Eurozone crises may come and Middle Eastern conflicts go, but there are still a few apparently iron-clad dependables in this increasingly precarious world.
A new Fall LP coming around on a broadly annual basis remains one of these old reliables and - lo and behold - here’s the latest, ‘Re-Mit,’ touching down a robust 18 months on from the band’s Cherry Red debut, November 2011’s ‘Ersatz GB’.
‘Re-Mit’ arrives amid a period of almost ominous calm within the normally turbulent Fall camp. The line-up’s remained stable since 2007 and has now released four consecutive LPs untouched by personnel pogroms: an unimaginable state of affairs, at least since the halcyon days of Scanlon, Hanley and Wolstencroft.
This latest Fall incarnation has already proved its mettle with 2010’s superlative ‘Your Future Our Clutter’, arguably the most consistent and vital Fall waxing this side of YK2. ‘Ersatz GB’, meanwhile, was long on vim and pent-up garage-rock aggression, but was a little lacking where Mark. E. Smith’s scabrous invective was concerned. It had its moments and it was certainly far better than ‘Are You Are Missing Winner?’ or ‘Reformation Post-TLC’, but it was ultimately a mid-table Fall LP, skulking around with, say, ‘Cerebral Caustic’ rather than hitting the heights of a ‘This Nation’s Saving Grace’ or the aforementioned ‘YFOC’.
Excluding the tsunami of compilations and semi-official live releases; ‘Re-Mit’ is The Fall’s 30th studio LP in a whopping 37 years. Most bands would, of course, celebrate such landmarks with retro-activity and a series of high-profile shows celebrating their back catalogue, but in Fall world, its release is greeted by a slog around small to medium provincial venues, a few lesser-known festivals and generally business as usual.
Naturally, much of ‘Re-Mit’ comprises the bulk of The Fall’s current live set and you soon hear why. ‘No Respects Rev’ and ‘Sir William Wray’ (which builds up a head of steam akin to ‘What About Us?’) are quintessential, adrenalized garage rockers. ‘Kinder Of Spine’ (which, like ‘No Respects Rev’ features ‘Reformation’-era guitarist Tim Presley) swaggers around like a distant cousin of Captain Beefheart’s ‘Diddy Wah Diddy’ and the riffsmart ‘Loadstones’ brings the album to an upbeat, almost anthemic conclusion.
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Elsewhere, there are predictably gnarly diversions. ‘Noise’ veers from ‘Insult Song’-esque dick-about to Krautrock-style deep space; ‘Jam Song’ is little more than the spontaneous filler the title suggests and the splatchy, stilted Victrola Time is merely OK, if certainly nothing that would have frightened Joe Meek.
Vastly superior are the album’s two typically oblique, narrative-style outings, Hittite Man and Jetplane. Featuring brooding, tribal drums, memorably spindly guitar figures from Peter Greenway and a fully-engaged Smith, the former is a dark, ‘Muzorewi’s Daughter’-style prowl, while ‘Jetplane’ finds Smith and Elena Poulou doing a weirdly effective anti-Lee’ n’ Nancy, with Mark vividly railing against the vagaries of the European flight network. Arguably the record’s apex, though, is reached with ‘Irish’: a curious, but compelling avant-Celtic melange which injects a fresh strain of The Fall’s inimitable Northern rockabilly and a hint or two of ‘Guest Informant.’
Not for the first time in this singular outfit’s history, the real new Fall album frustrates, delights and enlightens along the way. On its first few listens, it’s too inconsistent and sprawling to be ushered up to the top table with their best, yet it has all the hallmarks of a sleeper, one the faithful (though what other kind of Fall supporter is there?) will gradually take to their hearts. And you can never write those off in the overall scheme of things.
Cherry Red Records online
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