Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
His heart organ was where it should be: Cometh The Hour, 20 Jan 2005
If, like me, you are too young to remember The Fall in their hey-day but have since discovered the maniac Salfordite troll, MES, you will have picked up collections here and there. Amoungst you have found scrappy cuts and live takes of tracks like Fortress, Deer Park, Just Step Sideways, Jawbone, Winter and Mere Pseud Mag. Plus, if you've ever watched Silence of the Lambs, as Clarice enters the guy's house at the end and is trying to find him and the missing girl, you may have spotted Hip Priest playing in the background? Then you find out that all of these tracks are on the album "Hex Enduction Hour" and you can not get a copy, or a carrier bag, for love nor money. Well here it is. With bonus bits. Looking around reviews of other albums many Fall fans put their best album as maybe Perverted By Language or This Nations Saving Grace - but not me. This is MES at his vitriolic and artistic best. For me, HEX is the The Fall. Thanks to Castle and the Fall lovers who had a hand in getting this re-issued. To all you Fall fans, you no longer have an excuse for not owning this album. Drink a long draught, Dan.
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10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hip, Hip, Hip Hooray!, 21 Jan 2005
Although The Fall had made their mark with albums such as "Dragnet" and "Grotesque", it was with "Hex Enduction Hour" that they really produced their first monumental classic album. This was the start of a highly creative period for Mark E. Smith and cohorts which would peak with "This Nations Saving Grace". "Hex Enduction Hour" has some truly classic Fall moments and shows a definite maturity in the writing. The album starts off with the storming "The Classical", the clattering of the dual drums of Paul Hanley and Karl Burns rattling along at a phenomenal pace. This is quintessential Fall with Smith ranting in his own highly inimitable style. The basswork by Steve Hanley is solid and propulsive with a brilliant intuitive solo at the end of the piece. "Hip Priest" is another classic track, a tight tension in its slow, methodical build up. This piece was unforgettably used to stunning effect at the climax of "The Silence of the Lambs". The huge workouts on tracks such as "Iceland" clearly demonstrate the influence of Can with the use of repetition to produce an ever evolving, hypnotic beat.
The thing about The Fall is that on the surface they sound almost amateurish in the way they play. But actually they are very sophisticated in what they do, in the way they use their instruments, tape samples, lyrical ideas right through to the sleeve art. They are always experimenting with new sounds and ideas. No one could sound like The Fall and no one does. As John Peel so accurately put it, "they're always different, but always the same". On "Hex Enduction Hour" the use of different types of percussion for instance is quite unusual and just adds the right kind of embellishments needed. Smith always surrounded himself with the "right" musicians, especially so here. There was a brilliant empathy going on which was almost telepathic in the way they would feed off each other musically. I have only heard this type of symbiosis in a few bands such as the aforementioned Can, who Mark E. Smith is a big fan of. "Hex Enduction Hour" still sounds fresh, invigorating and inventive even today. The Fall could make a right royal racket and here is one of the best examples.
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the ONE that gave M.E.S. confirmed 'GODLIKE GENIUS' status.., 21 Mar 2005
...for all of us FALL afficianados. Now re-issued in a sparkling 2-disc edition which strikes the perfect balance; it doesn't lose the raw immediacy of THE FALL's stunning 2nd masterpiece on vinyl (in my humble opinion the first was SLATES, by the way, also re-issued recently and equally essential to any true FALL fan's collection and er...basically anyone else with good taste in music); it also features slippery licks, thunderous rock riffing, the greatest beatnik rap ever (HIP PRIEST) and excellent live I'M INTO CB. Simply breathtaking arch agit-pop at its awesome best. Frontman Mark E. Smith's brilliant MERE PSEUD MAG ED (rubbish glossies take note) is both prescient and wonderfully funny as a comment on current cultural wastelands from LA (another FALL song but that's a later chapter in the FALL canon) to London. From the Holy Trinity of the opening 3 tracks - The Classical, Jawbone And The Air Rifle and (remember SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, fans?) Hip Priest, M.E.S. and the boys (and girl, lest we forget Kay Carroll) continue at a frenetic but always tightly controlled canter through some of the finest English rock songs ever recorded. OH YES all of you uninitiated but younger FALL fans (well, I'm still only 38 actually but this album is THAT GOOD IT REALLY IS. If you have ever wondered what the missing link between CAPTAIN BEEFHEART's legendary LP Trout Mask Replica and THE FALL's late, mature masterpiece EXTRICATE is (sadly, not part of the current welcome set of re-releases but really worth seeking out if you can find it) this IS IT. I know I have been extending the religious metaphor of the title of this review but what's wrong with that folks?! This album really deserves its cult status; M.E.S., if you ever read this, mate, why didn't you re-title the re-issue HEX ENDUCTION AND AN HOUR AND A HALF - we would have all rushed out to buy it even quicker i.e. with the extra tracks added this is the complete record of early-mid period FALL and why would newcomers need anything else? Enjoy everyone because M.E.S. really is the HIP PRIEST although (thankfully) he's never been as "clean as a packet of chocolate treats"... JOHN PEEL R.I.P...
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