So what’s your take on Mark E Smith? Sack master or genius? The 27th LP of the Fall finds 50-year old Smith and wife Elena with yet another brand new line up. Musically rudimentary - you can count the number of notes played, but with a nasty driving bass, Imperial Wax Solvent resembles Fall’s 2001 come-back album, The Real Fall New LP. It has the same garage-punk zip, and yet sounds less polished and more experimental. Imperial Wax Solvent evokes the rock’n’roll rawness of the Stooges (Strange Town, 50 Year Old Man) and the feminine directness of the Runaways (I’ve Been Duped), while it experiments with mixing effects, electronic noises and creative breaks; note how Smith recycles vocal tracks from throw-away takes (Strange Town) and instrumental tracks from his Von Sudenfed project (50 Year Old Man). But this is only half of it! Side B (songs 6-12) is a collection of infectiously catchy, dance-y electro gems (Taurig, Latch Key Kid) with surf, spy rock and psych references (Tommy Shooter). This LP is so musically simple and yet so full of quirks, ideas, sounds, energy, humor, poetry (“painting yellow flowers after blowing away another balloon string”) and whimsical venom (“I throw it [the towel] on the floor and I piss on it”). A true clinic on how to make intelligent, lively and enjoyable music with very little music involved. In the end, it’s the ideas that matter and Imperial Wax Solvent is wonderfully genius!
Play: 4, 6, 9, 8, 3, 5
1. Awkward and whimsical start. Free jazzy experimentation. Ambiently noisy. Feels like an acid trip or a surreal dream sequence. Just drums and bass and noisy sound effects. Sounds like a bunch of snakes fucking (making love).
2. Wolf sounds. Hard ripping garage-y bass and guitar lines. Aggressive!
3. MES’s 50th bday song. Riping rocker of Stooges-que quality. Great break in the middle with acoustic pedal steel guitar instrumentation (see Von Sudenfed album). Great experimentation with percussion and mixing!
4. The Runaways! Lead female vocals! Straight-up rock with catchy heavy psych 70s rock chorus.
5. Totally Iggy Pop and the Stooges! Hear this chorus.
6. Fuck yeah! Electro-dance-y tune. Instrumental with some whispering vocals in the end. Deliciously infectious!
7. Feels like a Fall track from the 1990s. High energy, electro feel. Guitar lines remind Captain Beefheart.
8. Excellent track. Poetic and surrealistic. Spy rock reference with touches of heavy garage-psych. Great riff repeated to infinity. This is sooooooo Fall. Classic Fall!
9. Super dance-y and infectiously catchy! Love this track! Makes me dance while I am driving.
10. Surfy and rocking!
11. Med-tempo. Swings with surfy guitars and psychedelic melodies. Sweet gentle track with vocal chants.
12. Heavy distorto rocker. Rocks hard! “Believe me kids, I have been through it all”.