The Infotainment Scan [Import]

The original 10-track album followed up 1992's 'Code: Selfish' and the electronic-directions suggested by the 'Ed's Babe'-single ('Pumpkin Head Xscapes' epitomising this). MES & co had been moving in this direction since 'Hit the North' (maybe earlier with 'I'm into CB' & 'The Man Whose Head Expanded'?) through 'Extricate', 'Shiftwork' & 'Code: Selfish.' The production is split between Rex Sargeant, Mark E Smith & Simon Rogers - the latter having been a Fall-member in the 1980s and involved with the classic single 'Everything Begins with an 'E' by E-Zee Possee! This version of the Fall found MES with long-time cohorts Steve Hanley, Craig Scanlon & Simon Wolstencroft with Dave Bush (keyboards/electronics) who would be jettisoned soon after, later to join the expanded/imploding Elastica.

The pre-emptive 'Why are People Grudgeful?'-single is now included, which along with the Peel-single 'Kimble' showed MES was in a Lee Perry state of mind. 'Glam Racket' is probably directed at Suede, though could also have the Auteurs, Blur, or Denim in mind! The cover of Chic's 'Lost in Music' is quite poor and one of the Fall's more amusing cover-versions - the Barry Adamson version with several Bad Seeds works for me more.

'The Infotainment Scan' saw the Fall take the Cog Sinister imprint from Fontana to Permanent and was the beginning of their lower profile in the mid to late 1990s. I hope the reissue programme continues with 'Middle Class Revolt', 'Cerebral Caustic' & 'the Light User Syndrome' as they seem ripe for rediscovery. The (middle)mass of Fall-product in the late 90s was quite confounding, quadruple live albums and all that...

The other cover 'I'm Going to Spain' is charming stuff that holds its own with the Fall's more sensitive moments, e.g. 'Edinburgh Man', 'Bill is Dead', 'Disney's Dream Debased', 'Time Enough at Last'. MES was rumoured to be quite taken with Ibiza dance-music at the time, and there's an electronic-rave feel to a lot here - songs like 'A Past Gone Mad', 'Service', 'It's a Curse' & 'Light/Fireworks' (a relative of the D*O*S*E-collaboration 'Plug Myself In') the kind of songs that New Order should have made on the stinker 'Republic' around the same time. The old krautybeefheartydroneyrockabilly-Fall are here too, with the great 'Paranoid Man in Cheap Sh*t Room' (title altered from an episode of 'The Twilight Zone' to include 'Sh*t') and 'The League of Bald-Headed Men', which Hanley, who was quite bald at the time, co-wrote!

The bonus-disc makes this an obligatory purchase, replete with alternative/session versions, some of which are familiar from the epic 'Peel Sessions' box-set. There are hints of 'Middle Class Revolt' with versions of '15 Ways' and 'War', as well as that storming version(s) of 'Strychnine' (also covered by the Cramps on their debut 'Songs the Lord Taught Us'). Anyway, another Fall album to have - probably say that of every Fall-album! The wonderful and fantastic reissue programme moves on...