Slates (1981)

Slates is the first Fall album to contain the same line-up as the one before it, the "classic" band, and it shows. Building on the sound of Grotesque, the 24 minute album, consisting of only six songs (I'll get to the bonus tracks later) is obviously the work of a band who knows what they're doing, and obviously led by Mark E. Smith. Battering rhythms on songs like "Prole Art Threat" lay underneath some of Mark E. Smith's most incoherent vocals, more spoken or yelled than sung, and occasionally Marc Riley can be heard speaking different words, mixed at almost the same volume, underneath, something that is somewhat common in Fall songs from the era, and yet it all manages to come together in a way no other band could manage. "Middle Mass" finds the Fall rather relaxed, which is still pretty driving by most bands' standards, and "An Older Lover" is another song driven by Paul Hanley's toms working with his brother Steve's bass riff and a distinctive repeating guitar line to move Smith's lyrics ahead, a style that would hit a peak on the band's next album, featuring primarily the same group of musicians.

The bonus tracks consist of a Peel session including one song from Slates, one from the previous album Grotesque (After the Gramme), one from their next album Hex Enduction Hour, and the single Lie Dream of a Casino Soul (the studio version is also included on the reissue). As expect, they perform all the songs well, and since I've already talked about them or will eventually, I won't go into much detail. The song "Lie Dream of a Casino Soul" is an average Fall song from the era, a simple riff, a driving drum tom/snare beat, and Mark E. Smith's ramblings. Fantastic Life drives ahead quicker than most of the tracks on the album, and at times borders on sounding "poppy" (for The Fall at least). Last is the outtake "Medical Acceptance Gate", what sounds like a home recording by Smith, which may be interesting for The Fall's biggest fans, but not of much value to anyone else.

Slates - B

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 29, 2010 at 5:59 PM

    Slates should definitely get an A or A+. The EP itself may be the best concentrated dose of early Fall there is.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hex Enduction Hour (1982)

Hex Enduction Hour is considered by some to be the definitive Fall album, the first album to contain the dual drummer set-up of Paul Hanley and Karl Burns that helped separate The Fall from any other band, and songs that are among the band's best and most distinctive. However, it also may be the worst album to use when introducing someone to the Fall, for many of the same reasons, as the band learned in 1984 when Motown Records, interested in signing the band, asked for an example of their back catalog and when given Hex stated "I see no commercial in this band whatsoever." The album open with a song filled with Fall trademarks, "The Classical", which explodes open with both drummers pounding a rhythm along with Steve Hanley's bass riff, and soon are joined by an abrasive, ugly guitar line. Finally are Mark E. Smith's not sung but yelled vocals, lacking not only any sense of melody but also rhythm, that would be enough to turn away almost any new list...
Read more

Fall in a Hole (1983)

Fall in a Hole is most likely the Fall's defining live record, both because it is the classic Hex Enduction Hour line-up that is performing, as well as its over two-hour running time (on the 2006 reissue at least). The song choice is fantastic, with the majority of tracks coming from the albums Hex Enduction Hour and Room to Live, their most recent album and the album they were about to record respectively (although Fall in a Hole was released after Room to Live, the show was recorded just over a month before Room to Live was released). One interesting fact about the album is that it was recorded and produced by renowned New Zealand singer-songwriter / stroke victim Chris Knox. Anyway, back to The Fall. The performances are ace, with the band playing at their best, sloppily brilliant on "The Man Whose Head Expanded" (when I tried to figure out what song this reminded me of, I realized it was in fact about half of Slanted and Enchanted ), like a tight cohesive unit on ...
Read more

Grotesque (After the Gramme) (1980)

Now this is The Fall! Grotesque (After the Gramme) is the first album featuring the full Riley, Scanlon, Hanley, and Hanley line-up that would remain through Room to Live (and without Riley through The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall) and define the Fall's classic sound in the first half of the eighties. This album features many of the band's trademarks fully intact for the first time, such as Mark E. Smith's ironic, sometimes confusing but almost great lyrics, delivered rambling and barely on beat, the cheesy keyboard presets that sit on the line between sincerity and parody, and the tight rhythm section of riff-delivering bass and guitar and perfectly on beat drums that someone manage to hold the band together. On top of finally developing the sound of The Fall, Grotesque also features some of Mark E. Smith's best songs, such as "New Face in Hell", which I can only imagine Stephen Malkmus listened to a dozen times before writing "Conduit ...
Read more