Lost Records: Chapter Three

August 19, 2008 by John Foster  Send to a Friend

It’s true. I couldn’t resist adding another column in hopes of turning you cats and kittens on to more music. This is going to focus on discs primarily from the 80s (and early 90s) that have long been hard to find or sort of fell through the cracks of the collective consciousness. They will also be true records in that you should own the whole thing and not download just a few songs. To make life easy, I will focus on spending some of your eMusic credits. The service is still spotty with new releases but an amazing array of back catalogues have come on-line and digging through ebay or gemm has now been simplified to single clicks at a fraction of the cost. Sit back and enjoy!

The Fall “I Am Kurious Oranj”

Mark E. Smith and his various cohorts that form The Fall have produced so many albums (most of them good to very good with a few classics) that it can be tough to wade through them for a novice. To call them prolific is an understatement! However, there is one album that seems to escape notice from all but the die-hards, despite being one of my favorites from their canon. The 80’s saw Smith and his Mancunian dark humor enveloped with a pop spark through his marriage to American Brix Smith. The result was some of the band’s most accessible material and even saw them hit the UK pop charts several times. Albums like “Frenz Experiment” in particular from this wave are absolute killers and should be heard by any post-punker.

In the middle of this writing spree, the band partnered with choreographer Michael Clark to write a score for his contemporary ballet. Beginning work in 1984 and playing the pieces several times in the years following, they finally released the record in 1988, following “Frenz.” It seemed to arrive with almost no fanfare (granted the dance connection made for a tough sell on a band who was already prone to atonal bouts and hectoring vocals) and faded into the discography almost immediately. That the ballet it sustained was filled with dancing hamburgers and cans of beans did little to help (not that Clark’s company didn’t have a cache at the time.) It would also serve as the final release before the Smith’s divorce.

The record has a raw vibe set off on the opening thump of “New Big Prinz.”( a re-working of their song “Hip Priest”) Smith’s vocals have a refreshingly unhinged quality with the chorus support on charges of being a “maniac!” An “Overture” from the production serves as a lofi guitar strum with the title sung as if by the arm in Twin Peaks. Perhaps my favorite moment is Smith’s voice recorded from off stage intoning a barrage of dogs before working over William Blake for “Dog’s Is Life/ Jerusalem” with a snapping drum beat. The title track is the closest the band ever got to going raga into the bass stomp of “Wrong Place, Right Time.” The middle suffers a little before “Yes O Yes” brings on some ominous dark surf guitar.

“Van Plague?” surges back and forth between sweet breaks of off key singing into the slow nightlife drift of “Bad News Girl” (allegedly written about Brix – made all the more cutting as she had to play it on stage for a year.) Maniacal xylophone runs highlight “Cab It Up!” along with fuzz bass. The record closes with a reprise of “Prinz” making for a perfect marriage (I know – odd choice of words give the state the Smiths were in) of the pop structure the band had undertaken and it’s previous spiky edge. This would be the last Fall record to feature such rough recording that was not a live disc.

Brix would run off with violinist Nigel Kennedy and eventually make her way into Hole before singer songwriter Freedy Johnston forced her to listen to her old Fall records - which inspired a return to the group for “Cerebral Caustic” and another glorious run with The Fall before moving into fashion. The Fall continues to make challenging pop music at every turn in staggering numbers.

Listen

RIYL: early Fall and late Fall, The Pixies

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