THE FALL, EXTENSION CITY (CDR, UNRELEASED, 2007, UK)

Blasting into the stratosphere at full throttle, on the night of Mark E. Smith's fiftieth birthday, the "American lineup" of The Fall began a series of twenty dates across the UK to promote the kaleidoscopic and brilliant Reformation Post-TLC album. Creating a massive, swirling sound that incorporated huge washes of reverbed guitar, and a thick gauze of continuous bass fuzz, all marbled with spiky, avant minimal synth squalls from Elena Poulou and Tim Presley's pure, glistening higher-key leads, the performances reached a heady peak early on and never relented. This was a band that, simply put, understood how to make bracingly modern and compelling sounds, with each of the participants bringing a deft touch to the proceedings. Barbato's work is never less than astounding, with a fusillade of bass effects driving the ferocious acid groove, and occasional second keyboard adding warmth and complexity. McCord's drumming is pure genius, superbly employing the cymbals to signal propulsive shifts. Smith, as well, is engaged and inspired throughout, offering a fresh set of lyric motifs (the "victory roundabout," "Green/grey mountains"), his bent poetic recitations beaming quasar-like from beneath the furiously charged canopy. Half of the gigs are represented on this disc, and the quality never drops below the transcendent, from a slow-rising and definitive "Senior Twilight Stock Replacer," with its deft sense of momentum and suspense, to "Systematic Abuse" reshaped as spacerock, and an exhuberant, brainwarping "My Door." Also included are the one-off Bilston performance of "Wolve Kidult Man," featuring a stone heavy bass riff and unheard Smith lyric referencing the "Seattle Six," and a skewed, churning "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" incorporating a vocal drop-in from Beefheart's "Plastic Factory."

Tracklisting:

01. Senior Twilight Stock Replacer

02. Hungry Freaks, Daddy

03. Fall Sound

04. White Lightning

05. My Door Is Never

06. The Wright Stuff

07. Over! Over!

08. Wolve Kidult Man

09. Insult Song > The Bad Stuff

10. Systematic Abuse

11. Reformation

12. Just Step S'Ways

Source gigs in comments. Thanks to the Consortium for the magnificent audience recordings, and to Mike Cotgreave for the photograph.