The Fall – autumn (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

If you believed in time travel and wormholes and all that science fiction malarky, you could probably build a convincing conspiracy theory around autumn having access to a portal that connects modern day Minneapolis with 80’s England. And if I was going to pin it down further I would say that it leads to the side door of one of those long lost, basement clubs that saw the outsider London punks blending with the dour northern bands to form that dark thread which has woven its way through the underbelly of music ever since.

I’m not saying that autumn in anyway plunder the past, with over 25 years in the game they are as much responsible for its sonic evolution as for where it goes next, I’m just saying I can see where they would have fitted right in. Somewhere between Souixsie and The Banshees shimmering textures and elegant vocals, The Cure’s otherness and Bauhaus’ brooding sense of doom.

Fall comes accompanied by a remix which pushes things into an electro dance world, it is beat driven and groovesome, but where that plays to the cyber-set, the original very much mines an old school seam, all swirling riffs, ambience and atmosphere. And what we would have called the B-side in more primitive times takes those atmospheres to slower, more chilled and greater theatrical heights. Before and After drips with dark majesty, shrouded cinematics and chiming elegance and whilst I’m sure the G-word is out of fashion, haunting is a much over used term for such a dark embrace and alt-anything is too broad to have meaning, never has a band blended pop infectiousness and rock grandeur in such a dark and dramatic way. Well, not for a very long time and rarely this far west anyway.