THE FALL – I AM KURIOUS, ORANJ (BEGGARS BANQUET)
For the majority of my generation (not the current generation) the reality is that we will have first discovered the Kurious Oranj on the Lee and Herring show This Morning With Richard Not Judy in 1998/99 when Stewart Lee came up with the most corrupting of concepts to have a curious orange ask questions of the pair every week. It was a hideous sight and one that which often turned into the kind of squealing nightmare few things in life are able to muster. Mark E. Smith is able to stir up such emotions in man also.
Released in 1988 I Am Kurious, Oranj was the twelfth Fall studio album and surprisingly produced by Ian Broudie although at the time with his credentials and origins firmly routed in the avant scene of Liverpool in the early eighties this period would have been closer to that than his eventual submersion into the mainstream with the flowery Lightning Seeds. Still on paper it reads as a strange combination.
Spread over thirteen tracks this is a very solid affair. With Brix on board this was long before the band became a pantomime as the solid pairing of Scanlon and Hanley served their master well, on more equal terms than later members would benefit.
Check the guy’s track record.
Perversely the album was written as a soundtrack to a ballet by Michael Clark which sounds as exciting as it does wanky. Thus explains the presence of an overture on the record.
I have read this described as the first Fall record to contain filler and it cannot be denied that it is a frustrating listen but when was a Fall not tough to listen to. Once away from the pure garage roots and treading towards more experimental areas of music there were always going to be unlistenable moments on any Fall record.
Listened to with enthusiastic ears the glam stomp of “New Big Prinz” is for me one of the best opening tracks on any Fall record. This I could play at a wedding.
You feel it is with a sense of appreciation and fondness that he sculpts William Blake’s words to “Jerusalem” into a post-punk structure. The playing on this track is astoundingly good.
With “Wrong Place, Right Time” the band launches into one of my favourite Fall songs and one of my fondest memories that came with the first time I saw the band and how the song trapped and snagged me forever.
Towards the end the album begins to feel mellow and drawn out on tracks such as “Van Plague?” and “Bad News Girl”. These however are songs that arrive with whimsy and suggest something of a strange state of mind about the day they were constructed. In order to hold back so much the band feels tight and patient, well tethered and even tempered. Interestingly these songs also feel particularly damning.
“Big New Priest” perfectly bookends the album as another take on “New Big Prinz” ending proceedings in its second glam stomp of the day.
This is an intricate record; something well listened to with the use of a magnifying glass. As casual background music there isn’t much to be taken but given the time and patience it is a worthy wreck.
Thesaurus moment: novel.
The Fall
Beggars Banquet
For the majority of my generation (not the current generation) the reality is that we will have first discovered the Kurious Oranj on the Lee and Herring show This Morning With Richard Not Judy in 1998/99 when Stewart Lee came up with the most corrupting of concepts to have a curious orange ask questions of the pair every week. It was a hideous sight and one that which often turned into the kind of squealing nightmare few things in life are able to muster. Mark E. Smith is able to stir up such emotions in man also.
Released in 1988 I Am Kurious, Oranj was the twelfth Fall studio album and surprisingly produced by Ian Broudie although at the time with his credentials and origins firmly routed in the avant scene of Liverpool in the early eighties this period would have been closer to that than his eventual submersion into the mainstream with the flowery Lightning Seeds. Still on paper it reads as a strange combination.
Spread over thirteen tracks this is a very solid affair. With Brix on board this was long before the band became a pantomime as the solid pairing of Scanlon and Hanley served their master well, on more equal terms than later members would benefit.
Check the guy’s track record.
Perversely the album was written as a soundtrack to a ballet by Michael Clark which sounds as exciting as it does wanky. Thus explains the presence of an overture on the record.
I have read this described as the first Fall record to contain filler and it cannot be denied that it is a frustrating listen but when was a Fall not tough to listen to. Once away from the pure garage roots and treading towards more experimental areas of music there were always going to be unlistenable moments on any Fall record.
Listened to with enthusiastic ears the glam stomp of “New Big Prinz” is for me one of the best opening tracks on any Fall record. This I could play at a wedding.
You feel it is with a sense of appreciation and fondness that he sculpts William Blake’s words to “Jerusalem” into a post-punk structure. The playing on this track is astoundingly good.
With “Wrong Place, Right Time” the band launches into one of my favourite Fall songs and one of my fondest memories that came with the first time I saw the band and how the song trapped and snagged me forever.
Towards the end the album begins to feel mellow and drawn out on tracks such as “Van Plague?” and “Bad News Girl”. These however are songs that arrive with whimsy and suggest something of a strange state of mind about the day they were constructed. In order to hold back so much the band feels tight and patient, well tethered and even tempered. Interestingly these songs also feel particularly damning.
“Big New Priest” perfectly bookends the album as another take on “New Big Prinz” ending proceedings in its second glam stomp of the day.
This is an intricate record; something well listened to with the use of a magnifying glass. As casual background music there isn’t much to be taken but given the time and patience it is a worthy wreck.
Thesaurus moment: novel.
The Fall
Beggars Banquet
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