The Fall – Slates

Discussing The Fall’s music retrospectively feels counterintuitive because they were so forward thinking. But if we revisit their 1981 EP (or album, depending on your stance), Slates, it becomes very transparent that it was a significant moment in The Fall’s trajectory.

Along with their 1980 LP Grotesque (After the Gramme), this is when The Fall became a fully formed artistic vision with its own nuances, characters, worlds and uniquely Lancastrian insights.

What The Fall did with Slates – and also around the time of Hex Enduction Hour and Grotesque – was coalesce high literary modernism with the supposed low culture of Lovecraftian pulp weirdness, filtered through the lens of half-supped pints of Joseph Holts bitter.

The original 10" EP is here expanded to an LP format and includes the four tracks from their 4th Peel Session plus one studio outtake.

Vinyl, LP, Reissue

Slates
A1 Middle Mass
A2 An Older Lover.
A3 Prole Art Threat
A4 Fit And Working Again
A5 Slates, Slags.
A6 Leave The Capitol
Peel Session Four
B1 Middle Mass
B2 Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul
B3 Hip Priest
B4 C'N'C / Hassle Schmuck
Studio Outtake
B5 Medical Acceptance Gate