best track on Hex Enduction Hour

HE IS NOT APPRECIATED

AIR RIFLE LETS OUT A MISPLACED SHOT

I've never felt better in my life

Splitting "Winter" up was a stupid idea.

"Mere Pseud Mag.Ed" one of the all-time Fall titles but you people better get voting for "Hip Priest" with a quickness, that shit is like the national anthem only for the entire known universe plus all the dark matter

I have to choose "The Classical". Side 1 of this album is brilliant, never cared much for Side 2.

the gravekeeper sez "you're out of luck"

I voted for Fortress/Deer Park. Would've voted for Hip Priest, but the live version that I think is from A Part of America Therein is so so much better that it kind of makes the album version seem not as good

I agree! Also, IMO, Peel session versions of Jawbone and the Air-Rifle, Deer Park, Winter, Who Makes the Nazis are all better than the album versions

ehh, in regards to "Jawbone"...not really, as the Hex version is much louder & punchier...

best version of "Nazis?" is on disc 2 of the expanded In a Hole reissue..that 2nd disc is chock full of killer cuts of good songs (Fantastic Life, English Scheme) sounding great!

The Classical v Who makes the Nazis? v Hip Priest

I think The Classical shades it.

gotta give it to "The Classical". that song was like a Rosetta stone that opened up The Fall for me -- they may have other songs where the satire is more biting, MES is more caustic, or the music is more abrasive, but on "The Classical", all of those elements come together perfectly and create something that feels like a manifesto. or a mission statement, or a vision. yeah, vision is the right word; I would definitely call it visionary. if you were to draw a Venn diagram of Fall tracks, most of the others would be wholly contained within its circle. I dunno, I'm a little drunk right now.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel like "The Classical" is the song Mark E. Smith listens to while he's writing other songs

or at least, what he has constantly playing in the back of his head, whether he realizes it or not

it's a really good song, is the point

xpost i actually like side 2 more than side 1...

2nd Winter > 1st side of Winter
Just Step S'Ways is like evil B-52's
Who Makes the Nazis? is a hazy classic
Iceland is prolley the second best song on the album (and if it doesn't get any votes then by God I am starting a I HATE Pulp thread...)

of course I'm always scrambling to shut the stereo off before And This Day comes on, but you know, still...it's a great side.

(tho side 1 has prolley one of the greatest 1-2-3 punches ever, even if my enthusiasm for Hip Priest and The Classical has waned a bit...so I guess I'll say they're equal...)

wow "xpost"...that whole side 1 > side 2 post I was responding to was like 10 posts ago

Spare a thought for the sleeping promo dept.
They haven't had an idea in two years

...with dept pronounced phonetically!

he national anthem only for the entire known universe plus all the dark matter

otm.

...with dept pronounced phonetically!

Yeah! He does that in Lie Dream of A Casino Soul, too, doesn't he? "I was in the supervision dept..."

I dunno, there's a lot to choose from here, but I think "Hip Priest" is pretty goddamn integral to The Fall and I think it's fascinating that some folks only know them from that song. I agree almost any live version is better, though. I remember watching Silence of The Lambs and when that song came on during the most suspenseful scene in the film, I blurted out "Oh my god! It's the Fall!" in the theater and my friends were like "SHUT UP!" LOL

About as good as music has ever got. Though all the tracks on the second side are available in better versions, either on the Peel Box set or live bootlegs etc.

Advertisements become carnivores
And roadworkers turn into jawbones
And he has visions of islands, heavily covered in slime
The villagers dance round pre-fabs
And laugh through twisted mouths
Don't eat
It's disallowed
Suck on marrowbones and energy from the mainland

Jawbone and the Air Rifle.

HEY THERE FUCKFACE

HEY THERE FUCKFACE!

Seriously, no contest for me here.

i had never felt better in my life

not a big HEH fan, but instinctively I'd reach for "hip priest" which is a revelation in any version. maybe I should listen again to see if anything changes my mind.

Hip Priest, even though I like the Dustdevils' version better.

EVERYWHERE NO FUCKING RESPITE
EVERYWHERE NO FUCKING RESPITE FOR YOU, JIM KIDDER

never for the life of me have i understood people's dislike for and this day.

hip priest, conversely, i have never quite seen the amazing definitive fallness of: it seems deliberately v. slight, people seem to conflate the character with MES in some way i've never understood ... drums ++ tho

I dunno, there's a lot to choose from here, but I think "Hip Priest" is pretty goddamn integral to The Fall and I think it's fascinating that some folks only know them from that song. I agree almost any live version is better, though.

Case in point, the one on 'Fall in a Hole'.

Too bad that 'I'm Into C.B.' is only on the expanded Castle reissue, because I'd vote for that. 'HEH' proper is too unbelievably dense for me to single anything out.

I've never understood all the "And This Day" hatred either! It sounds just like all the other noisy tracks, only a little longer and murkier.

"Fortress/Deer Park" for me, please. (And I might've been tempted to vote for "I'm Into CB" if the expanded HEH was the one under consideration.)

she reads Smash Hits while eating her tea

the drumming on this album fuking destroys imo

Just Steps S'ways maybe winner

anybody know what m.e.s. has against "look, know"?? I guess it's been left off the h.e.h. reissue, even the peel version...

marc riley's voice?

The "dept" thing may be my favourite MES mannerism (and I'm sure it's done with total forethought & premeditation, ie proper mannerism). He does with this several other abbrevs as well I am certain -- "etc"? "Esq."? Can't remember right now.

"The Classical" from here.

(Somehow, it's not always the unexpected lines that stick -- I think of "Good coffee, black as well" all the time. And "All entrances uncovered!" when I see big garage doors open, etc.)

"with this" = "this with"

i'm really in the mood for "jawbone and the air rifle" right now. one of the best mes stories imo.

otm r1o

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Godefroi_4.jpg/180px-Godefroi_4.jpg
Godfrey of Bouillon holds a short Poleaxe

poleaxe: i always thought MES said it was 'parallax.'

Tbh I dunno!

I forgot how great this album is all the way through. I voted for Fortress / Deer Park, though. It just seems to be in the perfect place on the album, as do a lot of the songs.

Some of the stuff on "Jawbone" is seriously wtf-poetical: "Gravekeeper tending wreath roots" -- sounds totally mundane-spooky-right until, urm, wreath roots!? Mighty, and even more so for the deflation coming in the next line. For how it sounds tossed-off, this must be so thoroughly worked through -- ie MES = master of ars est celare artem.

srsly guys? no love for Iceland?

K-K-K-Ketamine Sun. Err...Who Makes the Nazis?

Splitting "Winter" up was a stupid idea.

― Ich Ber ein Binliner (Tom D.), Thursday, 4 December 2008 18:13 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

It made for a more balanced poll though...

It's great in the way it encapsulates the work you have to do to listen to the album.

Who Makes the Nazis, Just Step Sideways and And This Day are all better on Hip Priests & Kamerads.

It took me a long time to notice the little drum hit after "the air rifle lets out a misplaced shot." Bang!

srsly guys? no love for Iceland?

― Hipster Loser-Loser (Drugs A. Money), Friday, 5 December 2008 00:59 (8 hours ago) Bookmark

Iceland is a wobbly gem. best ever track with a banjo as lead instrument anyone?

They only ever played it the one time. Smith asked Riley and Scanlon to come up with something Dylanish (?)so the main bit is Scanlon on piano and, I think, S. Hanley on banjo. The rest of the band played around with it for 20 minutes and then, after playing a tape of the wind, recorded on a cassette recorder outside his bedroom, Smith did the words. Apparently, the other band members had no idea what he was going to do until he started the vocal.

The really early versions of Hip Priest are incredibly raw and primal - like some sort of terrible invocation. The one from the Leeds gig on the Peverted by Language dvd is especially good.

A plate steel object was a-fired
And I did not feel for my compatriots
Hated even the core of myself,
Not a matter of ill health,
But was fear of weakness deep in core of myself

Is a memorable moment, as is

Benny's cobweb EYES!

I think I'm going for Winter 2 though. Subterranean, with krakens flying in the sky, the urging upon the narrator of the gift of a medallion, Hanley's incredible authoritative bass, Scanlon's icy scrapings, atonal music box synths and the light system hierarchy of intelligence

'I just looked round and my youth it was sold'

A beautiful, sparse-yet-dense work of art.

Of course the whole album is really inseparable from itself - a world that contains universes.

JUST NO FUCKING RESPITE

For me it's Iceland. The whistling wind, followed by lyrics full of Norse legends, drunken buffoonery and for all I know a prediction of the banking crisis. Best of all is the music, which defies description. But really, Hex is genius start to finish.

Judging by the comments, this poll is going to have a wide spread of votes.

it deserves it

Yes, every track's a winner!

classical

s'ways

oh god this album rules!!!! I'm listening to it right now!!!

I mean I'm gonna go listen to it right now!!!!

as soon as I get off this computer!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

LOL. I wanna pull this one out myself. I rarely listen to this album anymore. Don't know why.

'I just looked round and my youth it was sold'

See, I always thought he was saying "my youth it was OLD"...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

My favourite album of all time.

Glad everything got a vote but a little suprised by how few votes Winter (both parts) got.

and this day wuz robbed

would anyone care to gloss the title of this album? hex + hour i assume is on the same line as "the hexen rule of the hour of the Fall": enduction, tho? nothing i can make for that seems right

Ha! No, I'm not even gonna TRY to figure that one out. We need those folks from the Hotel Bloedel thread for that, I think.

v. surprised at lack of votes for winter.

srsly guys? no love for Iceland?

lots of love here. gets my vote.

I voted Iceland. only 5 of us though...

would anyone care to gloss the title of this album? hex + hour i assume is on the same line as "the hexen rule of the hour of the Fall": enduction, tho? nothing i can make for that seems right

― thomp, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 00:40 (13 hours ago) Permalink

Ha! No, I'm not even gonna TRY to figure that one out. We need those folks from the Hotel Bloedel thread for that, I think.

― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 04:31 (9 hours ago)

hi, E3 from the hotel bloedel thread reporting for duty

hex = mystico-crypto trip that MES was on around this time
enduction = portmanteau of "end" and "induction", "end" cuz MES thought this would be the last fall album and "induction" as in come on in and get yr brain washed, also think about the break between roman & european eras implied by a change from the latin "in-" to the frenchy "en-"
hour = well it's an hour long isn't it, also makes it sound like some radio show from another planet, "gather round the tuner ladies and gentlemen for the soothing sounds of the hex enduction hour, brought to you by our sponsor, texarkana mandible paste"

also thomp you are otm re "and this day"

we should have a poll of the fall's 10 minute torture test songs; "music scene", "tempo house", "nwra"

incorporating that live "And this day" of course.

and "backdrop" from fall in a hole

...and also "Winter" if you reassemble it into one 9-minute track.

Spectre vs. Rector is the ultimate example of that, imo

if we establish 7+ minutes as the torture test threshold, this is what I come up with:

"music scene" - live at the witch trials
"spectre vs. rector" - dragnet
"no xmas for john quays" - totale's turns
"new puritan" - peel session
"c 'n' c-s mithering" - grotesque
"the nwra" - grotesque
"hip priest" - peel session
"winter" - peel session
"hip priest" - hex enduction hour
"and this day" - hex enduction hour
"the nwra" - a part of america therein
"hip priest" - a part of america therein
"winter" - a part of america therein
"session musician" - a part of america therein
"garden" - peel session
"hexen definitive / strife knot" - peel session
"eat y'self fitter" - peel session
"garden" - pbl
"tempo house" - pbl
"hip priest" - fall in a hole
"hard life in country" - fall in a hole
"backdrop" - fall in a hole
"fantastic life" - fall in a hole
"words of expectation" - peel session
"gross chapel - GB grenadiers" - bend sinister
"and this day" - hip priest & kamerads
"bremen nacht" - the frenz experiment
"bremen nacht alternative" - the frenz experiment
"dog is life / jerusalem" - I am curious oranj
"no bulbs" - 458489 b sides
"living too long" - 458489 b sides

I gave up after a while, seems like they stopped doing these after curious oranj, unless of course you count post-nearly man.

you can't reassemble "winter", it's split over two sides! ;)

Spectre vs. Rector is the ultimate example of that, imo

Yeah, I was gonna say. At least some of the other examples only get tiresome after awhile, but that one starts to seem tiresome pretty quickly. That said, sometimes these things work really well and there are some in that list that I wouldn't have minded if they'd gone on forever. Anyone want to put together a ranking of the longest Fall songs? Is "And This Day" longer than the "N.W.R.A.", etc? I'm not in a position to do that right now, unfortunately, but if no one else does, I might tackle it at home.

xpost

'50 Year Old Man' is nearly 12 minutes long, man! That's on the latest album. 'Das Boat' is another recent one that cracks 10 minutes, though you're right that they've become much rarer since the late '80s.

yeah I gave up on the list somewhere around the unutterable... even my DAD CHOD has its limits.

when I get through the rest I'll do a poll. I'll probably drop the live and peel session versions, unless a song doesn't appear on any studio album. and I guess I should include track lengths for bimble.

to be frank that list has some of my favorite fall songs on it, so "torture test" should be taken as a term of hex indearment.

Yeah, I was gonna say. At least some of the other examples only get tiresome after awhile, but that one (Spector vs. Rector) starts to seem tiresome pretty quickly.

Get outta here, it's immense!

Yes, Spector vs Rector is top five Fall song material. In fact that torture test list contains quite a few of family favourites.

Are You Are Missing Winner had two - Ibis Afro-Man and Eye Bastardo, both very good, there was the Peel session of Blindness, remarkable, The Coliseum from The Light User Syndrome, not bad, although better in the live version from one of the innumerable compilations.

Yeah wtf w/ tiresome/torture???

I didn't vote because I find it impossible but I will rep for And This Day. Being down on The Fall's longest and most repetitive tracks is odd...like preferring a 7" of Jajouka music. That list contains about a dozen of their greatest tracks.

Spectre vs. Rector could go on for 40 minutes and only get better...also the Peel Session Words of Expectation is maybe my favorite thing ever.

Quite right about Words of Expectation - have you heard the live version on the Room to Live reissue? It's excellent. Steve Hanley's loping bass is a thing of heavenly wonder.

Fuck. I didn't vote because I couldn't find mine to listen to until last night before work. Would predictably have gone with one of the top two contenders is my guess.

here's the post-458489 list...

"interlude/chilinism" (7:05) - the light user syndrome
"the coliseum" (8:08) - the light user syndrome
"blindness" (7:24) - fall heads roll
"reformation!" (LP 7:23) - reformation post TLC
"das boat" (LP 8:28, CD 10:06, promo 10:30) - reformation post TLC
"systematic abuse" (8:38) - reformation post TLC
"50 year old man" (11:33) - imperial wax solvent

didn't see anything > 7 minutes on are you are missing winner? they probably just *feel* like they're 7 minutes long.

ex/inclusions I'm debating:

"winter" from HEH, technically it's two tracks but it's really one song and all the live/peel sessions are > 7 minutes, so it's in

"session musician" (8:53) is a bonus track on the reissue of a part of america therein 1981, I'm trying to avoid including every live bonus track from the bazillion reissues but I don't think this appears anywhere else?

"dog is life / jerusalem" (7:24) from I am curious oranj, this is really two tracks jammed together and "jerusalem" was released alone as a single so I'm leaning towards dropping this one

any opinions before I pull the trigger?

I've never heard (or heard of) "Session Musician"!!!!!!

it was a song they did during the 1981 tour but I don't think it was ever recorded. I know I've heard it on the city gardens bootleg but I can't remember what it sounds like at all.

the story of the fall blog on "session musician":

Also available on the Hex reissue as well as the 2004 reissue of A Part of America Therein and Live From The Vaults : Hoff Alter Bahnoff. This was often played live from 1981-82 and judging by the Burnley performance, must have been amazing to hear/witness. Based around a swipe at session musicians - 'All they talk about is equipment' - the oompah chant of 'Jingles, cabaret, Mersey beat' is a stand out, but, having just recently come across this, the absolutely manic ending is now officially my current favourite Fall moment.

Ibis Afro Man is nine minutes, Eye Bastardo, seven on the dot.

Sorry, Edward, rather curt - off the Are You Are Missing Winner album you understand.

huh, well if you can't trust the fall online discog, who can ya?

http://www.visi.com/fall/discog/data/album23.html

oh look, this nice fellow has the city gardens show available to download

http://www.derekerdman.com/fall/fall.htm

thanking u internets

and now I'm listening to "session musician", it's like "music scene" part II

here's a direct link for those who can't be arsed to hunt for it

http://www.derekerdman.com/fall/The%20Fall%20_%20June%2012th%201981/CD%20Digital%20Audio_%20Track_11.mp3

Cheers, I'll get listening!

great find on the derekerdman site, thanks!

Papal Visit? Or does it just seem longer.

Those timings on The Fall site are incorrekt. Trust in Me!

I'd like clarify that my opinion of "Specre vs Rector" as the ulitmate The Fall endurance test song means that it is my favorite. But it is a song I can imagine would turn a LOT of people off. I love it, though.

Wow, I don't even think I've heard "Session Musician" before! Thanks!!!

I do recall "Words of Expectation" being the really coveted thing from the Peel Sessions, though...I'll have to locate that on my box set.

I also added Hex to my iPod today, so I am doing just fine. Still don't know how to vote in the goddamn This Nation's Saving Grace poll, though. And I AGREE with the folks who say "Mag Pseud" & "Just Step S'ways" were better on Hip Priest & Kamerads live versions.

I encourage any soul who likes to talk about pre-1990 Fall to email me. Thank you!

I just played "Seminal Live" tonight for the first time since...'89? Wild. "Mollusc In Tyrol" especially left an impression.

The Peel session of Hip Priest is pretty amazing. lots of reverb and space, and scanlon's guitar is upfront

"spectre vs rector" is top shelf fall. i feel sorry for anyone that would consider it an endurance test.

1) i can see why spectre vs. rector would send most people running away & screaming, but not bcz of its length as much as it being the perfect soundtrack for sacrificing goats..

2) still it's awesome...the "and this day" comparisons are off though...def. "iceland" is hex's "S vs. R"

3) in another thread I had flippantly stated that Slates was better than Hex...the case has been made that I might have to reconsider mightily that position.

4) i voted for "jawbone and the air rifle" for three reasons:

a) an astonishing lyrical peak even for MES in the absolute zenith of his powers
b) great "be-nice-to-animals" subtext
c) it's a four minute song that holds its own in an album full of epics...and sounds almost as massive as "winter" or "hip priest"

4) I'm glad Gamaliel voted for "Winter 2"...it should have got more votes. It is very much equal to "The Classical", every bit the epic, and twice as wondrous...the only handicap is that it's only half the song, and is therefore somewhat reliant on its prequel, but still...

but I'm not bitching...I think we all knew that "The Classical" and "Hip Priest" were going to walk away with this...and they deserve to; isn't "The Classical" the one song that made Western Civilization stand up and think "Huh! Maybe having a band with two drummers is not a stupid idea after all"? But we need to take a good long listen to this album...This is just one album. Only half of a song in The Fall's peak period could devour entire bands from that same period. As I listen to HEH right now, I can only think one thing: it is time to stop kidding ourselves. Wire was not this good. Talking Heads were not this good. Elvis Costello was not this good.

Bowie was never this good.

Elvis Costello The Clash was not this good.

Talking Heads were, in fact, this good. but point taken.

learning that I have to go and check runtimes on the albums rather than rely on the online discog kind of took the wind out of my sails re: the torture test poll

in another thread I had flippantly stated that Slates was better than Hex...the case has been made that I might have to reconsider mightily that position.

sometimes it's best to go with your first instinct

i still rate slates above hex but only just slightly now...

Session Musician -

POP MUSIC FOR ARAB GEEKS
POP MUSIC FOR ARAB GEEKS

HEY THERE FUCK FACE
HEY THERE FUCK FACE

VIDEO REACH
STEREO BOG

I used to do fucking Fall shows on college radio from 3 Am to 6 AM. Don't even talk to me about it.

no actually I think it was 2 Am to 6 AM four hours of it. I think I was 19 or whatever.

No seriously I did 4 hours of it. I'll never forget it. One or two people called, not that much. But it was worth it.

Okay I just found out about this live track that is a bonus track on the Hex CD called "Jazzed Up Punk Shit". See my CD is old and doesn't have bonus tracks. So everytime I find a track by the Fall that is pre-1990 that I haven't actually heard before it's a rare and exciting thing for me. This is the way I felt when someone pointed me to "Session Musician" on this board some months back or whenever that was. So I guess "Jazzed Up Punk Shit" is kindof a different take on "Detective Instinct" or something? Well, the bass line/rhythm is similar, I guess. It's not really as good as either that or "Session Musician", though.

Also I originally bought this on white vinyl and I still kindof think of it that way. Hell I think I've still got Room To Live on white vinyl. Really don't feel like looking for it right now, though.

isn't "The Classical" the one song that made Western Civilization stand up and think "Huh! Maybe having a band with two drummers is not a stupid idea after all"?

Hey, a lot of us Westerners knew that all along.

hahahahah AMEN mother fucker! CHECK OUT THE VIDEO ON PERVERTED BY LANGUAGE BIS for the TWO DRUMMER SHOWDOWN. Hell I can't remember even what song that was now. But you know what I mean. Eat Y'Self Fitter?

Poor show for Iceland. He is not appreciated.

This is a really great album-thread, as ILX album-threads go.

It's also a fabulous album.

http://open.spotify.com/user/thomp1985/playlist/0ICNmxlCXgv6G6OaEqjjQ2 <- torturously long fall epics playlist, as discussed upthread

and this day wz still robbed

I'll give you my definitive ATD verdict in about half an hour ;-)

Shit I love this album. Wahey for music!

OK, this is like some sort of English Sister Ray. Or something. It's pretty groovy. Pretty chaotic. And there are 7 more minutes of it.

thanks for letting us know

you're pretty. . . groovy

so are you <3

ok yesterday i really uh 'discovered' hip priest - it is titanic and deserves to win many polls

1. Hip Priest
2. Iceland
3. Winter (rises to 1 when Peel Session)

just rediscovered Iceland. woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.

Hip Priest isn't in the 20th Century trax poll. I really shoulda nominated it, huh? Figured that someone else would. It's ok tho coz I totally nommed the Winter Peel sesh which is a pinnacle of sorts

maybe actually

1. Iceland
2. Hip Priest

seriously. this song has been in my head all my life and I haven't known it

talking about The Fall is probably my favourite thing to do - it's so comforting, so English, so exciting and pagan and unearthly - these are my dull rituals of cosmic convergence

Signs that you are getting older.

lol

I got my Wonderful and Frightening World Omnibus in the mail yesterday.
Got a bite to eat and stopped in the crappy used cd shop downtown and picked up I am Kurious Oranj.
Both will appear in my radio programming tonight.
I probably voted for The Classical in this poll. I usually can't help but smile when I hear it.

Post a link to your show, my good man!

The 21st century Peel version of "Mere Pseud Mag" rips it up something fierce.

I don't love "Hip Priest" as much as everyone else, is that so wrong?

You're not alone there.

Okay! In twelve hours, I will.
xpost I have to be in the mood for Hip Priest.
Kinda preferring the re-imaging of Hip Priest as Big New Prinz from I am Kurious right now.

Go JP session version of Hip Priest. Primal. Non-musical. Great.

"Hip Priest" is way down the interesting or fun stakes on here, for me. Soz. Think I voted "Iceland"

and here today on the vitamin b glandular show

Go JP session version of Hip Priest. Primal. Non-musical. Great.

YES

great as the album version is, this might be better. Winter is better still.

and by 'might be' I mean 'is' - it's like a sprawling atonal matrix of whatever oh just see my liveblog

Hip Priest - OK, now this I am stoked for, because the album version is one of the great documents of recorded sound. Drums are as mystical as they ought to be. MES' falsetto sounds sly and jokey in isolation, as if he's holding something behind his back. Lots of space in this recording and a nice hint of feedback. Feels a little more improvisational. It's going to erupt, I know. Drums are huge, and they're still lying in wait. Two guitar chords into the first explosion are perfect...then a BASS RUMBLE. Mostly unaccompanied. This band knows what it's fucking doing. This is so loose and experimental and gripping. It feels like the knight and Death playing chess in The Seventh Seal except with the knight as the guitar and Death as MES. And Bergman as the rhythm section. This is the moment I realise...that it is not going to erupt. It is erupting, constantly. It doesn't appear to be moving even until it's smothered you. Until the weird distorted mesh-on-mesh effect late in the sixth minute. By which point you are bound in the spider's web and being slowly poisoned. High-pitched screams which are plinks from the strangler. This is the antimatter to New Puritan's charging train. The charging void. The charging anti-train. No survivors.

this was my best-written one I think - would swap the roles of the knight and Death though

Just like I promised. If you want, you can listen to me live at http://kopn.org in just about fifteen minutes. I am not playing anything from Hex, though.

Superior Viaduct’s campaign to reissue The Fall’s early catalog continues with what many consider to be the English post-punkers’ best LP, 1982’s Hex Enduction Hour, on December 2, along with its same-year follow-up, Room to Live ($20 apiece).

https://www.superiorviaduct.com/collections/featured/products/the-fall-hex-enduction-hour-lp

'Jawbone and the Air-Rifle'!

(I think I listen to Grotesque (After The Gramme) more, though)

Yes, this album has always been pretty overrated imo. "And This Day" is a complete dog.

The guy who produced this has had an interesting career since, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mazda.

i'm into c.b. > hex

http://www.richardmazda.com/RichardMazdaHeadshots/RIII-40.jpg

brix aging better than mes there ^

I see he still likes a game of darts down the local.

Surely I'm not the only one who, upon seeing the title "Hip Priest," immediately thinks of "New Big Prinz," which I think is a better song, instead

Not sure if I voted here or not but, err, probably would have gone "Iceland," dunno

not my favorite Fall album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wygQmJ59E4Q

It seems to have become the go-to/token Fall album that appears on all the lists, the one that one must simply must own if they only must own one. The one found in the record collections of the curious who haven't yet branched out further into the discography. The one that is supposedly the finest example of Fall music on wax. Thing is, I'm not convinced it is the finest example of what The Fall do. It's a great record, though.

I align with much of what was just said:
- I prefer "Grotesque" as an album.
- "And This Day" is entertaining once or twice and that's about it.
- "Jawbone And The Air Rifle" is a fave.
- "I'm Into CB" over most of this album.

The live versions on "Hip Priests And Kamerads" are better than the studio takes.

The Peel version of "Winter" is stunning, this one isn't. Peel version of "Who Makes the Nazis?" is much better too.

peel winter >>>>>> more or less all other music tbf

What's the source for this new superior viaduct master? When sanctuary did it, I believe the best they could work from was the Line CD as the tapes are nowhere. Did sv find tapes?

haha pvmic but I want to know as well

Mannidk what youre all on about, I take Hex over Grotesque ten times out of ten

I'd say Perverted over Hex, but for someone who doesn't know the band, Hex over Perverted. We ignore this, but Fall=tuff group to get into at first. Hip Priest is their most heard track, and that has to count for something. On white vinyl, via Line, it's exactly as wonderful/disorienting/confusing as the band needed to be, so probably still my first choice.

Jazz records like Ascension aside, are there any other examples of a song like "Winter" which ends the first side of the album and then starts again on the second?

"Willie the Pimp" on the Mothers' "Live at the Fillmore East"."Refried Boogie" on Canned Heat' "Livin' the Blues".To name but two hairy examples.

The live versions on "Hip Priests And Kamerads" are better than the studio takes.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, December 20, 2016 6:38 PM

that was the first fall i had, still prefer those versions. also prefer dragnet over grotesque.

Hmmm. Those two are difficult to separate in my mind, as I got them on the same day and because they're so close in the Fall chronology.

For years, the Slates EP was my favorite Fall, but I bought the recent Superior Viaduct reissue and was disappointed to find it hasn't aged so well. "Stop Mithering" goes on forever.

I don't believe I've ever heard Hip Priests and Kamerads. How does it compare to, say, Totales Turns and A Part Of America Therein?

I love (and still regularly listen to) mid-period Fall: Perverted by Language, This Nation's Saving Grace (I think "My New House" was the first Fall song I ever heard), Extricate...

I remember buying Palace Of Swords Reversed on CD because it was (at the time) the only place you could get "Wings," surely one of the great unheralded Fall masterpieces

Has anyone read this?
www.amazon.com/dp/1901927652/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3TFSJS28B182H&coliid=I3BLB96HN6EHAY

Hip Priests and Kamerads is a compilation of Hex / Room to Live era tracks, with only a few of them being live versions.

ie. it's not a live album like the two you mentioned.

Oh, and Hanley's book is great.

fwiw there are more period-era live tracks on the CD version of HP&K

for a while in the 80's that comp was the easiest way to get the "Look, Know/I'm Into C.B" and "Lie Dream/Fantastic Life" singles

this band had such awesome album titles

^first otm post in this revive*

*(though I like Dragnet better* than Grotesque)

*(like, so much better)

Also I think HP&K is still the best way to hear the studio version of "Look, Know". It was left off the deluxe reissue of Hex from a while back, because of undue amounts of Riley

the original lp of HP&K had just one live track... the cd/cassette added something like four more.

yeah, as well as those singles it was my intro to the hex stuff before i eventually found that album.

that look know omission is weird... because the track has been on various compilations.

I feel no compunction about saying HEH is one of my favourite albums ever, even if I've never made it even *once* through "And This Day".

"Willie the Pimp" on the Mothers' "Live at the Fillmore East"."Refried Boogie" on Canned Heat' "Livin' the Blues".To name but two hairy examples.

― The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.)

...though Willie the Pimp comes back as a different recording from the one ending side A....

One thing I kind of treasure is that I had to grapple with this album (and Slates) with no internet to help, in the middle of New Jersey, having stumbled across them and been struck by the cover art (or by the fact that I'd never seen a 10" record before). I've read about people in like Japan getting ahold of Beatles albums in the 60s and feeling like they'd come from outer space, and yeah.

i've never thought of this as the be all and end all of Fall albums, that would be This Nation's Saving Grace. It's fine though.

I mean, I'd go with Perverted as the be all and end all, though I certainly see the argument for TNSG, which was my first favorite. There is something about the 1st side of HEH that's pretty special. It has the steamroller opener, one of their best story-songs, one of their best epic songs (and that's all in a row). I'm not sure if they have another three-song run that's up to that standard. And then it ends on a literally half-formed note, with one of the more ambiguous tracks in their catalog, not in the least because it doesn't end on side one.

are there any other examples of a song like "Winter" which ends the first side of the album and then starts again on the second?

Happens on "Kill City".