Send "The Fall " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Sputnikmusic |
 Whisper it quietly, but The Fall, a group not renowned for stability throughout a tumultuous 30+ year history, have plotted a course that has veered sharply into more secure waters over recent years. Of course, things would not be the same without at least some friction and tension. After a number of spats with former record label and home of the wannabe hipsters, Domino Records, the group have taken the circus and camped in the grounds of Cherry Red records for the release of their 29th studio LP. Administrative troubles aside, The Fall’s dictator for life, and self-proclaimed “original white rapper”, Mark E. Smith currently presides over the tight and efficient unit of Pete Greenway (guitar), Dave Spurr (bass), Keiron Melling (drums) and Smith’s third wife Elena Poulou (keyboards). For the first time, The Fall have recorded and released three consecutive LPs with the same line-up. The one present on Ersatz G.B. were also present for 2008’s Imperial Wax Solvent and 2010’s Your Future, Our Clutter, records that showed enough touches of class, craft and ingenuity to reassure The Fall’s notoriously hardcore following that the future was surprisingly rosy. As with the prior two records, Ersatz G.B. shows that Smith, at least when he wants to, can pour enough bile, surreal observations and grit into his work. It proves that age, alcohol intake or even boredom cannot dim the mind of one of the most caustic commentators in British music. Opener “Cosmos 7” races out of the blocks like a greyhound jacked-up on amphetamines; Smith’s utterances and curses anchored dead centre amidst a whirling cacophony of rockabilly clatter. Business as usual for Fall fans, but it serves as an old-fashioned warning to first-timers and casuals: “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” As is the norm, there are a number of style variations on offer here. “Mask Search” keeps up the rockabilly theme, “Nate Will Not Return” has Smith supporting a rare lyrical rhyming scheme for near six minutes and “Happi Song” is a morose and introspective ditty led by Poulou on vocals. “I’ve Seen Them Come”, a straight forward and pulverising rocker, calls to mind the intensity shown on “Youwanner” from 2005’s Fall Heads Roll....full text |
| Guardian |
| Seminal is a dangerous term for band because, fundamentally, it ends up meaning your whole shtick is so regulated and predictable you might as well be dead. So it is with the Fall, whose 317th studio album, or whatever it is, has absolutely no chance of reaching beyond the people who dutifully queued up for their 316th album: everyone already knows what to expect and, largely, they'd be right. Mask Search and Cosmos 7 are both rumbling rockabilly roustabouts with Mark E Smith's gruesomely liquid growl spooned over the top like a cold, rather unpleasant custard, while Greenway is what the Metallica and Lou Reed album would sound like had they all spent four decades living in grinding poverty in a wet shed. However, Taking Off is a genuinely beautiful and dynamic piece that makes you think that perhaps album 318 will be worth a listen after all....full text |
| Louderthanwar |
| What is there left to say about the Fall? For a long term fan like myself, every thought and opinion about the band has been documented and thought about. Every nuance pondered and yet there is still more to unravel. They can be genius, they can be infuriating and they can just chug along sounding perfect in the weird Fall groove. That metronomic chug of the tight rhythm section underpinning the sonic patchwork that creates their sound learnt by every line up of the band like there is some sort of instinctive instruction manual given out to new members. They are a band like no other. Their albums come out at regular intervals, you grapple and grope with them, listen to them intensely and then move on. It’s not any different this time. With initial listenings I thought, mmm good but not as good as last year’s ‘Your Future Our Clutter’ which, for my money, was their best for years- not so much for the songs but for the clarity of sound where you could hear everything that was going on and less of the dark, mysterious murk that their couple of previous releases had. The new album sees a slight stylistic shift, this is the Fall’s rock album, sort of. This is rock but a typically warped adventure into the world of Kerrang (!), a rock of worn out old Sabbath and Stooges albums but sliced up by a mad genius. There is so much shapeshifting that goes on with this band that it’s impossible to tell. There are moments, like on ‘Greenway’ where the übermensch stench of Germanic Teutonic kings Rammstein is recalled in the incessant riffola and if it is not exactly like Rammstein it made me want to listen to the German band again. The Fall have never sounded this riffy, except when the Fall do riffs they do them all warped and strange. There is a sublime Black Sabbath moment on ‘Monocard’ where the band hit that dark feral groove of the slowed down, doom mongering Sabbath- exploring the strange detritus of the Midland metallic uberlords who are still untouchable when it comes to exploring the dark stuff. The Fall recall the same sort of frozen glacial moraine of the deep frozen, darkest, blackest Black Sabbath- still one of the most influential bands of all time before creating their own soundscape. There is also a Stooges ‘TV Eye’ moment on, ‘Nate Will Not Return’ with that drone riff cranked to a klaxon attack and a scattergun, wackoid take on rockabilly on ‘Mask Search’ where Smith growls with an insane anger leering at Snow Patrol amongst others....full text |
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