"We are The Fall we were spinning we were stepping
Cop out, cop out as in from heaven
The difference between you and us is that we have brains"

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2G+2 / Are You Are Missing Winner / Bend Sinister / Cerebral Caustic / Code: Selfish / Dragnet / Extricate / Fall Heads Roll / The Frenz Experiment / Grotesque (After The Gramme) / Hex Enduction Hour / I Am Kurious Oranj / Imperial Wax Solvent / The Infotainment Scan / Interim / Levitate / The Light User Syndrome / Live At The Witch Trials / The Marshall Suite / Middle Class Revolt / Perverted By Language / The Post Nearly Man / The Real New Fall LP (Formerly ‘Country On The Click’) / Reformation Post-TLC / Room To Live / Seminal Live / Shift-Work / Slates / This Nation’s Saving Grace / Totale’s Turns / The Twenty-Seven Points / The Unutterable / The Wonderful & Frightening World Of The Fall / Von Südenfed's Tromatic Reflexxions

toss up between area & spectre... went for the latter... you probably know this if you've got the record

Most people seem to like New puritan but I think it sounds a bit crap on this record. The guitars are great and all, and I dont mind the fact its a demo stuck in the middle of a live LP but its nails down a blackboard most the time... Far prefer the Peel Session version - I think thats the (Hexen) definitive version as far as Im concerned.

I voted for In My Area whichis just top top top in any form!

Ive changed my mind now

I wish Id voted for THAT MAN

Just been listening to TTs again...

Time to vote in the "have you ever changed your mind?" poll!

Has to be Fiery Jack - it's the version here is a Top 5 Fall tune.

TT was the first Fall record I heard and when I (very soon afterwards) bought "Early Years" I was really let down with the single version. The version on TT just comes together brilliantly, really rumbles along with that great riff overlay with busts of that infantile guitar bit (sorry, like MES I'm a musical layman and can't always describe music very well) and MES's vocal smeared all over - ACE :applaud:

I agree: TT's Fiery Jack could be the definitive one...

No Xmas on TT is the definitive Fall statement, musically and lyrically - there is so much happening on here that it has taken me 24 years to suss it.

Been listening to it a lot lately due to the re-issue. Also, That Man is fantastic - the guitar solo play out thing is shivers of delight down the spine stuff. Is it Craig or Marc playing it? New Puritan is awesome. Doesn't Mark's voice sound funny? Like when you hear John Peel on a '60s show.

I will write a big piece on No Xmas one day and everyone else can post "That is shite that Granny On Bongos" afterwards.

Looking forward to reading it.

I'm not, it's going to be shite, that

:D

have to agree on no xmas for john quays. fuckin fantastic, that is!

still can't decide whether i prefer that or muzorewi's daughter, though.

anyone want to flip a coin for me?

Yep. And No Xmas won.

I love this album -- it is in my top 5 Fall albums. After reading the introductory post accompanying to the poll, I had to vote "Intro: because as a budding FF way back when: (1) it was one of the few times I could make out the words; and (2) it communicated the Fall attitude (which has since gotten out of hand).

I have never understood why this album is so highly regarded as I only like the non-live tracks on it - (I voted for 'That Man'). I see this as being in the same category as 2G+2 or 27 Points, and I would choose Seminal Live over it, in terms of great Fall live/studio albums. I do prefer the shotened live version of Spectre vs Rector on this to the Dragnet version.

Speaking as someone who has attempted to make music for over 2 decades, I believe your opinions and comments are as valid as anyone's. Possibly moreso, or at least less bogged down in "muzik-speak".

Somebody once said "talking about music is like dancing about architecture" ...it is in a large part senseless since the aspects of music I love are generally the indefinable, ineffable ones. Different rhythms and melodies "feel" differently to different people and the physiological and psychological effects on any listener will be different.

I am not a fan of Carlos Santana particularly-- don't know much about him but don't care for his band's music really. However, I heard him say in an interview that "listening to music changes the molecular structure of the listener". There actually is a good deal of truth in this.

Leon Theremin and Nikola Tesla both had theories if not actual plans for weapons based on sound and frequencies.

That reminds me. I saw a documentary in which there was this woman right, in some country like the Ukraine or some country like that, Eastern Europe anyway, who had a voice that created a perfect waveform. this is pretty unique, the human voice is a pretty fractured soundwave really, so shes got this perfect wave on an oscilloscope see, totally unblip free... And apparently shes got her own clinic coz her voice has psychological healing properties. she just fucking hums at you and it makes you feel better. Its not rock n roll but its better than Charlotte Church. Now imagine if she was like a fucking singer or summat? Like we all bought her CDs and listened to all these Perfect Ukranian Waveforms while we eat our Sunday Roast instead of all that shite like what they put out on the top 40 chart which is like cold gravy and soggy yorkshires to me - like sodding coldplay, could put you in a coma, but instead like youd get this voice which makes you feel like better, and gets rid of mental illness and shit like that - would make a good substitute for the Queens Speech at Xmas coz thats just the usual shite that no one with a fully functioning human brain could possible want to do on a Xmas day when you could be cuddling up to ya girlfriend. So this Ukrainian Or eastern European or whatever women with her waveforms could be like the most potentially good thing that could ever be broadcast. Id buy CDs of her just standing there fucking humming - different pitch for different tracks - could become the droniest record of all time. Could drones be therapy too?

....personally I think Mr. Carlos "Devadip" S. is dipping into dipshit new agey hokum with that quaint statement. Where did he get his degree in molecular biology I wonder.
As for sonic weaponry, hmmmmm, supposedly the CIA were experimenting with the physics of sound as a means to crowd control during the late 60's. In one example a very low tone was, supposedly, found to induce peristalsis of the, ahem, alimentary canal. Thus those long-haired hippies would shat and scat.

The 60's lite psych band, The Blues Magoos made a little numbah, heh heh, called "Sonic Laxative" as an attempt to replicate that sub sub woof woof very low tone. No shit.

infrasound... William Burroughs goes at length bout these...

Well, coming as it does from Santana, it probably DOES come from a new agey hokum standpoint.

But there is some truth in this. It has been proven that different musics alter circulatory and respiritory systems and induce changes in brainwave activity.

I grant this doesn't really correlate to molecular changes throughout the entire body, but one system tends to affect another to a degree.

Christ. It's late. And I'm trying to defend and clarify some knobbed off Santana quote.

Bob help me.

:wacko:

in my area...for the solo :)

He also siad "Music is the water, & I am the hose" - you can't make this shit up!

I suspect that everybody's favourite song is really Choc-Stock but we all got confused and didn't know where to put our vote and so went for our second favourites instead.

Carlos Santana certainly isn't very good when it comes to making music, but he does appear to be a fountain of wisdom when it comes to philosophical concepts, doesn't he? I guess all he needs is a tyrannical group leader to knock him into shape and tell him what to play - anyone know of such a group in need of a guitarist?
B)

the bleeding head of arnold palmer cannot help here I'm 'fraid. son. Where's the research indicating such hoodley-hoo; let's 'ave a look at that exacting research methodology then.

BTW, if my plants actually did grow to music I'd have the biggest lythracecea's yet

Cary Grant's Wedding.

I haven't heard this album in over 10 (15?) years and I can still hear that song in my head as if it was yesterday.

why not? were u addicted & daren't taste it again in case u r swept back to obsession & madness???

but now theres a lovely new reissue - whats holding u back???? go on - treat those ears...

O yes, I will-ah. The hardest part-ah, is finding shops in Montreal that carry Fall records-ah!

could u not get it mail order thru action records??? (10% discount cos u r a member here don't forget!)

Cool. I'll look into that. :)

I usually like when The Fall is quirky and playful, like on my choice, That Man.

As on Dragnet poll, Choc Stock fails to get a single vote.

Holy shit. This album is brand-new to me and already I'm struck by how empty my life must have been without it. On paper, it makes no sense whatsoever -- a bunch of lo-fi live recordings, some really weak-sounding demos, all smushed together for no reason at all -- but the energy, the feeling, the sound is magical. I can't think of another example where a record has done so much with so little.

I try to put myself in the context of the time for even more enjoyment -- when I do that, it's easier to see how the inclusion of Fiery Jack, Rowche Rumble, In My Area probably all made this actually feel somewhat like a new LP, as those songs had years to go before they'd be "bonus tracks" for anyone. In fact, I remember back in 1997 or so when I was first subscribed to FallNet how lost and obsolete these tracks seemed, to everyone, because they didn't exist on CD anywhere (and wouldn't until that Early Fall rerelease a few years later)... it's weird now to have them in so many places and to freely enjoy them so much.

I really want to vote for New Puritan, but I think I'm going to have to go with the rendition of Rowche Rumble. I couldn't vote for it on Dragnet, so this is the only place it's going to count.

BTW, New Puritan? Whatever is so good about it here is multiplied a thousand times on the Peel version. I agree with MCR and whoever else might wish to be able to vote for that version instead. The track is just amazing; it inspires in me the same sort of drooling and hyperbole that all of the rest of you seem to use for Backdrop. I am so thankful to have this particular Peel session appended to this particular album on the reissue -- because it puts both New Puritans into one place.

This was Elvis Costello (yes, the Sainted One) who actually said "writing about...etc" but I always thought it was a stupid thing for a clever bloke like him to say because it seemed to exclude any comment on any medium. Plus, of course, some of the greatest dancing ever has been very much about buildings, as we all know.

Anyway, Totale's Turns was my first Fall lp when I was 15 in 1980 and I find it hard not to allow look-back bore nostalgia/sentiment to drip into any current judgements. I just voted for Rowche as best Fall single, so I suppose I should stick with that, but I think 'New Puritan' gets my vote here as its such a minimalistic, disturbing picture of reality ("your stomach swells up before you get drunk") & it's so resolutely lo-fi (not a term back then) & downright amateurish & if it really was done in front of an 80% weekend mating audience then he REALLY does deserve a medal for guts.

Actually, I'll go for "That Man" , it's got a better tune...

Tough poll. I had to think about this for a while. I voted for choc-stock in the end.

Rowche Rumble. "Last orders half past ten. This is a groovy number . . ." And it is.

I went for That Man too... could as easily have been Cary Grant's Wedding, mind. I only got it for the new ones.

No Xmas - "will you get it together instead of showing off!!" One of those great Fall moments!

One of those polls/threads where I wish I had been there. Anyway, "Cary Grant's Wedding". Simply because it's one of the non-album-tracks here. Was tempted to go for "New Puritan" also.

Some classics on here - top versions of In My Area and Fiery Jack. That Man and Cary Grant's wedding have been long time favourites. From last listening to my LP to getting the new CD, Rowche Rumble has improved hugely and now rates as an all time classic for me.

But No Xmas For J.Quay takes the honours - always has and always will. Tension and drive, humour and repetition, and only about three different notes played for 10 mins. The definitive Fall track for me.

I'm not being a look back bore either. I bought the CD re-issue at the same time as FHR and listened to them both as new CDs.

RR

No Xmas nearly did it for me.

It's obvious that on that particular occasion MES was sick of the rest of the gruppe and the crew. The tension is great as he spits out the lyrics, and the odd direction/insult, and then stomps about.

MES probably loved it in retrospect because it was quite bad musically - hence its inclusion. I went for RR though, because it's top draw. :applaud: