Oh! The Fall John Peel Sessions box set! OH! you guys.

KO - Stuyvesant smoking, made the Jews go to school, sent missionary girls to arab states, spat on the Belgians, built the world as you know it (all systems you traverse), made Hitler laugh in pain, they were anti-Semitic, anti-Gaelic, hey shit man you name it, they were against it.

Smith at some kind of lyrical zenith - a goddam pop song about The House of Orange forchrissakes.

Have sad suspicion that KO led me to write doctorate on culture of the 1690s. & yes unbelievable lyrical brilliance.

Chicago Now - Dinky keys! Menacing bassline, jaunty but slightly wronged guitar-line. Momentary call and response. Mixture of light and dark such as this band has grown skilled at over years of rock. Faintly unreal chords in chorus - the sort of chords you'd expect from bagpipes. It's back. It's a slow kill. Scrap that, it's a tempo HIKE. As we spiralled beyond the point of no return into black ink, pop thrusts even the keel. This is deep, foul, graceful. Somehow the orchestra hits are the foulest of all - lessons have perhaps been learned from Foetus? Air on a damned string. TEMPO HIKE. Disorientation. Arch and confused all at once. Rewards close listening. Completely fucked. Superb.

Black Monk Theme - Luminous Fall! Vibrato ethereal goddamn LUMINOUS Fall! Again the chords have a sliding quality, a noble slipping. Violin madness but not like early Ultravox; this violin is subjugated. Organ is lovely. This session, so far: a lovely, imprisoned experience of triumph as seen from the POV of soon-to-be-discarded weaponry. Defeat shining through the translucent skeleton of victory. Spoken in MES' tongue and his bandmates' brawling ballerinas.

Hilary - This sounds more positive, almost like a love-song, and it has Brix's backing sighs, but there must be something awry. It's too elegant. Maybe it's exactly as elegant as it has to be. Maybe this session is about Elegance, and this third chapter is about an attempt to find pure elegance and not pervert it, for once. The songs have all had elegance, but successively with less violence. It's a musical project. Or a test. An experiment which is reaching its tipping-point as soon as this song ends.

Whizz Bang - Again, the violin, playing elegy! Piano and guitars weeping for a lost friend; THIS is even MORE elegant! Tragedy is more elegant than appraisal. The chorus is even beautiful, with no askance glance nor eyebrow cocked. Satan has gotten behind this band. The experiment is complete, and The Fall have achieved a state of unironic beauty. It's not their best song, or their crowning moment, but it does define a purge of sorts, and underlines that the act can examine itself.

"Whizz Bang" was never broadcast (well, certainly not at the time) and was never recorded until it was reworked as "Butterflies 4 brains" much later.

Indeed, I've always heard an early echo of The Monks' Shut Up in there as well ('Got a reason to laugh, got a reason to cry/got black cloud aura') but possibly imagining things.

Not actually one of my favourite sessions this - but I do like doomy synth stabs in Chicago, Now!

xxp: pretty sure Brix was out of the band at that point. back vox prob Marcia Schofield

It wasn't my favourite session at all and felt as I say like a sort of self-examination, but I liked the first two tracks a LOT, and thought that Whizz Bang had something really sweet going for it too. Chicago Now especially is great. Wondering what my favourite tracks so far have been...Australians In Europe, Gross Chapel, Hexen Definitive, Winter and a couple of others are definitely in with a shout...

oops :/

Haha oh wait Hip Priest obv, also Middle Mass

the insane thing is when Brix comes BACK in the band!

and Pat-Trip Dispenser, maybe ROD. That covers 'em all I think

I've got The Light User Syndrome which has Brix AND Nagle *head explodes*

I mean, it can't not be awesome, with them both there. I may be the world's biggest Julia Nagle fan, though, so take it with a pinch of salt.

Things kinda come to a head with the Chiselers single

^^^can't wait for the Peel Session of that...hope you can practically hear them fighting

2 weeks later?

WHAT BETTER TIME OF DAY TO LISTEN TO THE FALL

The War Against Intelligence - Fall in sardonic pop mode for a few seconds, and then drops inexplicably yet beautifully into frazzled drug-rock territory. Then repeats. Except this time the drug-rock has a sort of bagpipe violin. God I love indistinct noises. Something about a blot on the English landscape and then that wailing noise, which is probably a violin, and is now persisting into the verses, which in turn appear more driving and desperate than they'd first seemed. Background mud. Bloops.

Idiot Joy Showland - Faster, more 'basic' Fall here. I don't have a lot to say about this one. It's not bad. The bassline works nicely against the block chords in the verses. The chorus contains the line 'who the fuck are you sneering at' which is a little petulant by MES' standards, not that I'm one to quibble. The massive bass is the runaway star of this one. But even it's pretty meek by Fall bass standards, really.

A Lot Of Wind - Promising start, oh drones and tribal drummer deprived of one arm! Violinist! Atonal guitar splashes! One of those intangibly mystical basslines! 'You talk a lot about wind!' Now let's expand into something violently unpleasant, please. Violin winds like snare about song's rotten core. Aura deepens. Pop-phase Fall gettin' their hexen thang on. More! More! Guitars respond. Like a bird fighting a wind-tunnel, as the blast is slowly steepened. Soon the bird shall give in and find itself pinned to the wire mesh. Buffeted. The shock reaches goth-guitar mania. The spell passes.

The Mixer - Again with the violin in a starring role. The only track in this session which doesn't feature it (or feature it so imaginatively) is the throwaway, I'd wager (this song has far too pretty a tune to join it). Special mention to the drumming in this one, which is spry and yet completely 80's-inflected. The sort of beat the Pet Shop Boys would have jumped at. Consequently this feels like it should be a single, with a video. Top Of The Pops appearances. Remix by Robin Guthrie. Perhaps it's still too oblique and Kraut for that. And features too much background tannoy MES. Which I love, incidentally. Violin suddenly becomes much clearer in the last minute, like a gulp of fresh peach. And then a fade-out, because this band is not above such things.

I love the single double drumbeat in Lot of Wind that occurs just towards the end. They did this in The Quartet of Doc Shanley as well. Never ceases to delight.

Free Range - Oh yeah!!! Already a kick-ass number, this has been given DESCENDING ELECTRONIC BLEEPS to basically turn the intro into something wondrous. They seem to be a fixture in the rest of the song too. Need I add, the fuzzed-out guitar is a beautiful touch - this always was their grunge number. As well as one of their better rave-ups. We get some positively Coxon-esque guitar squalls, and yes, more background tannoy (which seems to be a regular feature of this Fall phase - indicative of a dark beast below that haunts indistinctly with garbled miscommunication).

Kimble - Caledonian air on a broken synth! Reggae! Well, that's a nice little jackknife. Make me believe this is more than a little genre exercise, guys. The field-recording plus broken synth refrain popping up every so often is this song's hook, and its salvation. Not that I see myself returning to this one much - the chassis is too pristine. Then in the last thirty seconds, everything retreats, and suddenly we have a much more interesting -

Immortality - What fresh synth-bass hell is this? We'd best be in for a big ol' vamp. It's got that quality a few Fall songs have, of conveying vast and fearsome things with the length of its swaggering bassy stride. Ideally flanged slightly. Played on one note. The actual bass is quite reserved; the synth is doing all the damage. MES' vocals are fitting on nicely - it's a slurred one. OK, I ended up losing a bit of interest, but the bass got better - my imagination?

Return - Atonal blasts of evil! The way that Fall songs ingratiate themselves with the listener is worthy of a snappily punctuated soundbite in 90% of cases. Dithyrambic buzzsynth rite. No sentence over four. Loving this cruel synth. Loving this cruel synth. Loving this cruel synth. Loving this cruel synth. Well-deployed jangle. Back to the exorcism. Loving this cruel synth. Letter to Brix? Loving this cruel singer. Loving this cruel synth. Loving this cruel cruel

Ladybird (Green Grass) - Oh good lord, this one has a great fucking tune! And the guttural percussion is a sweet touch which has crept up on me. It's like the concept of snappy, cut and shut songwriting has kidnapped our MES and battered him about the head and neck until he has conceded to its whim. The drumming and of course the whining vocals of protest at this situation are the only signs of struggle. Maybe there's a weird electronic whizz or two. That's just the probe. The truth-telling probe. DO NOT LIE, MARK EDWARD SMITH. DO NOT LIE. IT WILL COST YOU. DO NOT LIE.

Strychnine - OK, I'm guessing this session was culled from the height of their early-90's rave period. Begins beautifully with unearthly burbles strangling a piano. Then we have a snappy, too-bright pub-bombing of a song. Guitars made from chain-link fences. Yelps of a man intent on producing this wrong. It sounds wrong. It's absolutely supreme. Not much more to say except that this is some of the best 'clean' guitar I've heard on a Fall song. Whistling death.

Service - More piano, this time syncopated and sombre, as the skittering rave-drums form a premonition of Levitate. That album shed all 80's vestiges; this song retains them in synth-sound and guitar-sheen. Something polite about MES' vocals on this one too. It's going to be too long, I think. Bass needs to decide whether it is pop hook or funeral bell. It isn't really either. Maybe it's both.

Paranoia Man In Cheap Shit Room - BENDY MOAN OF SAD GUITAR. OH FUCK YEAH! Opening salvo is pretty much exactly what I wanted to hear. It's desperate, poisonous, brash, bold and SYNTH STABS because this song is fucking JJ Leigh in the shower. I don't mean it's fucking her. I mean it IS her. Bates represented by the effects-shattered dignity-bereft guitars. Mental disintegration on a stupid synth. Loopy calculations of a death-ticker. Swoons back into the guitar refrain and integrates. Produce that shit! Flip it! Reverse it! Dicking around with the idea of demise! MES, you flaming demon, you sound afraid! Synth stabs like the church organ now! Guitars suddenly threnodic! All is massing into real FUCKING tears!

Kimble is top ten Fall material for me. Beautiful - glass shards, smashed crockery, drunken piano, the clockwork music box theme from Sinster Waltz, the way it falls apart, winds itself up with Hanley's bass, brief moments where it comes together, it's just so loose. Smith's dry sinister delivery perfect over the glittering sound.

And that Infotainment Scan material is great too - Ladybird Green Grass continuing the hidden Brechtian theme of this period (Shift Work, Code:Selfish and The Infotainment Scan) 'Before the grub, comes the moralist'. Good example of a compassionate Fall song as well.

Service one of my favourites, contemplative, great for a clear Autumn day.

Strychnine is a great Sonics cover and Paranoia Man in Cheap Sh*t Room is one of those ones (see also 50-Year-Old Man) where Smith seems to take a version of himself, what he would have been without The Fall/art perhaps, and writes a song round it. Love that song. Yep, great session.

M5 - Rollicking bass with damaged whining of synth and a neat chord-change. I never thought I could love this phase of the Fall to this extent but they never lost it, not ever. It's not even a particularly brilliant song, or a brilliant performance, but somehow it conveys a brilliant band.

Behind The Counter - Sounds like it's about to remind me that The Fall do rockabilly. Oh wait no, actually - it's a song I've heard before - a sunny song. I don't really feel the need to justify any feelings about this song. I'd rather just listen to it. It's nothing special again, but it's intensely comforting. Deliberate choice of words. Spoken-word segment of surrogate dad. Is it any wonder MES is childless? He has all of us to care for. Synth imposition followed by hysterically distorted bass. Ah man, they've still got it. Bears repeating. In case you'd even considered forgetting this, you will be nudged.

Reckoning - The synth is pretty and again the dominant factor. It's ever so slightly corny. But that's ok. This isn't by any means a blinding session, but it's a highly reassuring one. The sound of a band playing well within itself, not needing to go big. Ornate.

Hey! Student - More of a violent one, this. Nicely spewed guitar. I think I've had a bit of a surfeit of this sort of thing? Actually, this isn't bad at all - it's a very linear, synth-deprived, hellish trawl through a song that wasn't designed to suffer this much but is now tasting some harsh realities of life. Hey - like the titular character! Hey! Hey hey! As if to back this up, everything begins to chime and there's a background squeal. MES is taunting us! Us young men. You can tell, because his voice goes manic and he blurts. And YELLS!

This is all stuff from their most 'forgotten'/overlooked phase, and I am enjoying it, really I am. Apart from Strychnine and Paranoia Man, not much so far in the very top bracket, but there hasn't been much at all below 'good'. Consistent and biding their time. I'm sure Kimble and Service will grow on me - they have good raw ingredients and plenty of mystery.

One more for today I think.

Not their most amazing session, although I do like this particular version of Behind the Counter. I actually find it pretty wintry - those wheezing keyboards. But I also like the 'always underrated, you never can encapsulate us' bit at the beginning and the spiel in the middle which ends '... and transport you to a town that doesn't exist.'

The changing way the keys and guitars interlock is great (see an awful lot of their supposedly repetitive songs - there's often not two sections the same, Two Face for instance, or My Ex-Classmates Kids).

Do like Hey! Student as well, very different from the locomotive like album version, but just as good.

One more, one more! Is that the Christmas one? I think it must be.

Glam Racket - Star - Handclaps and pop-guitar fuzz - a statement of populism! Enough chord-changes to justify the love of millions who wouldn't usually love The Fall. Although god, those vocals and lyrics are a little confrontational. Ooh, that Brix, she's going IN! If it's her. It is, isn't it? She came back to the band? Yeah, this is the session that by all rights should have Bonkers In Phoenix on it. Now I'm going to sulk about that. And then, I had to PAUSE a session for the FIRST TIME during this whole project because I suddenly developed loads of things to say in the last 10 seconds of the song. A: HOLY FUCK YOU AMAZING BASTARD MES you just fucking THREW IN the distorted vocal samples from the BIP intro JUST AS I TYPED THAT. But I only typed it so that I might be able to follow it up with 'but it really doesn't matter because this is AWESOME', which it is. It's got an absolutely killer tune, a great dual-vocalist set-up and a quite fucking marvellous performance. However, silence assails me. RESUME

Jingle Bell Rock - That is a really distorted, evil jingle bell! I love you MES. Somehow the concept is validated by the jingle bell being a terrible sample. And the song enshrined by being just over a minute of GREAT MUSIC. Oh shi-

Hark The Herald Angels Sing - Haha, and now they're reminding me they used to be classified as punk! Sex Pistols meets Christmas Carol. AAAAAAGH OMG BRIX WTF AAAAAAGH awesome! This is SUCH cheeky material! Such a fucking cheeky, impudent, playful session! God, I need to get hold of Cerebral Caustic if it's all like this. Hahaha, I am REALLY loving this session. For reasons I haven't loved the other sessions. The guitar isn't atonal, the drums aren't murderous, and the bass is positively fluid! But the attitude...the attitude is stone-dead ridiculous.

Numb At The Lodge - I just love the fact that MES got Brix back in the band either to completely fuck around with her voice, or to get her to completely fuck around with the rest of us with her voice. Like some kind of post-nuptial trolling. They actually sound more brilliantly in league than they did while married. Vocally, at least. The disconnect between her exaggeratedly tuneful warbling and his invigorated, aggressive ranting, newly sharpened, is that of a pair of great comedians. The song itself is super, sly, and this is a marvellous, essential session.

XD

*puts on Bonkers In Phoenix which is probably one of the 20 best things recorded in the history of music*

I think this was about the time when on their Christmas Eve gig in Germany, they all got in a huddle on stage then came out of it and threw rose petals on the audience.

Numb at the Lodge, specifically the session version rather than Feelin Numb, is an incredible pop song, just incredible, so hooky. Again, top ten material. Not sure nowadays that I don't prefer the sparse 12" version of Glam Racket, or Mark Goodier session version, but still, I remember hearing this session after a friend had taped it for me and it blew my mind.

This session was the blast of seasonal cheer I think we all needed tbh - it's probably top 3 so far. Well, definitely top 5.

I gather sessions 22 and 24 are the stone-dead corkers remaining? Not that I will prejudge.

(you have little idea how tempted I've been to skip to Session 22 or the Peel Session 'Blindness')

(Session 22 because of your write-up on the poll thread, I must add!)

The Fall throwing rose-petals at the crowd is indescribably awesome, which is probably why they did it

Sidebar: the original "Hey! Student," then "Hey Fascist". MES has a long memory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zltaTC1iY2A

xpost - I'd say so yes, although I'm not sure how widely my opinion of 22 is shared - personally I think it's timeless. The last three sessions are all pretty good fwiw.

really, really wish they'd done a) a proper Levitate session and b) an Unutterable session

b) is the single biggest oversight in their career, actually

Two Librans
W.B. (or Sons Of Temperance, or Serum, or Way Round)
Ketamine Sun
Dr Buck's Letter

ty

actually swap Ketamine Sun and Dr Buck's Letter in that order - it's usually the third track what is the extended avant-nightmare, and the fourth a tuneful rave-up

That five-year gap was very odd. Peel mentioned something about it, saying there were certain differences, without really elaborating, but that it had been silly not to have them in the studio for that long. They were always great for either increasing the expectation for the album (without actually spoiling any of the album versions, because they were usually so different) or providing a delightful development of the album. Made a big difference.

Which ones? Hmmm, probably WB, a strangely amazing, 10 minute version of Hot Runes or something, a slightly disappointing Two Librans (but with great extra lyrics) and a cover of Ball of Confusion. (<---one that Hanley always said he wanted to cover, so it wd be typical Smith perversity to do it once he'd left.) I could see them doing a stunning session version of Midwatch as well.

Hahaha, I actually typed Midwatch 1953 instead of Dr Buck's Letter then decided I wouldn't get away with it

(Midwatch really is among my Fall favourites, as I hope you realise! OK, it can go into Fantasy Unutterable Session)

Yep, I'm a big fan of that as well. Pretty certain it was linked with this Glowboys film.

I haven't seen it, but there's a bit on youtube -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghh2vlPU2Tk

He Pep! - Starts with that awesome electronic drawl that lets you know Ms Nagle is about. Snaky glorious bass (Hanley's last session?) and some blasts of scuzzy guitar. Stops starts, semi-ska beat, electronic benzine, growling together like a terrible nebula, and then Brix, screeching as MES rants amiably beneath a torrent of incongruous chaotic brilliance. The Light User Syndrome had too many members, but this was probably a good thing. There are so many musicians in there, fighting for dominion. Great guitar. Scanlon's last session too? Overpowering sheen of barely-audible keyboard fog-throttle. Drums don't know but they feel. OK, this is fucking amazing.

Oleano - Massive bass again. Harmonic-strummed metallic guitar. Then that one-note peal this song is better known for. Delay. The other guitar comes in late a couple of times. Everything exists to build tension. Organ sounds. Not really anything like the original; much, much better in fact. INSANE SCREAM FROM BRIX as the bass launches into messy overdrive. The destroyers circle a stricken submarine and prepare to launch the final charge. All is sonar and despair. In a final moment of clarity, guitars burst through the night, and then stop.

Chilinist - Dirty guitars! Really dirty guitars. In truth this session was only ever going to be amazing and I am surprised at myself for not realising this earlier. It has the largest number of great Fall musicians on it of all the sessions. It has almost all the *great* members full stop! Rouses itself with those swaggering keyboards and with Brix taking rant duties for once. The guitars get more and more ferocious, it seems. After a while it stops, and then starts again but without keyboards. Then the keyboards come back. This is possibly going on too long while doing too little? Certainly not as compelling as the two before it. Oh, but now the weird quiet bit. Which is abandoned quickly for the garage-rock mainframe to return. Not their finest but it's got a lot of Brix, if you like Brix!

The City Never Sleeps - Huge keys this time, on some horn preset, but with a pop beat and EVEN MORE Brix! She's actually singing properly on this one too. The keys discover a string preset. It's all very basic, also restless. The Fall really do sound like a 90's tweepop band here. Sort of. It's good, better than the last one, although given the first two songs this session really hasn't attacked like I hoped it would. I guess that's what too many cooks do - they prevent intensity being retained for too long. What intensity it was, though.

First two songs definitely kill on this session. I really like the whole 'I think like you do, I act like you do, I thought I was you' mirror vox on Chisellers as well. One of my best mates is inordinately fond of the Nancy Sinatra cover so I tend to have a sneaking fondness for it as well.

Next one was Hanley's last iirc.

As well as well. But yes, the opening part to U Pep was usually called 'Tunnel' live, and was put on the front of the Chisellers on the album. The 'cold dark winter on the 17th of December (September?)' bit was also put on the end of the album version, He Pep. Difficult to know whether I prefer Brix's scream on Oleano or Smith's coughing/vomiting/laughing attack on the album.

I remember when this came out, it was a wet and dark part of the year, and the session totally fit my mood. Loved it at the time, first two songs still rate highly.

D.I.Y. Meat - Three really REALLY encouraging chords! Then Karl Burns with one of his best-ever intros and YES that bass! The madness has returned and we can hear feedback, guitars on fire, crazy drumming, MES buried and having to fight, which is where he attacks best from - the crypt. Even a manic laugh. But the star is Burns, mostly. Well, the whole thing's righteous. Maybe not QUITE as good as He Pep! but it doesn't have to be; it's got the sound. It's got the vibe. Opening Peel Session tracks, they set the vibe.

Spinetrak - The guitars are so vicious I'm beginning to wonder if Scanlon's on this one too. Loud and mean. Sounding vaguely out-of-control and all the better for it. The better moments of the Light User Syndrome-era sessions, it seems, are notable for their use of bass to anchor some of The Fall's more visceral careening. Bass is kept very, very simple, rest is allowed to crash about a-drunken. The song itself is OK, not The Fall's best.

Spencer - If this is the song that winds up on Levitate as Spencer Must Die, then it's barely recognisable. Squelchy synths, bass lope, Burns again unleashed, fucking animal on drums. But in slow-motion. It's a mess, this one, but inevitably I like it. Has slightly mystical, incantational qualities to it as well, which again were mined brilliantly on Levitate. Ah, and there's the bassline. Yeah, it's the same song, sort of. Nascent, no less obscure. Great! Guitar touches in extended outro are an added bonus.

Beatle Bones 'N' Smokin' Stones - begins with very silly MES yelping but as it's a cover I guess this has to be silly. Oh gosh it's very silly indeed! Until the drums come in, then it's distinctly un-silly garage-rock. Again, not the best session, and the highs don't quite reach those of He Pep! and Oleano - I'd give the MVP award to Spencer for being really weird and compelling, although Burns' performance in D.I.Y. Meat is genuinely superb. This song? It's kinda going past. Still a minute left! What can they conjure? A big heavy 60's-style psych outro, by the looks of it. Certainly that's what the mantra-like bass and Byrds-inflected guitar seem to think.

Er, Hanley's last one the next one... Get it right, GR. Not a huge fan of this session tbh. Shd listen to it again.

Calendar - Finally, the Levitate-era session, an album which remains an all-time favourite of mine despite, um, everything. Nagle sounds jovial on keys, bass is a bit subdued, but the Era Of Electronic Madness is in so this doesn't matter much; the bass-tone is clean but there's scuzz in this apparatus. Not really much or any lead guitar. Oh, there's some except it's being tortured at knifepoint by a surrealist. Levitate wasn't a good time for conventional guitarists. Hints of a genius new-wave break for about two seconds in there, silenced. Nagle goes catatonic. Pretty good. YEEEAS.

Touch Sensitive - Everyone slags off this version. It's a bit slower and bassier than the Marshall Suite version; if it had appeared on Levitate I still think it'd have banged. The chorus is in a minor-key, it seems! They changed that one, at least, when they had a guitarist who dared show his head above the parapet. Ah, NOW it's a bit more major. This version's more Cramps, more rockabilly, more sinuous. The other version's more pop, more likely to be used in a commercial. And while this one won't set the blood racing, it'll groove into your mind with a seamless grunt. It's quite ominous! Maybe this song shouldn't be ominous. Ah, who cares.

Masquerade - Atmospheric, slightly clumsily-played Nagle intro...then fuck me acid house! Hahahaha! This is even more technofied than the original! "This is new...fresh"...sounds like some sort of ironic comment on 90's dance? Sincere? What's even meant any more. It's less focused and intrinsically kinetic than the original, but it's a really, really odd beast. Could do with being a bit faster. Or shorter? Ah, the bass drops back for a bit. But then returns exactly as before. Three minutes left. Three minutes! Three minutes in which I could lament the fact they never did a Peel session of 4 1/2 Inch. Or fucking fucking Hurricane Edward. Or Ol' motherchristing Gang. Or Levitate itself. Or Ten Houses Of Eve. But hey - this is sorta getting better as it goes on. Not enough to make up for the fact that The Fall recorded an album of absolute genius and then refused to play any of the brainblowers in session. Oh man, to hear Hurricane Edward done in a Peel Session. Bass drops out, keys take over, is oddly arresting. This should have been shorter, weirder.

Jungle Rock - I'm apprehensive because catchy as it is, it's pretty much a one-chord unchanging drawl made by its electronic textures and its brevity on Levitate, and here it's six and a half minutes long. Nagle's keys are pretty awesome in this one, so I'm not worried yet. Bass could be more prominent. Ah wait, there's some mentalist guitar too! Somewhere in there. Again, maybe, it's been slowed down to make it more...tantric? Guitar sounds detuned but not menacing. It sounds bewildered, as if MES has blindfolded it and then told it to try and escape from the studio. Ah, that's more like it. The guitar thrashes around for air, aid, anything. It's strangled by MES' dogged vocals and Nagle's revenant shriek. I'd rate this above Masquerade, in that it's not really a missed opportunity but quite an effective reading of one of Levitate's lesser tracks. They're kinda making the most of this one! Weird choice but it's insistent, bizarre and authentically freaked-out. Really not the worst session, although if listened to without patience or understanding it could be construed as such. I can sense the bacchanale, so I'm in favour.

OK, now for *the one*

Bound Soul One - Whooaaaa, what's happening? Really tinny drums and guitar, really rich and powerful echoed MES vocals; utterly disorientating. Garage ballad gone through a bad grinder and lad gallant begged blood but glad bagged his gall-bladder. Nagle's given a bit of licence to go wild on keys, and there's a really pretty background melody breaking through the percussive vortex, leading to a section of music I cannot rationally explain but only enjoy. I think there's every single nervous response I can have to art trying to be elicited here. The song has no choice but to fade away and leave me wondering, delirious. Wow.

Antidotes - LOVE the original, am so stoked for this. MES yowl, guitar played childlike tantrum...not the smashing chord-certainty but something echoey, percussive, bled from a gutter. There's banging, violence, fever. This is music from the edge of heart-attack. MES seems to sense this and yells for his life. In the background hover dark forces, as the percussion begins to rip itself apart in fifteen different directions and things oh my god it's overwhelming WHAT EVEN IS THIS it is not music it is not anything SAVE ME drums save me but the violence the warfare is waged on by THIS IS AN UNBELIEVABLE REIMAGINING critical faculty itself is ripped to shreds I wasn't expecting this I wasn't expecting anything like this but this is incalculably more impressively mind-damagingly infinite than what I had been expecting and now I'm full stream but this stream is only the stream of molten brain-bits taken apart by music that is barely of this earth. And then, it all pulls away to reveal the Stygian undersoundworld which Smith's mind is calling from. He yowls. In pain? Or in knowledge?

Shake-Off - Yikes, I'm beginning to understand this drill. He sounds fucking poisonous. I feel fucking poisoned. Death-rattle guitars everywhere. I don't know how this was made, why this was made, whether this was made almost. It sounds like a cantilever bridge engineered to fall down when you're right in the middle of it, looking down, thinking that maybe these keyboards are too much for your pitiful

This Perfect Day - Alien, scuzzy, garage-drawl, fearless. Yes, correct, this session is SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY. It's called me from some grotesque area and it doesn't give a fuck about music. It's not music, it's poetic expression of the arts of sound. Mesh-made mad and mind-muddle mead, mode. Glugged down with a kick in the fucking pants in store, always. I know there will be one here. I gird my loins and - it kicks.

jesus frickin' christ