1988 - Bremen Nacht
11 January: Single - Victoria
29 February: Album - The Frenz Experiment
24 October: Album - I am Kurious Oranj
31 October: 12th John Peel Session - Kurious Oranj, Dead Beat Descendant, Cab It Up, Squid Lord
7 November: Single - Jerusalem/Big New Prinz
1988 started with another cover version single. After the (relative) success of There's a Ghost in My House last year the group played it straight again with another sixties tune, Victoria by The Kinks.
According to MES, where the Kinks original was "nostalgic" the Fall's was "reflective of Britain now". It reached number 35 in the charts.
The end of February saw the tenth studio album land. The Frenz Experiment was the first Fall album to make the top 20 in that chart. It's another one I hadn't heard for years before I got a new record player.
For an album that in some places is described as their most commercial effort and in others as 'oddball', on the whole it stands up very well. Athlete Cured has always been a favourite, as has Oswald Defence Lawyer and this year's choice (see below). The surprises were how sad a song Frenz feels now and then Get a Hotel being a proper Fall track and not the throwaway tune I'd mistaken it for. (I can still live without In These Times and The Steak Place though.)
The summer of 1988 saw the fall collaborating on, and playing with, Michael Clark on the ballet I am Curious, Orange. I've never been to a ballet in a my life but I wish I'd made an exception for this one!
The music from that show was released in October as the album I am Kurious Oranj. I'm not sure it's that well-loved by The Fall fans community but I like it a lot.
Opening with the glam-rock re-working of Hip Priest as Big New Prinz there's plenty of different styles on the record, as befits a 'musical'. Through the sparse Guide Me Soft, the machines of Win Fall CD 2080, the almost reggae of Kurious Oranj to the bass-driven Jerusalem and Wrong Place, Right Time and we still have high points such as Bad News Girl, Van Plague? and Cab it Up.
All was not well behind the scenes though with cracks appearing in Mr & Mrs Smith's marriage. Brix believed Bad News Girl was written about her, MES gives her fewer writing credits on the record than apparently she is entitled to.
October's Peel session saw two tracks from Kurious Oranj and two from next June's Seminal Live
The year finished with a double a-side single. Two tracks from Kurious Oranj in Jerusalem and New Big Prinz. I love Steve Hanley's work on Jerusalem - his bass thuds with all the force of a primitive, giant machine from one of the 'dark, satanic mills' from Blake's poem.
Tough decision this year, plenty of contenders. In the end I'm going with Bremen Nacht. Not only was it my ring tone for a few years on an old Nokia phone (I keyed it in following instructions on the Fall forum!) it's an absolute belter.
A tale of MES being possessed by a child's spirit while on tour in East Germany it's propelled along by Simon Wolstencroft hammering the drums like never before. There's so much going on behind drums, bass and voice you can barely take it all in. Like a lot of great Fall songs it doesn't have to be this long but you're glad it is.
29 February: Album - The Frenz Experiment
24 October: Album - I am Kurious Oranj
31 October: 12th John Peel Session - Kurious Oranj, Dead Beat Descendant, Cab It Up, Squid Lord
7 November: Single - Jerusalem/Big New Prinz
"I had been one day possessed"
1988 started with another cover version single. After the (relative) success of There's a Ghost in My House last year the group played it straight again with another sixties tune, Victoria by The Kinks.
According to MES, where the Kinks original was "nostalgic" the Fall's was "reflective of Britain now". It reached number 35 in the charts.
The end of February saw the tenth studio album land. The Frenz Experiment was the first Fall album to make the top 20 in that chart. It's another one I hadn't heard for years before I got a new record player.
For an album that in some places is described as their most commercial effort and in others as 'oddball', on the whole it stands up very well. Athlete Cured has always been a favourite, as has Oswald Defence Lawyer and this year's choice (see below). The surprises were how sad a song Frenz feels now and then Get a Hotel being a proper Fall track and not the throwaway tune I'd mistaken it for. (I can still live without In These Times and The Steak Place though.)
The summer of 1988 saw the fall collaborating on, and playing with, Michael Clark on the ballet I am Curious, Orange. I've never been to a ballet in a my life but I wish I'd made an exception for this one!
The music from that show was released in October as the album I am Kurious Oranj. I'm not sure it's that well-loved by The Fall fans community but I like it a lot.
Opening with the glam-rock re-working of Hip Priest as Big New Prinz there's plenty of different styles on the record, as befits a 'musical'. Through the sparse Guide Me Soft, the machines of Win Fall CD 2080, the almost reggae of Kurious Oranj to the bass-driven Jerusalem and Wrong Place, Right Time and we still have high points such as Bad News Girl, Van Plague? and Cab it Up.
All was not well behind the scenes though with cracks appearing in Mr & Mrs Smith's marriage. Brix believed Bad News Girl was written about her, MES gives her fewer writing credits on the record than apparently she is entitled to.
October's Peel session saw two tracks from Kurious Oranj and two from next June's Seminal Live
The year finished with a double a-side single. Two tracks from Kurious Oranj in Jerusalem and New Big Prinz. I love Steve Hanley's work on Jerusalem - his bass thuds with all the force of a primitive, giant machine from one of the 'dark, satanic mills' from Blake's poem.
Tough decision this year, plenty of contenders. In the end I'm going with Bremen Nacht. Not only was it my ring tone for a few years on an old Nokia phone (I keyed it in following instructions on the Fall forum!) it's an absolute belter.
A tale of MES being possessed by a child's spirit while on tour in East Germany it's propelled along by Simon Wolstencroft hammering the drums like never before. There's so much going on behind drums, bass and voice you can barely take it all in. Like a lot of great Fall songs it doesn't have to be this long but you're glad it is.
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