Day 91: This hideous replica...

Back with a vengeance, I've been in France for work this week, apologies to Fall people. Had a conversation with an Australian who used to have a friend who used to have MES over quite a lot. Apparently used to come over, place his little bag of speed on the coffee table and talk rubbish, once bowed fully when he met said friends mother, brilliant.

Anyway, been listening to In A Hole in my car recently, so this song has jumped out at me, they open the set with this one I think, great little slice of live Fall. what is below is obviously the Grotesque version.



Song: Impression Of J.Temperance
Album: Grotesque (Against the Gramme)
Year: 1980

So this one follows the high standard of the rest of the album, an insistent bassline throughout with some screeching guitar parts, it all bubbles along nicely and with a dark edge while MES tells the story of a dog breeder, a vet and what I presume is some sort of dog/man hybrid being born, it's all very Franz Kafka, the horror present and further revealed.

That would be my reading, but the rest of the song is just fantastic for memorable lines 'This part is hard to describe' and 'There are no readouts for this part of the track' are lines that give an impression of Mark stepping out from behind the façade of being in a band and almost becoming an observer. It's all very post modern. Other lines of note are the brilliant 'Only two did not hate him' which I presume is a comment on this character being a dog breeder, a notoriously snide game to be in I imagine, constant competition and out-doing one another must make for a lonely life sometimes.

I do wonder if this J Temperance ever really existed, or whether Mark read about some backwater dog breeder who loved his dogs a bit too much, either way, to put it into song is just brilliant as ever...

Excellent military drums as well, must mention that, always adds an authoritative air to a song, or in the case of The Fall, some dread.