- Mere Pseud Mag Ed
- Tempo House
- Ludd Gang
- Wings
- Eat Y’self Fitter
- Middle Mass
- Smile
- Hexen Definitive
- Strife Knot
- Marquis Cha-Cha
- The Man Whose Head Expanded
- Backdrop
- Room to Live
- Lie Dream of a Casino Soul
NOTES
73 minutes
Good audience capture a little claustrophobic in places but generally a fine listen.
Post Peel Session #6 Fall getting into the swing second night into a North American tour that would result in the group losing its manager, MES gaining a wife and a new guitarist. The stage pacing black clad Smith is in his pomp laying down epithets of pithy Smithyness. A significant factor here is the percussive interplay between Paul and Karl adding to the steady Fender rattle of Steve. Mark spends a lot of time abusing the keys herein and there are found sounds and noise aplenty.
There are good sparse tight and tense versions of the songs of this era. “Ludd Gang” is particularly tight, and there is a memorable reading of “Wings” with completely over the top echo/reverb on the vox. Mark berates the light people about lack of vision between songs leading a particularly violent/tight/tense reading of “Middle Mass” – Scanlon’s guitar a layer of scrabbling noise.
An interesting slightly varied guitar riff on “Smile” adds to the appreciation of a drum laden peroration of particular quality. Evoking the cascading masses at the top of Market Street this is a simply kicks the ineptitude of anti-look back boreness into a black hole exercise. Some interesting verbal variation here but what holds the attention is its intense unforgiving nature.
“Cha-Cha” is to my mind a little ostentatious and lacks the inner strength of the surrounding material, evidenced by an exceptional Hanley S driven and initially Casio free version of “Man whose head…” which is far more pleasurable apart from some dodgy keys from Craig.
The slight beat delay between Burns and Hanley P creates a memorable tension across the scape of “Backdrop” which a masterpiece of tension and release. Marks vocals tend to blow out the microphone in places but generally this is another 11 minute plus tour de force.
Concludes with a pacy “Room to Live” and a punchy “Lie Dream”.
A fast paced and energetic gig with a goodish sound. Well worth a listen.