English Dance Rock: The Fall's Hex Enduction Hour

Ms. Hanson was our Advanced Placement European History teacher my junior year. She was neither hip nor humorous. She fulfilled many stereotypes of a middle-aged, spinster history teacher. However, she was approachable, and clearly wanted us to enjoy learning about the world. So Ryan Lee asked her one day after class if she had ever seen or heard of the ballet Kurious Oranj.

It wasn’t like Ryan was completely off-base in asking Ms. Hanson about the ballet whose music was composed by the post-punk band the Fall. After all, Ms. Hanson knew all things European, or so it seemed. The Fall’s music tapped into history, supporting Mark E. Smith’s strange world with incredible flying buttresses. There was a chance that Ms. Hanson might have come across Kurious Oranj in all of her dedication to Europe. . .but no, she hadn’t. She told Ryan she’d keep her eyes open for something about it, but I don’t think she caught on that the Fall was more likely to be in NME than in Studies in Modern European History.

Whatever moments you’ve had with the Fall, Castle Music has now reissued 1982’s Hex Enduction Hour with bonus disc of Peel Sessions and live tracks. The fourth album by the Fall showcases all of their odd angles, chant-like ranting vocals, jazz jamming, live sounding production coupled with tape sequences production, raucous tunes, and mellow musings.

When the band in falsetto sings, “He is not,” and Smith adds, “appreciated,” on “Hip Priest,” the atmospheric jazz vamp tune has become somewhat of a biography of Smith—the unappreciated leader of hip music, defining and influencing artists for years while never gaining any widespread recognition. For instance, the guitar here trades influences with the Violent Femmes.

Reworked for Kurious Oranj as “New Big Prinz,” which points to the track record in a self-deprecating nod, Smith actually seems to proudly claim his role as unrecognized leader, doing the hip while being told that he’s anything but hip.

I may just have to adopt it as personal theme song. While going around town in Vans with an earring and long hair, listening to my Discman, I may be applying for the job as Hip Pastor of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, but the teens in our youth group remind me all of the time—I’m not hip. The community’s popular and rebellious crowds tell me there’s nothing hip about a pastor. “He is not appreciated.” Sing it with me now!

Of the bonus tracks, “I’m Into C.B.” from a 7” released a month after Hex rocks with a jungle funk beat. The song is a regular Who’s Who of the potentially deranged people behind the fun callsigns on the C.B. With the repeated title as chorus, it follows a common Fall structure of story verses and chant choruses—such as “Carry Bagman” (Frenz Experiment). The bonus live “Stars on 45” version amps up the energy of this song even more while throwing in bits of other songs.

Among the bonus live tracks is “Jazzed Up Punk Shit.” Doing their best at disrupting the traditional jazz combo musings, the Fall wander about on the bass of Steve Hanley. The title aptly describes all of the Fall’s music, knowing as how it is an English Rock jazz interpretation of punk with some dance stuff thrown into the mix. With the clink of glasses and light chatter from the Manchester crowd, the Fall punk up that shit for a jazz atmosphere—and go down in history doing some of the hippest rock artistry of the last century.

Thanks to Sanctuary Records/Castle Music for the review copy.