Comp' Index

No.5: MOLE MEETINGS.

Players: any number.

Equipment: old blankets.

This is a highly risqué game, and the guests intended to play it must be chosen with care. The host or hostess constructs a 'tunnel' from the hallway to the living room, or between two rooms of the house, from the old blankets. The guests have to undress, and then, naked or near naked, they must crawl through the tunnel towards the other end. On the journey, they will meet and 'discover' other travelling moles. If they don't emerge from the tunnel after a few minutes, the host should threaten to remove the blankets!

Few groups around are as central as The Fall. They are now genuine masters of this chugging acid diatribe, this sniping parody of behaviour. The Fall are seeing things superbly clearly and intently.

I was surprised tonight how fully guitar-based they are; Brix, a refreshing and powerful force, yet always there's braking and checking, a constant halting and re-routing of their punishing, battering rhythm - the absolute obverse of gratuitous noise. the careful precise thrash thrusts attention at Mark Smith's words, and still he intones that curious, edgy delivery, suspended between shouting and squealing.

The Fall are imposing tonight. As Smith intones on his haunches, back towards us, drawling an intense address with guitars lurching and spinning around him, it suddenly occurs that like New Order, they don't attempt to qualify their performances. They are far more intent on shaping this music's fiery and straining form then presenting it to us - they make no superficial pretence at concern. This is only true kind of respect for an audience. After The Fall, all else is patronising showbiz antics.

ANON - MELODY MAKER, 22 February 1986