The Fall: The Complete Peel Sessions, 1978-2004

Expansive (and sadly complete) six-disc set collects 24 four-song Peel Sessions, featuring nearly every incarnation of Mark E. Smith's legendary band.

The most poignant aspect of this six-disc set is that it is now a document of the past, a finite thing that can no longer be built upon. When the Fall and their labels began work on the compilation, this was not the case; at that time, it was a document of a living, ongoing relationship between one of Britain's greatest bands and its most legendary DJ, John Peel. But Peel passed away in 2004, ending a seemingly effortless decades-long run as one of the coolest people on earth, and this six-disc document of his favourite band's appearances on his show instead serves as a sort of encomium. It's at once a tribute to the brilliance of Mark E. Smith and his "always different, always the same" band, and to the dedication of a man who never stopped being a fan and never stopped loving new and challenging music.

The Fall recorded 24 four-song sessions for Peel over the course of 26 years, capturing nearly every one of the band's many configurations in all their sloppy precision, and this sprawling, amazing release makes the case that every one of them had at least something interesting to offer, including the less-appreciated Fall line-ups of the mid-to-late-90s. The case could even be made that this is the definitive look at the Fall's career to date; even more than 2004’s very well-considered 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong compilation. Of course, at six discs and more than seven hours, it's not the place to start, but anyone with more than four or five Fall albums would be doing themselves a huge service picking this up.

To touch on all of the highlights, I'd have to devote a full paragraph to each individual session included on the set, so let's just say that this thing is absolutely loaded, with performances that frequently eclipse the studio versions. The 1980 version of "New Face In Hell" is thunderous and Smith's cracking, hysterical vocal is hilariously psychotic; the band's oft-hidden sense of humour easy to spot. Smith actually laughs on "Beatle Bones 'n' Smokin' Stones", and the band's December 1994 piss-take on "Jingle Bell Rock" is a case study in sarcastic destruction.

Elsewhere, you get two 1983 sessions from the band's mighty double-drummer line-up and a generous offering from the unstoppable mid-80s line-up that produced This Nation's Saving Grace and the Wonderful & Frightening World of the Fall. The TNSG songs hit like a hammer to the head, with a borderline out-of-control take on "Spilt Victorian Child" and a crunching, hypnotic reinvention of "L.A." leading the way. As one might expect, the first three discs, which reach up through 1987, are the strongest and most consistent, with the last three discs veering through ever more rapid line-up shifts and wider stylistic ground.

What's shocking is the way those last three discs paint a picture of the band's late career as nearly as vital as what preceded it. Fiddler Kenny Brady brings a stronger melodic underpinning to the 1989 and 1991 recordings, without compromising the band's signature rough groove, while some of the band's more electronic 90s material comes off much rawer and crunchier in the live setting. "Immortality" in particular becomes fire-breathing, heavy death funk of a calibre the Fall only sporadically achieved in the studio during that phase of their career.

The Complete Peel Sessions, 1978-2004 is one of the most straightforward titles a Fall compilation has ever had, and the execution of the package is similarly no-nonsense: The recordings are sequenced in strict chronological order and the remastering is uniformly crisp and sharp, something that's not always the case with retrospectives of this band. It's an embarrassment of riches for the Fall's devoted cult of fans, none of whom should pass this up, and it works surprisingly well for more casual fans who've only just begun to delve into the band's bewildering back catalogue.

Ripped by the almighty Timebender to six shiny discs of FLAC, for your entertainment, sexual gratification and lifelong enjoyment.

The Fall; The Complete Peel Sessions, 1978-2004

ONE

1-1 Futures And Pasts 2:35

1-2 Mother-Sister! 3:07

1-3 Rebellious Jukebox 2:59

1-4 Industrial Estate 1:44

Two

1-5 Put Away 3:33

1-6 Mess Of My 3:13

1-7 No Xmas For John Quays 4:12

1-8 Like To Blow 1:46

Three

1-9 Container Drivers 3:38

1-10 Jawbone And The Air-Rifle 3:22

1-11 New Puritan 7:13

1-12 New Face In Hell 5:02

Four

1-13 Middlemass 3:53

1-14 Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul 2:41

1-15 Hip Priest 9:23

1-16 C'n'C / Hassle Schmuck 4:13

FIVE

2-1 Deer Park 4:26

2-2 Look, Know 5:05

2-3 Winter 8:03

2-4 Who Makes The Nazis? 2:54

Six

2-5 Smile 5:10

2-6 Garden 10:00

2-7 Hexen Definitive / Strife Knot 9:07

2-8 Eat Y'self Fitter 7:01

Seven

2-9 Pat Trip Dispenser 4:08

2-10 2x4 4:15

2-11 Words Of Expectation 9:14

2-12 C.R.E.E.P. 2:36

EIGHT

3-1 Cruiser's Creek 5:49

3-2 Couldn't Get Ahead 2:33

3-3 Spoilt Victorian Child 4:55

3-4 Gut Of The Quantifier 4:42

Nine

3-5 L.A. 4:34

3-6 The Man Whose Head Expanded 5:13

3-7 What You Need 5:52

3-8 Faust Banana 5:06

Ten

3-9 Hot Aftershave Bop 3:10

3-10 R.O.D. 4:26

3-11 Gross Chapel / GB Grenadiers 6:21

3-12 US 80's-90's 4:53

Eleven

3-13 Athlete Cured 4:45

3-14 Australians In Europe 5:42

3-15 Twister 4:16

3-16 Guest Informant 4:09

TWELVE

4-1 Deadbeat Descendant 2:17

4-2 Cab It Up 4:40

4-3 Squid Lord 3:48

4-4 Kurious Oranj 5:57

Thirteen

4-5 Chicago Now 5:33

4-6 Black Monk Theme 4:05

4-7 Hilary 2:22

4-8 Whizz Bang 2:59

Fourteen

4-9 The War Against Intelligence 3:02

4-10 Idiot Joy Showland 3:46

4-11 A Lot Of Wind 5:25

4-12 The Mixer 4:32

Fifteen

4-13 Free Range 4:05

4-14 Kimble 3:53

4-15 Immortality 4:27

4-16 Return 4:11

SIXTEEN

5-1 Ladybird (Green Grass) 4:04

5-2 Strychnine 2:54

5-3 Service 3:35

5-4 Paranoia Man In Cheap Sh*t Room 4:17

Seventeen

5-5 M5 3:08

5-6 Behind The Counter 4:03

5-7 Reckoning 3:40

5-8 Hey! Student 4:09

Eighteen

5-9 Glam Racket / Star 3:20

5-10 Jingle Bell Rock 1:08

5-11 Hark The Herald Angels Sing 3:09

5-12 Numb At The Lodge 3:00

Nineteen

5-13 He Pep! 4:15

5-14 Oleano 3:08

5-15 Chilinist 5:20

5-16 The City Never Sleeps 2:55

Twenty

5-17 D.I.Y. Meat 2:32

5-18 Spinetrak 2:39

5-19 Spencer 3:34

5-20 Beatle Bones 'N' Smokin' Stones 3:40

TWENTY ONE

6-1 Calendar 3:00

6-2 Touch Sensitive 3:35

6-3 Masquerade 6:33

6-4 Jungle Rock6:21

Twenty Two

6-5 Bound Soul One 3:50

6-6 Antidotes 4:57

6-7 Shake-Off 1:43

6-8 This Perfect Day 2:15

Twenty Three

6-9 Theme From Sparta F.C. 3:53

6-10 Contraflow 4:05

6-11 Groovin' With Mr. Bloe 6:06

6-12 Mere Pseud Mag. Ed. 3:17

Twenty Four

6-13 Clasp Hands 4:41

6-14 Blindness 6:28

6-15 What About Us? 5:52

6-16 Wrong Place, Right Time 7:00

Bonus Track

6-17 Job Search 4:20

Thanks must go to Jonny Zchivago @ Die Or D.I.Y? blogspot who's own experience of The Fall can be read here and agreeing to share his link to the Complete Box Set in MP3