2013
Following the quiet year, things pepped up in 2013, so much as we were offered a single, an album
and an EP. I will therefore try not to ramble as it's a lot to get through. Line up wise, a slight change late in 2012 with Tim Presley covering for Pete's paternity leave meant he got credits on a couple of the album tracks that must have written late that year or early this. Pete was soon back, but there was another addition I shall deal with later.
We can ignore the single 'Sir William Wray' (plus 'Hittite Man' and 'Jetplane') , another RSD release, as all three tracks appeared on the album in identical form despite the words "single mix" on the sleeve. And so to 'Re-Mit', the new album released in May. MES produced this one with Ding and Grant roped in for engineering duties. It opens oddly with some filler, an intro called 'No Respects (Intro)'. In just over one minute, it covers a jaunty 'Is This New' style guitar, adding a tasty bit of synth over the top, before descending to a more lumpy beat that builds to a louder and faster close. On to track two then, 'Sir William Wray' was a great tune with guitar and synth battling to provide the best riff while struggling to keep up with each other in pace. Mark's opening shouts of
"G-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-Gish! Gish! Wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-Waaaaaaa!" suggest as usual it's daft trying to decipher lyrics. Despite the performance though, there's concern as the production sounds as tinny and flat as most of EGB was. Surely not another album like that?

Happily track three disperses these fears, 'Kinder Of Spine' is as mad as a box of frogs, but production quality is restored. It's a take on the old Monks sound, and they do a very good job of it, Mark again appearing to have lost it with his vocals. 'Noise' is next, and it's very peculiar which is good of course. It's filler really, Mark having a pop at the ever suffering Pete over the noise he makes with his guitar as that guitar plucks menacingly in the background along with some squiffy synth.
"Here he is now..." Mark suddenly losing the abuse as Pete ups his guitar noise, so turns to namechecking Dave the warrior of the forest and Emporer Cunliffe in a darker more ghostly voice. An interesting diversion.

'Hittite Man' follows, a slow brooding one along the lines of 'Monocard'. Despite some undeniably great musicianship, it never quite does it for me, I don't know why because Dave's bass is back to it's most thunderous and Pete offers up some more of his traditional wah wah guitars. There is however an alternative mix that maybe should have been on the single. The mix is more open, yet darker still and includes an eerie backing vocal from Eleni. It's a shame this version never saw the official light of day.

'Pre MDMA Years' next is another minute long filler, but it fits in well. A lo-fi noodle featuring lines from 'Victrola Time' set to random synth noises. And back to 'No Respects (Rev)' whatever "Rev" means. Basically this is the same as the intro but stretched out to five minutes. The sweeping synths are of great merit, the rest just average, though not to say bad. Whitby gets a mention as does
"English Schweinhund" which amuses. We can miss 'Victrola Time' as it's been done before, so next is 'Irish'.
Flickeringhexagon of this forum once suggested the guitar was too high in the mix, but he spoke from his Californian arse I'm afraid. Both guitar and bass get a good hammering, and while Eleni nips out for a smoke leaving Mark to sneak in an unfortunate line
"They show their bollocks when they eat", it's all in all good clean fun. Track ten is 'Jetplane', the third from the single (RSD buyers would by now be sorry they'd forked out eight quid for that 7"), definitely Eleni penned listening to the words despite credits to the contrary, it tells of an idea as to how to speed up airport queues. Indeed Eleni herself features quite highly in the backing vox. Some good guitar riffs interject as we go along which increase in volume towards the end, and Keiron deploys an unusual military beat throughout. A nice alternative to regular stuff.

'Jam Song' is most unusual, but another highlight (the b-side of this LP seems a step up from the a-side). It certainly is just as the title suggests as all members pile in with an abrasive wall of sound that shouldn't compliment each other, but somehow do. One of those ideas that only The Fall could carry off.

And finally here, 'Loadstones' is another loud upfront song, this time criticised once I recall by our
Slushy who said the synths were too loud. He spoke from his furry backside of course. It's short and sweet, but a solid end to a pretty good album.
But there was more!

By November a new recruit was on board. Daren Garratt, ex of The Nightingales, was added on second drums. Double drumming had not been heard since Karl Burns and Funky Si were together on Levitate, so this was something of excitement. The following month, an EP 'The Remainderer' was out, including Daren but typically Fall, failing to credit him.

It opened with the title track, and the drum effect is noticed almost from the outset. The beat(s) are magnificent, bass, guitar and swirling synth add to the glorious mess as Mark gurgles and growls his way through -
"You're scumbags!". The vinyl has a different version, with the gruppe members adding some backing vox. Both are essential, but this is annoying for buyers who don't have a turntable - the vinyl mix was on a promo CD which was going for over £100 on Ebay at one point.

'Amorator!' next up is fast paced, again all instruments finely played and produced. Pete does a fair bit of wah wah and Dave too is on form, hell they all are, this is becoming much more interesting than Re-Mit which itself was a big improvement over it's predecessor. Track three is 'Mister Rode'. Where the fuck do I begin with this? OK, ignore the vinyl mix, it's lesser but still great. A fuzzy distant guitar builds in volume before a crashing of double drums and then full on guitar kick in. The beat is like Big Country in style, remember Stuart Adamson dancing around on one foot on TOTP? That sort of thing, but do not let that distract, it's fantastic. Then Mark arrives,
"I've got a name, I gotta say..", loud and confident and the whole thing swaggers along for quite a lot of minutes. Deep in the mix lie delicate synth lines that remind you of the early days when Una and Yvonne tinkled the ivories, and a ghostly Mark backing vocal echoes his own words, this really is amazing. But then it stops -
"It's taking off!". The beat ends briefly as a swirl of synth and more ghostly vox rumble along, before the gruppe all come crashing back in with a wall of that new found "noise" they've recently discovered that builds to the very end. This song is fucking astounding.

'Rememberance R' can't hope to follow that, but in it's own way has a bloody good try. MES and a gentle bass and drum set the scene, a rant against look back bores I think. The bass is another almost 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' cover. It builds before a scratchy guitar joins in , reminding me of some of Craig Scanlon's work, then curiously Ding takes over vocals in a rant against bands who try and recreate their youth. It's another fine if moody song. I'll pass on the last two tracks however, an attempted ode to Gene Vincent via a partial performance of 'Say Mama' segued into that live 'Race With The Devil' The Fall did for Peel's 50th birthday. Hanley, Scanlon, Schofield, Bramah and Wolstencroft did not get a credit here. And 'Touchy Pad' to these ears was unnecessary filler that could not hope to compete with the first four tracks. Perfection would be a four tracker here - The Remainderer, Amorator!, Rememberance R, Mister Rode in that order.
My favourite? Have a bleeding guess.
The Fall were once again becoming very interesting indeed....
...and my apologies for rambling.
