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The Fall are a British rock music group, named after Albert Camus' novel.
Formed in Manchester in 1977 at the height of punk rock's rise, but never quite fitting into that movement or its post-punk/ new wave offshoots, The Fall have continued for a quarter of a century to produce unpredictable and challenging music, varying richly in both character and quality, the abrasive lyrics and half-droned, half-ranted vocals of frontman Mark E. Smith providing the one constant note through more than two prolific decades of bewildering personnel changes. A May, 2004 interview with Smith reports "49 (band) members, 78 albums and 41 singles," and also records longtime supporter John Peel's opinion of The Fall: "They are always different, they are always the same." [1]
From their first lineup of Smith, Martin Bramah (guitar), Tony Friel (bass), Una Baines (keyboards) and Karl Burns (drums) onward, the group produced a sound quite unlike anything else playing in the run-down dancehalls of northern England's new wave scene, drawing sometimes violent reactions from hardcore fans of uncomplicated punk guitar thrash. Their EP Bingo-Master's Break-out (1978), already minus Friel, and debut album Live at the Witch Trials (1979, and not, incidentally, a live album), now without Baines too, served up a caustic mix of belligerently provincial urban paranoia and scorn for cultural norms, atop a deceptively unsophisticated musical arrangement.
With Craig Scanlon and recent bassist Marc Riley on guitar, Steve Hanley on bass and Mike Leigh on drums (subsequently to be replaced by Paul Hanley and then a two-drummer lineup with a returned Burns), late 1979's L.P. Dragnet signalled a sparser, still more jagged feel, which was to fill out into a more grinding, industrial sound though Grotesque (1980), the 10-inch Slates (1981), Hex Enduction Hour (1982) and Room to Live (1982).
The autumn of 1983 heralded another dramatic change, this time to a relatively more pop music-oriented sound, with the arrival of Smith's American girlfriend and later wife, Californian Brix Smith, as guitarist alongside Scanlon, giving the group their nearest approach to hit-single stardom as well as the highly acclaimed albums Perverted By Language (1983), The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall (1984), This Nation's Saving Grace (1985), the underrated Bend Sinister (1986), the less memorable The Frenz Experiment (1988) and I Am Kurious, Oranj (the fruit of a ballet project between Smith and dancer Michael Clark ), with Simon Rogers and later Marcia Williams on keyboards, and Simon Wolstencroft replacing Burns on drums after This Nation's Saving Grace.
With Brix's departure in 1989, Bramah returned briefly for 1990's successful Extricate, leaving with Williams in advance of 1991's Shift-Work. With Dave Bush joining on keyboards, 1992's Code: Selfish saw a welcome return to the group's unpredictable ways, followed by The Infotainment Scan (1993), Middle Class Revolt (1994) and Cerebral Caustic (1995).
With Bush gone and Scanlon sacked after 16 years (a decision later regretted by Smith), 1996 saw Brix's brief return and the arrival on keyboards, guitars and computers of Julia Nagle for The Light User Syndrome. The group was temporarily reduced to Smith and Nagle when a disastrous U.S. tour ended in the departure (April 1998) of Steve Hanley (bassist for 19 years), Burns (back for a final spell on drums) and guitarist Tommy Crooks, following a violent on-stage row with a drunken Smith.
From this nadir, the Fall achieved another comeback with Smith and Nagle being joined by Neville Wilding on guitar, Karen Leatham and later Adam Halal on bass, and Tom Head on drums for the acclaimed albums The Marshall Suite (1999) and The Unutterable (2000). Further rifts followed in 2001, the new lineup of Smith, Ben Pritchard (guitar), Jim Watts (bass) and Spencer Birtwistle (drums) releasing Are You Are Missing Winner to mixed reviews. The Real New Fall LP (reputedly renamed from Country on the Click after an earlier mix of the album appeared on Internet file sharing networks) followed in 2003, with a slightly different mix and some extra tracks for the US version.
The Fall's sound has generally remained constant from the clanking, almost rockabillyRockabilly is a style of music made famous during the 1950s by American performers. At its heart, rockabilly is simply a fusion of rock and roll, blues and hillbilly music, hence the name. The music was propelled by catchy beats, an electric guitar and an guitars of their early work to the amphetamine-rush of the more recent digitized backing tracks. What unites them is the sound of Mark E. Smith's ranted lyrical poetry. His lyrics are sometimes maddeningly obscure (especially to non-British listeners), and usually caustic in their satire, wildly imaginative in their scope, embracing politics (e.g. 'Marquis Cha Cha'), magic and mythology ('Elves', 'Wings'), devastating critiques of passing fads (e.g. see 'C.R.E.E.P' and 'Hard Life in Country'), and some brutal ad hominemAn ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem ( Latin, literally "argument to the man"), is a logical fallacy that involves replying to an argument or assertion by addressing the person presenting the argument or assertion rather than the ar diatribes (e.g. 'Sing Harpy').
Smith is far from a great singer, but his sense of rhythmRhythm is the variation of the duration of sounds over time. When governed by rule, it is called meter. It is inherent in any time-dependent medium, but it is most associated with music, dance, and most poetry. The study of rhythm, stress, and pitch in sp and attack, however, is second to none.
Perhaps his most distinctive trait is an explosive syllableThis article discusses the unit of speech. For the computer operating system, see Syllable (operating system). A syllable is a unit of speech that is made up of one or more phones (single sounds or "phonetic segments") and in turn makes up words. It influ added after some words, such as in his delivery of a lyric from "Free Range": "This is the spring-uh without end-uh"
The Fall's influences are worn lightly, though CanA can or canister (also spelled cannister is usually a cylinder-shaped object used for storing other materials. The most familiar are consumer products, such as the aluminum beverage can and tin can, the latter of which is usually accessed with a can open, Captain BeefheartDon Van Vliet (born January 15, 1941 in Glendale, California), is a musician and painter, best known under the pseudonym Captain Beefheart . Vliet's output is rooted in blues music and rock music, but his idiosyncratic, diverse approach largely defies cla, and the more experimental work of The Velvet UndergroundThe Velvet Underground (Affectionately known as The Velvets, or V. for short) was an American rock and roll band of the late 1960s. Although never commercially successful, The Velvet Underground remain one of the most influential bands of their time: a fa are all evident, and their infrequent cover songs are mostly obscure songs by obscure musicians.
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