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 "Room to Live" and through it all maintaining the trademark groove that always differentiated The Fall from a traditional punk band. All the while, Mark E. Smith is also at his peak, shouting nonsense at whoever will listen, and since the show is in New Zealand I doubt that very many people were, and-uh of-uh course-uh singing like-uh only he can-uh get a way with-uh (besides James Murphy, perhaps). Also, his mouth trumpet or whatever on "Lie Dream of a Casino Soul" is wonderful.

With such a great track list, the main concern of this album would be the sound quality. While it's not some extremely well produced masterpiece like Kiss Alive! or something, the first disc does sound pretty great, with every instrument well audible in the mix, including both drum sets. My only complaint is that occasionally the guitar is mixed lower than I would like, specifically on "The Classical", but for the most part the sound is great for a live album.

Disc 2 maintains the awesome playing and song choice, but unfortunately the sound is not as good as the first disc, apparently because it was recorded onto a regular cassette from the soundboard rather than multitrack tape like the performances on Disc 1 were. Besides the slightly less than desired sound quality however, it does nothing to detract from a great document of The Fall live during one of their peaks.

Oh, and also, their cover of Black Night is awesome. Like, who would have thought The Fall could do a Sabbath cover this well? Not me. But they did.

Fall in a Hole - B


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