Seminal Live

Seminal Live is a 1989 album by English rock band The Fall, recorded partly in the studio and partly at live performances in 1988. The album was the last to be released by the group through Beggars Banquet Records, and as such is often seen as a "contractual obligation" album. It was also the last Fall album to feature Brix Smith, former wife of the lead singer Mark E. Smith, until her return for 1995's Cerebral Caustic.

Seminal Live
Studio album / Live album by
The Fall
Released26 June 1989
Recorded1988 in Vienna and Manchester, 1989 in Rochdale and Edinburgh
GenrePost-punk
Length
  • 41:13 (vinyl)
  • 59:59 (CD/cassette)
LabelBeggars Banquet
Producer
The Fall chronology
I Am Kurious Oranj
(1988)		 Seminal Live
(1989)		 Extricate
(1990)

The studio recordings on Seminal Live were all new songs and make up the first five tracks of the album—side one on the original vinyl release. The live recordings on side two, meanwhile, are all versions of previously-released tracks.

In a 2006 interview with The Pseud Mag fanzine, keyboardist Marcia Schofield called Seminal Live "the worst piece of shit I have ever worked on [...] Talk about exhausted and out of ideas. It was one of those-we've just come off tour and have to make a record so what shit covers can we bung on it?-album".[1]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
Alternative Pressfavourable[3][4]
Hi-Fi News & Record ReviewA:1[5]
NME6/10[6]
Record Mirror3/5[7]

Critical response to the album was somewhat mixed. Andrew Collins, writing in the NME, suggests: "Seminal Live is worse than an intellectual letdown, it's a tease".[6] The songs themselves also provoked a variety of responses from journalists. Jason Pettigrew of the Alternative Press writes: "For pure weirdness value, look no further than "Mollusc in Tyrol", a musique concrete rave-up on top of a Neubauten "Yu-Gung" rhythm track that's been buried alive".[8][4] A reviewer for the Record Mirror, by contrast, says: "'Mollusc In Tyrol' is a totally unbearable drone which should never have found its way from the vaults".[9] Jim Sullivan, for The Boston Globe, also singled out "Mollusc in Tyrol" as a "monotonous irritant", but stated that if the album "doesn't rank with the overall best of the Fall, it is a holding pattern that should neatly please and agitate".[10]

Track listing
Vinyl version
Side one (Seminal)
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Dead Beat Descendant"Mark E. Smith, Brix Smith2:25
2."Pinball Machine"Lonnie Irving2:53
3."H.O.W."M. Smith4:18
4."Squid Law"M. Smith, Craig Scanlon, Steve Hanley3:42
5."Mollusc in Tyrol"M. Smith, Craig Leon5:10
  • a home recording of Mark E. Smith singing over "Donkeys Bearing Cups" from Craig Leon's 1981 Nommos album
Side two (Live)
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."2 × 4"M. Smith, B. Smith3:55
2."Elf Prefix"/"L.A."M. Smith, B. Smith5:02
3."Victoria"Ray Davies2:57
4."Pay Your Rates"M. Smith3:52
5."Introduction"/"Cruisers Creek"M. Smith, B. Smith6:58
Total length:41:13
CD/cassette version
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Dead Beat Descendant"M. Smith, B. Smith2:25
2."Pinball Machine"Irving2:53
3."H.O.W."M. Smith4:18
4."Squid Law"M. Smith, Scanlon, Hanley3:42
5."Mollusc in Tyrol"M. Smith, Leon5:10
6."Kurious Oranj" (live)M. Smith, Hanley, Simon Wolstencroft5:59
7."Frenz" (live)M. Smith5:23
8."Hit the North" (live)M. Smith, Simon Rogers, B. Smith3:12
9."2 × 4" (live)M. Smith, B. Smith3:55
10."Elf Prefix"/"L.A." (live)M. Smith, B. Smith5:02
11."Victoria" (live)Davies2:57
12."Pay Your Rates" (live)M. Smith3:52
13."Introduction"/"Cruisers Creek" (live)M. Smith, B. Smith6:58
14."In These Times" (live)M. Smith4:12
Total length:59:59
  • All additional tracks are further live recordings
  • Tracks 8–10, 12 and 14 recorded at the Arena, Vienna in Austria on 16 April 1988.
  • Tracks 6, 7, and 11 recorded at an unknown venue, possibly in Manchester,[8] in 1988. Track 13 recorded at Manchester G-Mex in 1988; Bill Grundy introduced the band onstage and his intro was used on the album.

Personnel
The Fall

with:

Technical
  • Shan Hira – production (all studio tracks; "Frenz")
  • Mark E. Smith – production (all studio tracks; all live tracks, except "Kurious Oranj" and "Frenz")
  • Ian Broudie – production ("Kurious Oranj")
  • Dian Barton – engineering and live mixing (except "Kurious Oranj" and "Frenz")
  • S.P. – cover art

References
  1. PSA Marcia Schofield - Reformation!
  2. Allmusic review
  3. Alternative Press review
  4. "Review from 'Alternative Press" Nov. 1989". FallNet. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  5. "Review: The Fall — Seminal Live" (PDF). Hi-Fi News & Record Review (magazine). Vol. 34, no. 9. Croydon: Link House Magazines Ltd. September 1989. p. 105. ISSN 0142-6230. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 September 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2021 – via World Radio History.
  6. Collins, Andrew (24 June 1989). "Frenz Again. The Fall — Seminal Live (Beggars Banquet Records)". New Musical Express. London: IPC Limited. p. 37. ISSN 0028-6362. Retrieved 27 May 2023 – via Flickr.
  7. Record Mirror review Archived 2009-09-12 at the Wayback Machine
  8. Pettigrew, Jason (1989). Review. Alternative Press.
  9. "The Fall—Seminal Live" Archived 2009-09-12 at the Wayback Machine (1989). Record Mirror
  10. Sullivan, Jim (1989) "The Fall Seminal Live", The Boston Globe, 28 September 1989.
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