’s over. The catalogue is now fixed. Whilst I’m sure we will hear further live recordings and maybe some of the material they worked on late last year, these will be appendices.

What a discography. What a run. What a group. 

There was only one Mark E. Smith. I;m not sure what I’m going to do without him.

[hippriestess]

Fantastic Life: The 20 Greatest Fall Songs In No Order Whatsoever. No.9 - The NWRA

Even amongst the most contrary of Fall fans, you’ll find little argument that “Grotesque” is one of the essential Fall albums and, indeed, required listening for anyone who even vaguely professes a working knowledge of post-war music and culture. The group - Riley, Scanlon and the Hanley brothers - have had a chance to settle in and find their sound and are already straining at its edges with experimental tracks like “C’n’C/S. Mithering”. Meanwhile, the album also stands as a summary of Smith’s core lyrical concerns and find him in eloquent form, his creativity and imagination flowwing. The album has two main works of fiction; the Can-like conspiracy theory “New Face In Hell” (in which Paul Hanley accidentally invents Madchester) and the Lovecraftian horror of “Impression Of J, Temperance”. Elsewhere, “Grotesque” is a State Of The Nation address, at its keenest on “English Scheme”, a 2 minute blast into which Smith crams so much that other bands could fill a whole album. The album’s closing track combines the two strands into a 9 minute tour-de-force and the results are just wonderful.

“The NWRA” takes its name from the repeated lyric “The North Will Rise Again” - according to Brian Edge’s 1990 book “Paintwork”, there was speculation that it stood for The North West Republican Army. Starting with an-only-just-short-of-atonal one-string twanging guitar line from Scanlon, Riley plays organ and the Paul Hanley falls into place behind them - Hanley Snr bides his time until a little further in. Smith tells a story of sorts low in the mix which seems to suggest the tale is being told in retrospect; the first words are “when it happened..” and we are also told that “DJs had worsened since the rising”. An amusing aside regarding an alternate version of “English Scheme” raises a smile but adds to the peculiarity of the timeline. This then distorts further as Smith bursts into action - “I am Joe Totale! The yet-unborn son”. Going on to describe “the future death of my father”, it’s now impossible to view the song as in any way linear - this is a feverish fantasy, reality acutely perceived but distorted and refracted through Smith’s fertile imagination. His vehicle is his occasional pen-name Roman Totale XVII and Smith describes RT’s journey through a failed uprising and into underground exile, leaving the character in a Chthulu-like position, in repose, awaiting his next chance. His “business friend”, however, has triumphed out of the whole thing and upped sticks to Edinburgh, happily telling RT that can “stuff your aid”. Pre-cog lovers could tie the song into how the “baby-boomers” became the worst capitalists and sold out subsequent generations of their working class peers but, however one interprets his winding text, Smith’s core  message is quite clear - should such a rebellion happen, it would fail. 

Months later, England was deep into a season of rioting, the worst of it in Toxteth, Liverpool, Handsworth, Birmingham and Brixton, London. These were largely blamed on racial tensions. The Fall were in America when Smith discovered this had reached Moss Side in Manchester and reports desperately trying to find a newspaper. This explains the comment of an over-excited MC as head on “A Part Of America Therein” about the group coming from “the riot-torn streets of Manchester, England”.

“The NWRA” therefore represents an apex of sorts for Smith - a tying together of the real and the fantastical that showcases his troublingly deep understanding of how thin the membrane between these can be. 

[hippriestess]

Fantastic Life: The 20 Greatest Fall Songs In No Order Whatsoever. No.4 - Leave The Capitol

This is highly unlikely to be a controversial choice, given that the song won a cup-style competition to find the beat Fall song ever over on The Fall Online Forum some years ago (Blindness won this content on its last iteration). But we’re picking the best of the best here so, yeah.

One of 6 tracks on possibly their strongest release - “Slates” - the text on the sleeve declares:  "Any capital. Polite no-manners plus barman of the year claimants = quick exit.". Clearly about London, Smith’s lyric is especially delicious for those who enjoy decoding such things and veers within a matter of seconds from such poetic descriptions as “this ten times town” to the rather more blunt “this fucking dump”. Vivid and bearing more a slight tinge of the domestic horror that was a regular feature of Smith’s lyrics around this time (”Hotel maids smile in unison“ has a hint of Stepford Wives about it), Smith is enjoying himself here, especially on the impenetrable final verse. Exactly what inspired the song isn’t clear although it could be observed that the group left Rough Trade immediately after its release - if one thinks of the song as being of a piece with “Deer Park”, a very clear portrait emerges of a young man unimpressed with the Big Smoke, its noise and its pretensions. Smith, of course, would never move from his home in Prestwich.

Musically, “LTC” is unusual in its relative gentleness, a few feedback squalls towards the end notwithstanding. Resting on some uneasy arpeggios and a see-sawing bassline, the song creates a certain tension by refusing to settle into a straight major or minor chord and this is only slightly unwound in the choruses where both A minor and A major are used at the end of the descending sequence that characterises this section. 

Ultimately, “Leave The Capitol” is thoroughly absorbing with much of the appeal being in how invigorating the track is without having to resort to traditional alt-rock.indie devices of distortion, unnatural dynamics and so on. A beauty.

[hippriestess]

Fantastic Life: The 20 Greatest Fall Songs In No Order Whatsoever. No.16 - Auto-Tech Pilot

For this listener, it’s still a bit odd to consider how 1986 is considered by many to be beginning of a decline of sorts. Each single was charting higher than the next and “Bend Sinister” put the in the Top 40 of the UK Album Chart for the first time. Considered now, it’s easier to see than it has been for a while. Much of “Bend Sinister” and its surrounding singles was a return to the shadows. Having stood proudly in broad daylight on “This Nation’s Saving Grace”, there is, in a way, a retreat of sorts in evidence as the group move towards the audibly crepuscular. But “retreat” is the wrong word as this implies avoidance as opposed to pursuance. In amongst the pop covers and brightly hewn 7″ a-sides, Smith and Co. were exploring dark corners. One of the darkest, most prescient and very very best was found on the 12″ of “Mr Pharmacist” and on cassette and CD formats of “Bend Sinister”. I’ve argued for this before - and much of what’s below will be familiar to anyone who read the Forgotten Frenz series - but I can’t leave it out because “Auto-Tech Pilot” is one of the very best Fall songs ever.

Built around a descending 4 note bassline from Steve Hanley, the song arrives in a musical stealth attack, the group coming creeping over the horizon - the tension is palpable and is created by a single note guitar twang lulling away at the back and the slow arrival on all sides of various eerie clanks, bleeps and plucks, odd unplaceable noises and burbling computer sounds, likely the product of some of the machines that Simon Rogers was wont to bring to Fall sessions (see also - his sampling keyboard, without which “Shoulder Pads” would never have existed). A distant piano line arrives, also likely to be Rogers - it feels like distant bells when set against such a dark, dank sound picture. The overall effect of these ever building intrusions is that Hanley is being staked out then ganged up on, as if the group are trying to overwhelm him, throw him off-course. At 1m 33s, they almost succeed but Hanley out manoeuvers the bastards, shifts gear, accelerates and gets the fuck out of there. Wolstencroft is first on his tail, hammering away at his kick drum and Smith makes a superbly timed entrance, his delivery staccato and panicky, his lyric darkly predictive. Indeed, his suggestion that “this computer thing is getting out of hand” has proved one of his most prescient lyrics. The song’s thrust appears to foresee a future in which technology has become overly dominant and what happens the night some/all of that technology fails and pilot-less aircraft start to fall from the sky; sound effects are used to reinforce this, starting low in the mix at 2m 17s and at their most prominent at 3m 14s. Given that Smith has left the building at a time in which we are to expect driverless cars on our roads any month now, the song now has an extra chill. Brix is unusually quiet; she doesn’t appear vocally and only after what seems to be a sharp edit at 2m 42s is there any guitar which I would identify with her style - a harmonised riff sitting nicely to the front and side of the bassline. There are a few minor fluffs to indicate that the song was completed quickly but given how much has emerged about The Fall’s recording strategy during this period, it would be wrong to infer that it was rushed or intended for b-side status - “R. O. D.“ and, in particular, “Gross Chapel/British Grenadiers” also have mistakes that were let through. 

Shortly before Smith’s death, in a what-to-expect round-up, Beggars Banquet’s catalogue arm, The Arkive, confirmed that work was finally in genuine progress on a remastered and expanded “Bend Sinister”. It is unclear if and when this will emerge but I hope it does - as, more than any discussions about whether or not certain songs play at the right speed, it will be a superb opportunity to finally given “Auto Tech Pilot” its due as one of The Fall’s most grippingly tense and thoroughly idiosyncratic creations.

[hippriestess]

Fantastic Life: The 20 Greatest Fall Songs In No Order Whatsoever. No 10 - Kicker Conspiracy

This one totally speaks for itself. There are times I think the 7″ containing this and “Wings” might be the greatest piece of vinyl ever pressed.

This video is a key Fall artifact because of how damn funny it is. The group’s videos struggled to capture them because it wasn’t a natural mode for them - they’re often unintentionally amusing due the sheer awkwardness that was regularly visible in the group’s faces. It could be the nature of how this was made and by whom but everyone seems to be having at least a modicum of fun - not a look often associated with this era of The Fall. Maybe Smith was in high spirits having not long met, married and made a Fall member out of Brix. Anyway, less yap, more Fall. “Kicker Conspiracy” is the group at their imperishable best. 

[hippriestess]

Fantastic Life: The 20 Greatest Fall Songs In No Order Whatsoever. No. 19 - Free Range

By the time The Fall came to record “Code: Selfish”, they were on a bit of a shaky peg with Phonogram and the initial sessions were hard going. A month in Cava Studios in Glasgow (since converted into flats) produced, according to Steve Hanley in “The Big Midweek” just 5 finished songs. A speedy job for, say, U2 or Tears For Fears but perilously slow for The Fall and a worrying indicator.  

One would never have known as the first song to be heard was certainly their best single for Phonogram and one of their very best overall. The music was written by Simon Wolstencroft and, broadly, is what might have happened had “So What About It” from “Shift-Work” been worked on by the full band rather than Smith adding a vocal to the demo. Fading in on a distant keyboard and sampled radio sounds, it bursts into full view on its sharp synth riff and the second the group fall into place behind it, we’re cruising. Smith delivers a dense, cryptic lyric which never overwhelm the track, fitting in well with all the synth swooshes and occasion programmed interjections. Scanlon’s sea-sick guitar interjections keep things human (and indeed, distinctly Fall) and the track appears to finish with an audible sigh of exhaustion. A video was made, which is worth viewing if only to see The Fall having a Who’s The Most Uncomfortable contest while they ride around London in an army truck. This was The Fall at their most accessible and energetic but with Smith sacrificing none of his desire to apply his lengthy, encoded tracts to even the group’s most ostensibly commercial work. 

At first, it looked like it had worked, when “Free Range” became the group’s first self-panned single to make the top 40, albeit at 40. But it turned out the album’s birth pains were ominous. Whilst to these ears, “Code: Selfish” was a cracker, it received divided reviews with many finding the album a tough chew. Also, in a ridiculous own goal, the album version of “Free Range” cuts into a markedly inferior mix after the first minute. Before long, Phonogram were asking for demos of the group’s new material. An affronted Smith declined to co-operate and the group were let go with a severance payment which they duly spent recording “The Infotainment Scan”. But no matter what happened next, this is one of The Fall’s finest singles and it still sounds fresh, vibrant and - oh, come on, why not - as much FUN as it did in 1992.  

[hippriestess]

Fantastic Life: The 20 Greatest Fall Songs In No Order Whatsoever. No. 14 - Gut Of The Quantifier.

“This Nation’s Saving Grave” is regularly picked out as one of The Fall’s greatest albums, if not the greatest full stop. It’s easy to see why.

Let’s recap. The end of the group's 1984 tour was marred by the theft of the group’s equipment. Smith, for reasons not really clear to anyone, blamed this on Paul Hanley who decided that enough was enough and quit. Unbeknownst to him, Steve Hanley had also walked out of The Fall - his new-born son was seriously ill, a fact of which the group (Paul excepted) were unaware. As unlikely as it seems, neither knew the other had called it a day until they had separately returned home to Manchester. As Steve reports in his superb book, “The Big Midweek”, a placatory Smith visited him and an agreement was reached - Steve was officially on paternity leave, the group would carry on with just Burns on drums and a sub would be sought until Steve was ready to return. (NB - Smith would also try to rehire Paul Hanley in 1986 but was unsuccessful).

Enter Simon Rogers, a classically trained guitarist who made Smith’s acquaintance when attempting to score “The Classical” from “Hex Enduction Hour” for an orchestra at the behest of Michael Clark. Rogers duly sat in on bass, recording the “Couldn’t get Ahead” and “Cruiser’s Creek” singles. When Hanley returned, Rogers stayed on, moving to guitar, keyboards and occasionally a second bass. Brix was particularly fond of Rogers and together, they would create the most melodically focused edition of The Fall thus far. But never forget, Steve Hanley - described by Smith as “The Fall sound” was back, Craig Scanlon continued to keep his territory and Burns was, by several accounts, pleased to be back to being the group’s sole drummer. To put it crudely, the blend of noise and melody was at its most rewarding for the casual listener. Add to this John Leckie’s crisp clear production and all the ingredients are there for a Fall album that anyone could enjoy. all they needed was the songs. And oh, did they have the songs...

“Gut Of The Quantifier” is absolutely electric. Boasting one of those titles, it crackles with intent from the moment it rolls into view on some deliciously recorded drums and a double tracked Smith almost rapping his way through the introduction. When he declares “this is a cool group”, it sounds neither crass nor boastful. Just a statement of fact. On three thwacks of his toms, Burns cues in the rest of the band. The tension breaks like a knackered dam as 22 strings vibrate, twang and chime with a verse and energy that is totally thrilling - Hanley lines up alongside Burns and at least one guitarist to hold the main riff down. Harmonics chime, someone adds an almost countryesque motif deep in the mix (possibly Scanlon) and Smith lines up a verbal firing squad. His target? The sudden philanthropy the music industry had acquired in the preceding 9 months or so and how shallow and inadequate he had found this. Now, there’s a debate to be had about whether or not motive is relevant in these circumstances (if you donate £5 to a charity out of kindness, the charity has £5, if you donate £5 to salve your guilt, the charity still has £5 but anyway...) but what Smith had caught is that the greed and gluttony of the industry had continued unabated throughout. This is where “stick it in the gut” is a clever turn of phrase - it could mean someone gorging themselves, it could also mean someone being deserving of having something sharp run through them. Harsh. Given that Smith reckons even the Good Lord would be unimpressed, his intent is clear and his sharp, engaging delivery is matched by a band performance brimming with sheer verve; Burns and Smith enjoy a cowbell/voice dialogue in the quiet, tension building sections and the final explosion is just incredible as one guitarist just goes wild on their fretboard while Burns batters his toms like they’ve just insulted him. It’s an absolute fucking blast. I mean, they must have known how good it was, right?

The Fall knew how to open a side of vinyl and “Gut Of The Quantifier” ushers in possibly their finest side ever, at least in terms of invention and surprise. “This Nation’s Saving Grace” is already heralded as a go-to and a starting point for the curious. As time goes on, this position will likely cement and yr present author is fine with this. But, you have a vinyl copy and your new listener is a little short when it comes to attention span, start with side two. Start here. If the person has two working ears and a soul, they’ll never look back. Just the sound of The Greatest Band In The World at their imperishable best.

[hippriestess]

Fantastic Life: The 20 Greatest Fall Songs In No Order Whatsoever. No.7 - Eat Y’Self Fitter

I’m pretty much just going to leave this one here because it’s as good as self-evident as choices go but there’s one thing I want to highlight. It’s this bit of the lyric:

“Who tells you what To tape on your vid. chip How do you know the progs you miss Are worse than those you single out? And what d’you do when the rental's up? And your bottom rack is full of vids Of programs you will nay look at”

This was the early days of home video recorders, the competing formats of VHS, Betamax and Video 2000. What Smith caught here was a trait which would, in his lifetime, become an epidemic. As the internet grew and downloading became common place, people would fill hard drives with entire discographies or TV series for no other reason than they could. The advent of streaming has done something to calm this but nevertheless, you don’t have to look any real distance to find someone with a few terabytes of music or film, the majority of which has had little more than a cursory glance/listen and some of which hasn’t been touched at all. When people can hoard, hedge and put off - they do. It feels remarkably prescient.

Anyway, when John Peel was on Desert Island Discs in 1990, he chose this. Pricelessly funny, keenly observant, full of encoded nuggets for the faithful and built on repetitionrepetitionrepetition, “Eat Y’Self Fitter” is one of the ultimate Fall tracks and certainly one for the time capsule. The video should be alongside The Residents’ One Minute Movies in the MOMA. But it isn’t. Pah.