Fall Friday - Hex Enduction Hour

"I ‘ave no truck with nostalgia freaks" - M.E.S.

Following on from the 'Container Drivers' Grotesque album and his aural assault on Kay (Older Lover, Slates), Hex Enduction presented the finest collection of Fall tracks from the pre-Brix era.

The Classical was lost on me to begin with until it proved itself to be more addictive than chips, an album that punches with a different level of invention compared to what went before. You can hear the remaining members maturing from their experiences of touring abroad...and a banjo...and a bloody kazoo.

"He is not appreciated"

You have to wonder who isn't doing the appreciation. The album ranks as one of the band's most acclaimed for a whole host of reasons and was soundly championed by John Peel. Jawbone vibrates from the record, Hip Priest violates the speakers. Track after track of The Fall being at their experimental best, defying post-punk classification because - it might not be what you want, but it's what you need - it is simply The Fall.

Another album that vanished from my original collection, I was delighted to pop it on this week when handed over by my rain-soaked Posty.

From the accessibility of the first four tracks, suddenly we dive into the freeform noise of Mere Pseud Mag. Ed. But whereas this would've upset reviewers in the past, the Melody Maker, Sounds and the NME were unified in praise for a record displaying "The Fall's mightiest hour".

And hey, if Stewart Lee says it's "probably the best record of all time", it has to at least be in the running. The lyrics take on an added dimension on Hex, the vitriol held for almost everyone is palpable. As pointed out on Wiki: "Smith intended the album's lyrics 'to be like reading a really good book. You have a couple of beers, sit down and immerse yourself. None of those fuckers Elvis Costello or Spandau Ballet did that'."

And with that in mind, I wonder what MES would make of 'Who Makes The Nazis' now, given the current state of national and global politics. It carries a heft today that was slightly removed from the 1980s when fascism was on the wane. On politics, an article in Current Affairs is worthy of a read.

With the one-take Iceland drifting by, And This Day finishes off the album in a spirit of The Fall we'd not be hearing a lot from going forward. MES always contained that the band were about the present, not the past, yet this track could've featured on a number of previous LPs. Pausing for a brief shambles in Room To Live, next stop was to be a new wife, videos for commercial outlets, and the beginning of a drive to a more commercialised sound - no more 25 minute songs.