eMusic Review
On their previous album Grotesque, the Fall coined a sound that singer/leader Mark E. Smith called "Country 'n 'Northern," linking rock & roll's primal Deep South roots with the band's native Manchester. Hex Enduction Hour aims for something even more elemental and atavistic. Recorded in Iceland, where most of the population believes in elves and sprites, it summons an atmosphere of shamanic intensity comparable to Can's Tago Mago. Draped in a glistening fog of Viking raga-rock, The new two-drummer line-up expands on the rockabilly drive of Grotesque with the jazzy swing of "Hip Priest," the frisky juggernaut momentum of "Just Step S'Ways" and the slow-motion stampede "Who Makes the Nazis?" Poking through the coruscating guitars, Smith's incantations are like verbal hieroglyphs, indecipherable but charged with significance. The Fall's absolute pinnacle, Hex is forbiddingly dense, but persevere and you'll find a lifetime's listening here.
