Well, as the thread starter, you are. And that's really all I meant about curation. You make a choice to exclude something that 1% of your audience wants included in order to keep the other 99% interested. And by "exclude" I mean mention in chronology or as a sidenote instead of giving equal weight. Or something like that. Some have been more canonized than others, e.g. Totale's Turns was the debut release for Rough Trade. Seminal Live was the final release for Beggars. Both represented what the Fall were at that time in the place of their development. The Twenty-Seven Points is the same. All those two-finger salute albums or the even dodgier later Voiceprint releases are live bootlegs released long after the fact. As fascinating as it was to hear I Am as Pure as Oranj in the year 2000, the discussion of it works better as a footnote for the Kurious Oranj album than as a standalone discussion when it was released 12 years later. I agree with you completely that there are complimentary releases that flesh out the album discography. But then there are redundant things like High Tension Line. I have something like 100 Fall CDs and didn't even bother to pick up that one! I guess I'm just arguing that there was certainly a third option in there, but don't mistake my feedback for criticism. You took on a massive undertaking and it is appreciated.
Yep, a fantastic job. I only have a few Fall albums and this thread is proving invaluable in helping me to choose what to buy to expand it. Many thanks!
I cast my vote for completism, even if there are little or no comments on the zillion compilations. I don't have any of them, but it makes the thread useful into the long future for reference purposes.
I'm happy with the compilations all being included. Even if nine out of ten don't gather any comments, I still find it interesting when someone pops up to say "random comp X" was their introduction to the band. Helps get a feel for how they may approach the band differently from someone else.
I didnt want to stir controversy, Jim should carry on as he considers fit, i guess i'm just a little impatient to get to my favourite Fall record.
I think that is a good reason here for including all the compilations and live albums. As has been mentioned upthread in relation to some of these semi-official releases, Smith sanctioned a lot of this in order to keep himself and The Fall going financially in some of the relatively lean years for the band, so it becomes a useful part of the bigger picture to be able realize the sheer volume of them.
Everything you did so far was great. Keep it coming! In fact YOU turned into MES a bit yourself by relentlessly keeping this thread alive. Terrific work. Man!
Compilations and meh live albums might be tedious to wade through in this topic but that is how it felt in real life too. For me this topic is a fun nostalgia trip, and keeping it accurate is part of the game. So please keep up the long list of unnecessary CDs that we never bought... The cover art and track listings are interesting in themselves.
There is probably someone on The Fall forum that has bought all of them; every single one. I look forward to seeing them someday on a future series of Hoarders.
Touch Sensitive... Bootleg Box Set Released July 2003 on Castle, a 5 CD box set. CD1 - The Knitting Factory, New York on 23 November 2001 01. Cyber Insekt (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 4:28 02. Two Librans (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 4:03 03. And Therein... (Smith/Bramah) 4:08 04. Touch Sensitive (Smith/Nagle/Hitchcock) 4:38 05. Crop-Dust (Birtwistle/Smith) 6:00 06. Bourgeois Town (Leadbetter/Smith) 5:00 07. Sons Of Temperance (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 3:21 08. Mr Pharmacist (Nowlen) 2:36 09. Kick The Can/F-'oldin' Money (Smith/Pritchard/Blake) 8:04 10. My Ex-Classmates' Kids (Smith/Blaney) 4:09 11. Enigrammatic Dream (Smith) 2:53 12. I Wake Up In The City (Smith/Blaney) 3:47 13. Way Round (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal) 6:38 14. I Am Damo Suzuki (Smith, ME/Burns/Smith, B) 7:47 CD2 - Crocodile Cafe, Seattle on 20 November 2001 01. The Joke (Smith, ME/Smith, B) 3:47 02. Cyber Insekt (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 4:18 03. Two Librans (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 3:34 04. And Therein... (Smith/Bramah) 4:05 05. Touch Sensitive (Smith/Nagle/Hitchcock) 4:02 06. Crop-Dust (Birtwistle/Smith) 5:33 07. Bourgeois Town (Leadbetter/Smith) 4:46 08. Sons Of Temperance (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 3:16 09. Mr Pharmacist (Nowlen) 2:22 10. Kick The Can/F-'oldin' Money (Smith/Pritchard/Blake) 6:55 11. My Ex-Classmates' Kids (Smith/Blaney) 4:18 12. Enigrammatic Dream (Smith) 1:09 13. I Wake Up In The City (Smith/Blaney) 3:25 14. Ey Bastardo (Birtwistle/Blaney) 2:12 15. Way Round (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal) 4:23 16. I Am Damo Suzuki (Smith, ME/Burns/Smith, B) 7:39 CD3 - Patronaat, Haarlem, The Netherlands on 6 April 2001 01. MES Spoken Word Intro. [from Post Nearly Man] (Smith) 2:04 02. Sons Of Temperance (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 4:14 03. Two Librans (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 3:17 04. Touch Sensitive (Smith/Nagle/Hitchcock) 3:10 05. Antidotes (Smith/Wilding/Hitchcock) 4:03 06. F-'oldin' Money (Blake) 3:21 07. Hot Runes (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 2:57 08. Way Round (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal) 4:54 09. Ketamine Sun (Smith/Nagle/Cunliffe/Helal/Head) 5:12 10. Instrumental (Smith) 2:29 11. Midwatch 1953 (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 1:42 12. Mr Pharmacist (Nowlen) 3:29 13. Dr Buck's Letter (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 5:16 14. He Pep! (Instr.) (Smith, ME/Wolstencroft) 2:26 15. Das Katerer (Smith/Nagle/Wolstencroft) 3:17 16. Cyber Insekt (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 4:21 17. Ibis-Afro Man (Smith/Watts/Pop) 5:36 18. Birthday Song (Instr.) (Nagle/Smith) 2:50 19. Paintwork (Smith, ME/Scanlon/Rogers) 6:40 CD4 - Melkweg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands on 7 April 2001 01. MES Spoken Word Intro. [from Post Nearly Man] (Smith) 1:06 02. Sons Of Temperance (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 4:15 03. Two Librans (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 3:37 04. Touch Sensitive (Smith/Nagle/Hitchcock) 3:48 05. Antidotes (Smith/Wilding/Hitchcock) 4:33 06. F-'oldin' Money (Blake) 3:28 07. Way Round (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal) 5:26 08. Ketamine Sun (Smith/Nagle/Cunliffe/Helal/Head) 4:28 09. Midwatch 1953 (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 3:23 10. Mr Pharmacist (Nowlen) 2:47 11. Cyber Insekt (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 4:52 12. Ibis-Afro Man (Smith/Watts/Pop) 4:32 13. Serum (Instr.) (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 3:28 14. Dr Buck's Letter (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 4:52 15. Hot Runes (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 2:02 16. Birthday Song (Instr.) (Smith/Nagle) 1:18 CD5 - Concorde 2, Brighton on 17 April 2001 01. The Joke (Smith, ME/Smith, B) 3:02 02. Two Librans (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 4:18 03. F-'oldin' Money (Blake) 2:39 04. Cyber Insekt (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 3:21 05. Dr Buck's Letter (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 4:46 06. Mr Pharmacist (Nowlen) 2:27 07. I Am Damo Suzuki (Smith, ME/Burns/Smith, B) 5:05 08. Touch Sensitive (Smith/Nagle/Hitchcock) 3:47 09. Ketamine Sun (Smith/Nagle/Cunliffe/Helal/Head) 4:35 10. Way Round (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal) 4:32 11. Antidotes (Smith/Wilding/Hitchcock) 4:38 12. Hot Runes (Smith/Nagle/Head/Helal/Wilding) 3:05 13. Ibis-Afro Man (Smith/Watts/Pop) 4:12 14. Paintwork (Smith, ME/Scanlon/Rogers) 3:04 15. And Therein... (Smith/Bramah) 4:18 Mark E Smith - vocals Ben Pritchard - guitar, vocals Jim Watts - bass, vocals Spencer Birtwistle - drums With: Julia Nagle - keyboards Ed Blaney - guitar, vocals Compiled by: Ed Blaney and Conway Paton Three of the tracks had been previously released on 2G + 2 Not to be outdone by the deluge of ‘semi’ official live albums this ‘official’ live boxset contained five live albums from the same period. Some are soundboard recordings and some are audience recordings. Clearly the value of such a set is dependent on how much you like this line-up and the material they were playing, but even the most diehard fans of the Fall circa 2001 must admit that this is somewhat overkill. Anyway, it is what it is. I did not buy this myself, looked at it but decided I wouldn’t probably ever feel the need to play it more than once. But looking at the reviews the sound quality is decent it seems and some people like the set.
It is amazing seeing those set lists with 15 or 16 tracks being played. You are lucky to get 8 or 9 songs in the average Fall set list now.
Well, I'll give them full credit for not being an oldies act. No "Hip Priest" or "Totally Wired", usually one or two older songs a night from TNSG or Extricate. He was stuck on "And Therein..." for some reason. I hate when I go to see an active act and they load up the set with oldies, so I would have appreciated it if I'd gone. Sure. Why not?
Again, I think this one is a nice little box set on Sanctuary's part, it came out immediately after Time Enough at Last and it seemed like they were really doing something efficient in presenting dodgy material in a good way. This one lives and dies (mostly dies) by one of the worst line-ups of the band (at this point... as they got much better) doing some of their worst material. I bought this because of the stray visits to older tracks ("Damo," "Paintwork," The Unutterable material, even "And Therein") and was shocked at how skeletal and raw and inferior they are, almost universally. "Cyber Insekt" for example has no punch to it at all; these are fairly repetitive and un-nuanced renditions. So it's no wonder there are 5 shows here instead of just 1!
I bought this because I saw it going for under ten quid on Amazon and could hardly pass it up at that price. It was a bit of a slog to get through, but there are some decent performances scattered through it, including a version of 'Crop-Dust' that I actually love, and which convinced me that it was a great Fall song where the studio version never did. So I have some residual affection for the set on that basis alone. I'll have to double check which 'Crop-Dust' it was that I liked!
I really have a soft spot for compilations. Sometimes they serve as a great taster when you don't have time for more, sometimes they gather up associated singles, sometimes it's all you need. If you take "It's The New Thing", "Hip Priests & Kamerads" and "Totally Wired" you've got a fabulous sampling of their pre-Brix years. Me, I prefer a fleshed out singles comp as a taster but it's necessarily much more brief.
Did we already cover this? Several new reissues on CD and vinyl. The Fall – CD and vinyl reissues coming soon! – Westworld Recordings I picked up the Marshall Suite CD a couple of weeks ago. Seems to be the booklet from the expanded reissue, but just the one CD.
I don't think it has been mentioned yet. The vinyl is out next week I think, may try one. You never know with the Fall what it is sourced from.
For maximum audiophile quality, this 52m live album is now presented as a double vinyl DELUXE VINYL EDITION!!! "A Part Of America Therein 1981", is a live album by The Fall, recorded on their USA tour in 1981 and originally released only in the USA in 1982. The album shows the group performing several songs that had not yet been released; three songs from 1982's Hex Enduction Hour are present as is "Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul" recorded as a single following the tour's completion. SIDE A 1.The NWRA SIDE B 2.Hip Priest 3.Totally Wired 4.Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul SIDE C 5.Cash ‘n’ Carry 6.An Older Lover SIDE D 7.Deer Park 8.Winter
I saw somewhere there's another shady live lp coming out for RSD, but I'm sure we'll get to that eventually!!
These seem very, very dodgy. Grotesque was *just* released on vinyl by Superior Viaduct in October, and by all accounts those are handsome, quality releases with good sound, right? These appear to pick up where those left off, except they're duplicating Grotesque again and for some reason doing a sad bastard release of The Marshall Suite, which was originally a double vinyl with a bonus track and is now being relegated to a single disc with no bonus track. Ugh.
Quite a few LPs are getting issued from more than one source. Both Universal/Sanctuary in the UK and Superior Viaduct in the US have reissued Witch Trials and Dragnet recently, for example.
