Play this to your Frenz (Frenz Experiment - The Fall)

Member Name: otalgia

Product:	Frenz Experiment - The Fall
Date:	09/09/08 (87 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some good songs and well mixed

Disadvantages: None

Introduction
---------------

Released in 1988 on Beggars Banquet records The Frenz Experiment is the eleventh studio album to be released by the Mancunian punk band The Fall.

The line up
-------------
This is possibly the largest formation of the band with a whopping seven members. Surprisingly despite the amount of instrumentalists featured on the record the overall sound throughout is clear and uncluttered. The members are -

Mark E. Smith - Vocals, Piano
Brix E Smith - Lead guitar, backing vocals
Simon Wolstencroft - drums, backing vocals
Craig Scanlon - Rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Steve Hanley - Bass guitar, backing vocals
Marcia Schofield - Keyboards, backing vocals
Simon Rogers - Guitar, Keyboards & Saxophone

The songs
------------
There are 10 tracks on the album, which is what this review is based upon. The CD release features and additional 5 tracks taken from the B - Sides of the single releases of the same period.

Reviewed in the order that they appear on the record -

Frenz -
The opening track has a very sparse and distant mix to it. The song is driven along by high bass chords and electronic percussion. Marks vocals sound sad and resigned. The lyrics are equally as sparse and the lines - 'My friends ain't enough for one hand, My friends don't amount to one hand' form the majority of the song. This is quite an enjoyable, albeit lyrically sad, opening track for the album.

Carry Bag Man -
The song opens with a synthesizer that sounds like a vacuum cleaner and then builds into a mid tempo rock riffs. Lyrically the song is a bit bizarre and refers to a character that skulks around hiding and collecting carrier bags!

Get a Hotel -
The songs starts with a drum pattern not a million miles away from the baton swirling cheerleader music you encounter at baseball matches! The bass line on this song is really deep and drives the song throughout. Mark sings about time running out and the urgency to get a hotel. Lyrical ambiguity is rife; whether the song is about setting up a hotel business before your life slips away or simply referring to the need to book a hotel as time is getting late is unclear.

Victoria -
This track is a passable cover version of the Kinks classic track. It was released as a single and even had an accompanying video where the band was all dressed up in Victorian period costume - hilarious. The shout-a-long chorus of the song make it a popular live song.

Athlete Cured -
A really thick and dirty bass sound and thundering tom drum patterns really push this song along. The riff repeats endlessly throughout and pushes repetition to its extreme. The lyrics are a comical tale of an Athlete who is repeatedly feeling nauseous and ill. The conclusion to the lyrics is that the illness is down to the exhaust fumes of a VW car that are blowing through the air vents!

In These Times -
Undoubtedly this is the happiest track on the album. The guitar riff is interlaced with synthesizer sounding trumpets and great backing vocals. Mark vocals are good too, in which is meshes reality with his visionary dreams -

"In These Times - I picture framed pre-teen rap gangs with Alsatians, Scapa Flow steel became inexpensive"

Steak Place -
There is lots of acoustic guitar and finger clicking in this song which along with the title track is one of the more relaxed tracks on the album. Lyrically it's another ambiguous song. It could be simply about visiting a Steak restaurant or alternatively it could refer to national pride and the desire to stay in England. Or it could be something else!

Bremen Nacht -
The song is the longest one on the album. The music skips along with a brass sounding synthesizer and bouncy clockwork sounding drum patterns. Mark sings lots of lyrics through a distorted megaphone and reflects on a drunken night in Bremen, Germany.
Despite the songs length the beat really does get a hook into you and it's finished before it's begun.


Guest Informant (excerpt) -
A 40 second sample of a song that was later to appear in its entirety on the B-Side of the Victoria single release. I assume that this track was inserted as a slight interlude to break up two of the albums longer and more repetitive tracks.

Oswald Defence Lawyer -
This four chord song is another track that really pushes repetition to its extreme. The groove grinds and grinds and puts you into a musical hypnotic state. Lyrically it questions the feasibility of the Kennedy assassination and the difficulties faced by Lee Harvey Oswald's courtroom defence lawyer.


Conclusion
------------
Grant Showbiz, the producer, has done a sterling production mix on the songs and the whole album gels together well despite the diversity in styles and songs. The music is focused and compact and the lyrics of Mark E Smiths are astute, observational and even comical at times.

I've used the word repetition quite a bit in this review, but unlike other bands this really adds to the overall flavour of the music and has been a key feature of the bands style throughout their career.

I really like this album and it is one of my favourite Fall albums of the eighties and would wholeheartedly recommend it!


Price and availability
-----------------------
The CD was available for £6.98 from www.amazon.com at the date of writing (9th September 2008).


Copyright M Jones (Otalgia) 2008

Summary: The eleventh studio album by The Fall