If you like genres, then here comes some Egyptian folk reggae. Recorded underwater. Again, the MES trait of seemingly random number calling, usually with decimal points, comes into play - apt, I suppose, given the digital subject matter. In the main, the song appears to be a kind of tirade against computer manipulation of faces: 'Distilling mugs alter top of heads and make them nasty-like' makes me laugh, as does, 'give the folks mumps to order with their apple shape.'

 

 

posted @ 13.15 PM, February 15, 2008

A studio recording from mid 2001, this, My Ex-Classmate's Kids and Distilled Mug Art had been scheduled for release on an EP entitled "The Present" which was withdrawn and never released. Later included on 2 G+2. It's a charming wee ditty with skipalong drums and a railroad/Johnny Cash type vibe. It's all about the rhythm, hence the perfectly paced 'Trip walk sand trip skip crack.' Yee, and, indeed, ha!

 

 

posted @ 12.35 PM, February 14, 2008

Cheesy drums, sudden breaks and that peculiar roll call/slagging off of band members/studio crew thing, now becoming a familiar MES trait - this time done in a Vic Reevesesque funny voice. Gotta See Jane is then partially reprised with reverb guitar. Messy, although 'Spen is a bastardo' does have a certain rhythmical twang to it.

 

 

posted @ 12.45 PM, February 13, 2008

Another back to basics workthrough. Starting with an acoustic strumming of an extremely familiar simple riff, reminiscent of My Ex Classmate's Kids. You expect it to go somewhere, like a Beckett play or something, and, like a Beckett play, it doesn't really. Sparse. The backing bass voice is good and top marks for random swearing - 'You don't know fuck shit.'

 

 

posted @ 12.50 PM, February 12, 2008

Almost a country song, almost pop, almost finished! I love the sound of this, but wish it was longer. There's a determination to shy away from its obvious melodic potential, making it sound like a half-formed idea. Hence, by now standard Fallish tape recorder coughs and mumblings are mixed in with the 'polished' main tune. There's a rough Velvets-like potential noise build up near the end too. 'And to sum up/The motive of this film is/Keep your cap on your pen.'

 

posted @ 13.05 PM, February 11, 2008

Well. A real mish-mash. Completely unrecognisable from Iggy's 'African Man.' The ascending riff on acoustic and then electric guitar, competes across the left and right channels, fading in and out. The 'I'm an Ibis hotel man' strand of the song is completely unexpected, as indeed is the rest of the madness, including the screeching monkey, the swirling prog rock keyboard, the Race With The Devil lyrics over the ascending riff again and the "Good evening London, you lucky lucky people - Mark E" sung by Ed Blaney, the reappearance of that Fall standby phrase, 'I was walking down the street,' the mobile phone interference and outro of 'Birthday' for 1 second with crowd cheering. The live version, from The Knitting Factory, Los Angeles is even funnier, especially Ed Blaney's 'no slippers, no socks, no underpants. Welcome L.A.' section. Pure mental.

posted @ 13.25 PM, February 08, 2008

The two note intro ditches the original's doomier bass intro for a quicker, snappy interpretation of the second Fall R Dean Taylor cover (the first being There's A Ghost In My House - see 1987). Good bits - when the drum comes in and the keyboards on the ending. Disappointingly, though, it never really adds to, or improves upon the original.

 

 

 

posted @ 13.05 PM, February 07, 2008

A warped guitar sound, like it's been recorded on a cassette tape underwater, initially sets the languid tone before eventually a shift of gear sees the song turn into a bop n' roll type affair, complete with backing vocals - 'Kick the can!' A strange, underdeveloped little ditty with little indication of why it's named after an old kids game.

 

 

 

posted @ 13.05 PM, February 06, 2008

I Wake up In The City reworked (see below). Those tinny drums and old school punk amateurish chord chops are always a pleasure, never a chore. The sneering, apathetic ah ah ahs are a great big fuck off compliment to the lo fi distortion quality of it all. 'Up your nose/Aftershave like little twigs' sums up the ambience perfectly.

 

 

 

posted @ 12.55 PM, February 05, 2008

Using the basic riff from 'I Just Sing' by The Troggs as its base camp, this tracks builds with a nice sixties/Egyptian type guitar line over it into a fascinating and hypnotic trot through mysterious horticultural, physiological, and first world war imagery, culminating in the intriguingly obscure lines 'Brutal fracture leaves sprout in the heart of the garden/A quarter of brain is left to see it in 25 lines/25 lines.' Another example of that peculiar Fall mixture of maths/history and the supernatural. Plus, nice false ending.

 

 

posted @ 13.20 PM, February 04, 2008

Based on The Bourgeois Blues by Leadbelly (incorrectly credited to Robert Johnson on the album sleeve), a 1938 blues classic which tells the story about Leadbelly and his wife visiting Washington DC in 1937 and getting turned away from hotels & restaurants because they were black. A standard (for The Fall) cover valiantly executed with video game noises in the intro and some nice 'arow wow wownd' vocalisings, accentuated on the live version, which also has added adlibs.

 

 

posted @ 13.05 PM, February 01, 2008

The Jim being new bass player, Jim Watts. A fairly nondescript but effective little riff with a little breather in the middle. The subject matter appears to dabble around compensation claims. Or something. By the end it almost becomes a singalong with the 'We are the new Fall' refrain.

 

 

 

 

posted @ 13.00 PM, January 31, 2008

B side of a free limited edition single posted out to subscribers to the Flitwick Records mailing list. A damn good workout on the old trebly guitar thrash a la Stooges. The song, written by Ed Blaney, was later rehashed as My Ex-classmates Kids (see above). Highlights here include some dramatic coughing, the pithy 'Even Jesus had a tale' and the unexpected joy of the repeated phrase 'And the euro it came out backwards.' There's also an amusing distraction of a snippet of a radio discussion about education.

 

 

posted @ 13.10 PM, January 30, 2008

 

Rude (All The Time)