Got hold of a copy of this today and it really is rather excellent.

And as has been previously stated it's certainly a treat for any Fall fans missing Nagle's electronica.

:applaud:

i've just got it too, played the first couple of songs so far and if it carries on like this i'll be very happy :D

Some more observations...

Most tracks are excellent, although a few creep into that 'Flat Eric' tune area and get annoying.

Part of the track The Young the Faceless and the Codes has a vocal pattern virtually identical to part of Over! Over! I wonder which came first...?

There's a hilarious track (Jbak Lois Lane) which is a recording of a conversation between MES and someone else with what appears to be a lawnmower in the background...God knows what it's about but at one point MES says "I know fucking bigger fellas than you, all right?!"

The last track Dearest Friends is lovely with a Hawaian guitar sound and the touching lyric "To my dearest friends who are long gone"...

:wub:

The album has leaked. It sounds like a better side project than most but i prefer Reformation Post Tlc. I think that the constant thumping electronica grates a bit and reminds me of when Ali G remixed bands like Supergrass and Pulp on his programme. Still there is a handfull of really good tracks that make it worth a listen.

I shamefully gave the interweb a quick scour and found a download and I haven't turned off my mp3 recepticle since. It's fantastic. The lyrics are much more rant-y than those in RPTLC (which is how I like my Fall lyrics) but still have plenty of great one-liners (RPTLC's one strength in the words department).

"You don't look like no god damn singer-songwriter to me."

That Sound Wiped is like a dancemusic version of Blindness.

Also all the songs are brilliantly titled.

Shame about the music.

Basic electronica. Nowt much going on. Adam Helal and Julia Nagle were far, far superior to this lot.

I wish they were still in The Fall...

Fledermaus Can’t Get It - Electro synthy big beat with MES intoning “I can’t get it now but I can get it”, reminiscent of Dave Edmunds from his seminal second solo album Get It. Great pounding intro.

The Rhinohead - It’s always a surprise when MES sings and even more so when he tries to croon, which is what he does on this poppy track which ain’t half bad.

Flooded - MES rants about flooding a club over a housey dub. Groovy toe-tapper.

Family Feud - Percussive, scratchy, hippity-hoppity groove and MES informing us “I am the great M.E.S.". Yes, indeed you are.

Serious Brainskin - MES tells us that We live in strange an mysterious times, and this is the soundtrack to those times. Lovely stuff.

Speech Contamination - German Fear Of Österreich - Sounds like a Kraftwerk outtake with MES repeating the same German phrase over and over. Is there anyone out there who’s fluent in German and can tell us what in the name of Gott in himmel he’s ranting about?

The Young The Faceless and The Codes - About the most Fall-like so far, and the funkiest. Full of delightful electro blips and bleeps.

Duckrog - But talking of funk, we stray into dub-like hip-hop here with startling, and pleasing, results. Very danceable beat. Just watch the kids grooving to this one when it’s played live. Nice.

Chicken Yaiamas - The acoustic guitar picking background here has a bluesy/bluegrassy feel to it, that soon takes off into an infectious groove while MES describes his difficulty with following a chicken cooking recipe (by the sound of it).

That Sound Wiped - One of MES’s classic spoken/sung recollection lyric apparently about an encounter with a yellow-helmeted singer-songwriter over a funky synthy disco groove replete with handclaps. Absolute cracker.

Jbak Lois Lane - Is this the first use of a hedge trimmer in popular music? MES remonstrates (with his neighbour’s gardener?) over the noise he’s making on a Sunday morning.

Dearest Friends - The music sounds like African “high-life” guitar. Prettiest track on the album. Beautiful, in fact.

and very wonderful indeed :)

Family Feud sounds like a song from the last Beastie Boys album. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Rhinohead is the most immediate stand-out track. Would be a good single.

I also like the Lois Lane thingy. "I know bigger fuckin' fellers than you...".

The rest just sounds, well...I dunno, a bit samey, it's not good electronica. It's better than RPTLC for sure, but that isn't all that difficult.

That's about the size of it, I'm afraid. (Apart from it being superior to RPTLC).

Rhinohead is really good, Jbak Lois Lane is quite amusing and Dearest Friends is more than passable. The rest of it is boring as fuck.

I think its fucking great ! No qualification or beard scratching required.

Fair enough. But you're wrong... :P

its very 2007!

thank god for friends in European places.

truly great tracks: rhinohead, fledermaus can't get it, that sound wiped
good tracks that get regular listens: flooded, duckrog, chicken yaiamas, dearest friends
ok but skippable: family feud, serious brainskin, speech contamination / fear of german osterreich, the young the faceless and the codes
wtf: jbak lois lane

7 great/good tracks, 4 skippable tracks, one that's hilarious but not really a song, nothing so bad as to be offensive. Basically the middle of the album is not that exciting after a great one-two-three punch, but "duckrog" is infectious, "chicken yaiamas" is will get stuck in your head so fast, and "that sound wiped" is hypnotic.

pretty damn good, I think. and "rhinohead" is rapidly becoming one of my favorite songs. so poppy, upbeat and simple! feels like a great summer driving/dancing song. I'm definitely buying it when it comes out.

It's good, innit? Interesting to hear MES's vocals over music in which squelchy sythesizers, rather than electric bass guitar, are the melodic core. And it pretty much puts to rest the notion that MES can take any group of musicians (Inspirals, Elastica, DOSE, Darker My Love) and, by sheer force of his personality, turn them into The Fall, because Von Sudenfed is decidedly NOT The Fall; it's something else entirely.

"Rhinohead" is the pick of the litter for me. "Fledermaus" is great too, as is "That Sound Wiped", even though we've already heard it as MoM/MES's "Wipe That Sound". Why didn't that collaboration warrant much (or rather, ANY) discussion on this here forum?

Just been blasting out Rhinohead on the drive home from work on this lovely summer-like evening. A perfect bit of summertime pop that really needs to be a single. I like RTLC but this album clearly shows up some of its flaws and makes you wish that RTLC had had more scope and vision.

Message to Moderators-
Though not technically a Fall release, will this go up on the Lyrics Parade? I'm guessing it would. At the appropriate time.

Yes Lyrics!!

Rhinohead

"I was very bad
I was very ba..
I was ba, ba ba
Reck-er less
Reck-er less"

This is a great lp. MES' voice always sits grandly with electronica. Rhinohead is splendid and obviously necklace and not reck-er-less.

OOPs
I've only got a muddy mp3 and Leeroy is right.
"Rhino
Had a nickel necklace
I was very x3
Fascinated"

The video for Fledermaus Can't Get It is pretty funny/terrifying.

Haven't heard the rest of the album though. :(

Very good album. Those MES howls in Chicken Yamais are disturbing eh?

One gripe: Again, only about 6 lyrics for each song, but that seems to work a bit better with electronica--MES voice as an instrument more than anything.

I can't decide if I like it more than Reformation at this point.


Rhinohead and Dearest Friends are a nice expansion on MES' Recovery Kit-quirkily pretty ouevre, but with a bit more bounce. This was one criticism I had of RPTLC, it didn't have much of that particular side of The Fall's recent development (Janet Johnny, Recovery, Channel Fuhrer, Midnight Aspen--closest maybe Coaches and Horses on RPTLC).

Much like Fledermaus, I cant get enough of this album at the minute. It's sad to say but it's vastly better than RPTLC. It seems to have got that old spirit back which seems lacking on the last few proper Fall albums.

I think that Scenerio and Coach and Horses are a beautiful continuum to Early Days, Aspen, Janet, and the still unrivaled WB. Wierdly, these are some of my favorite Fall songs of the decade. I could never have predicted that.

I'm three songs in ear wise, and all three are damn good. Could this be the great 'pop' record we all have wondered about at one time or another? Smith has alluded to this proclivity in cylcles before....

It's also reviewed on p.98 of the new Uncut (#121). Four stars. Plus there's a mini-interview with Jan St. Werner of the group.

Its a really good album - and that track about the chap cutting the grass is hilarious.

Rhinohead is the beat example of Smith singing yet. Notice I did not put singing in suspension points. Top track.

Has anybody figured out what MES is singing in Rhinohead? other than ' I was very fascinated" or "necklace". Great track by the way cant wait till it comes out.

NOW AVAILABLE for preorder on domino Records Lp/Cd and 12" single too

Am I the only person on here who doesn't like this collaboration (or what they've heard of it, anyway)?

No - bar one good song, one passable one and one semi-amusing novelty item it is utter shit.

From what I've heard so far, I won't bother with this album.

The backlash has started already.... I'm now waiting for someone to say by combining this album & RPTLC, it would produce quite a good CD...

I have to say to my ears it's the most exciting thing I've heard for donkey's years...

Brilliant -MES is on amazing form.

It helps that I've been a MoM fan for years too, I guess...but they seemed to have a sound that's a perfect foil for Mark's idiosyncrasies, futuristic and compelling...
:applaud: :applaud: :applaud:

i agree

I just finished listening to the whole thing.

I can't really see what the fuss is about. The first couple of tracks are quite good and the novelty track is OK. The rest, if anything, is a good example of how MES has this amazing ability to make, as Cappuccino would put it, 'utter shit' worth a listen. Unimpressed.

It would have been better as a spoken-word album. :D

I just got my copy from Action Records - I echo some of the comments in this thread. It's excellent stuff confirming MES has an ear for techno!

Just got it through the post today. Haven't listened to it all the way through yet but so far very impressed. The perfect tonic to the very poor RPTLC.