Dragnet is the second studio album by English post-punk band The Fall. It was released on 26 October 1979, through record label Step-Forward. Having come out less than eight months after its predecessor, Dragnet established at an early stage two key patterns of the group's work: that of high productivity and that of a regular turnover of group members. Only Mark E. Smith and Marc Riley remained in the lineup from the début album, Live at the Witch Trials. Drummer Karl Burns left soon after recording and was replaced by Mike Leigh, while founder member Martin Bramah quit mid-tour in April 1979, when much of the material intended for the second album was already written. Smith quickly recruited guitarist Craig Scanlon and bassist Steve Hanley, Fall roadies, members of support band Staff 9 and friends of Marc Riley's; both were just 19 when they joined the group and would form The Fall's musical backbone until the mid-1990s. Riley meanwhile had moved from bass guitar to guitar (his first instrument), and also started to play keyboards following Yvonne Pawlett's departure after recording the "Rowche Rumble" single.
The album, titled Dragnet, was recorded on 2–4 August 1979. Dragnet's sound was notably muddy and lo-fi – Riley has claimed this was a deliberate contrast to the sharp, clean sound of Live at the Witch Trials, while Smith claimed that the recording studio was so appalled by the sound that the group were asked to remove the studio's name from the album sleeve. Martin Bramah did not receive credit for his contributions and there were several songs that were altered heavily by the group after his departure. Among these was "Before the Moon Falls", which had its musical backing a tune which later became the basis for The Blue Orchids' "Work". The album is somewhat self-referential lyrically, with several songs referencing the music industry. At least two tracks, "Printhead" and "Your Heart Out", quote or paraphrase reviews of the band's live shows. "Printhead" even verifies this fact within its own lyric. "Dice Man" takes its title from the novel The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. "Spectre Vs Rector" was Pitchfork's Jason Heller as an answer to "Music Scene" on Live at the Witch Trials, commenting that "its sludge and subliminal menace practically invented post-rock as an afterthought". "Muzorewi's Daughter", with its "slow, relentless acceleration...punctuated by Smith's shrieks", was described as "one of the most terrifying Fall songs of them all". Dragnet would be the group's final album for Miles Copeland III's Step-Forward label, with them signing to Rough Trade Records in early 1980.Dragnet is the second studio album by English post-punk band The Fall. It was released on 26 October 1979, through record label Step-Forward. Having come out less than eight months after its predecessor, Dragnet established at an early stage two key patterns of the group's work: that of high productivity and that of a regular turnover of group members. Only Mark E. Smith and Marc Riley remained in the lineup from the début album, Live at the Witch Trials. Drummer Karl Burns left soon after recording and was replaced by Mike Leigh, while founder member Martin Bramah quit mid-tour in April 1979, when much of the material intended for the second album was already written. Smith quickly recruited guitarist Craig Scanlon and bassist Steve Hanley, Fall roadies, members of support band Staff 9 and friends of Marc Riley's; both were just 19 when they joined the group and would form The Fall's musical backbone until the mid-1990s. Riley meanwhile had moved from bass guitar to guitar (his first instrument), and also started to play keyboards following Yvonne Pawlett's departure after recording the "Rowche Rumble" single.
The album, titled Dragnet, was recorded on 2–4 August 1979. Dragnet's sound was notably muddy and lo-fi – Riley has claimed this was a deliberate contrast to the sharp, clean sound of Live at the Witch Trials, while Smith claimed that the recording studio was so appalled by the sound that the group were asked to remove the studio's name from the album sleeve. Martin Bramah did not receive credit for his contributions and there were several songs that were altered heavily by the group after his departure. Among these was "Before the Moon Falls", which had its musical backing a tune which later became the basis for The Blue Orchids' "Work". The album is somewhat self-referential lyrically, with several songs referencing the music industry. At least two tracks, "Printhead" and "Your Heart Out", quote or paraphrase reviews of the band's live shows. "Printhead" even verifies this fact within its own lyric. "Dice Man" takes its title from the novel The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. "Spectre Vs Rector" was Pitchfork's Jason Heller as an answer to "Music Scene" on Live at the Witch Trials, commenting that "its sludge and subliminal menace practically invented post-rock as an afterthought". "Muzorewi's Daughter", with its "slow, relentless acceleration...punctuated by Smith's shrieks", was described as "one of the most terrifying Fall songs of them all". Dragnet would be the group's final album for Miles Copeland III's Step-Forward label, with them signing to Rough Trade Records in early 1980.false2022-10-22 08:42:09Dragnet6.719791979-10-261979-10-2642Garage RockNew WavePost-PunkPunkRockRockabilly112496230178728246d7c-42b3-4011-a9df-9051c240272cd5da1841-9bc8-4813-9f89-11098090148efe6b896f-f3c8-354d-8e76-3694a7b03c25/media/data/media5/Music/The Fall/Dragnet (1979)/folder.jpgThe FallAlbumArtistThe FallArtistThe FallThe FallThe Fall were an English post-punk group, formed in 1976 in Prestwich, Greater Manchester. They underwent many line-up changes, with vocalist and founder Mark E. Smith as the only constant member. The Fall's long-term musicians included drummers Paul Hanley, Simon Wolstencroft and Karl Burns; guitarists Craig Scanlon, Marc Riley, and Brix Smith; and bassist Steve Hanley, whose melodic, circular bass lines are widely credited with shaping the band's sound from early 1980s albums such as Hex Enduction Hour to the late 1990s.
First associated with the late 1970s punk movement, the Fall's music underwent numerous stylistic changes, often concurrently with changes in the group's lineup. Their music was generally characterised by an abrasive, repetitive guitar-driven sound, tense bass and drum rhythms, and Smith's caustic lyrics. The critic Simon Reynolds described Smith's lyrics as "a kind of Northern English magic realism that mixed industrial grime with the unearthly and uncanny," voiced through a "one-note delivery somewhere between amphetamine-spiked rant and alcohol-addled yarn". While the Fall never achieved widespread success beyond minor hit singles in the late 1980s and early 1990s, they have maintained a strong cult following.
The Fall have been called "the most prolific band of the British post-punk movement". From 1979 to 2017, they released 31 studio albums, plus dozens of live albums and compilations released against Smith's wishes. They were associated with the BBC DJ John Peel, who championed them from early on in their career and described them as his favourite band, saying: "They are always different; they are always the same." The group disbanded after Smith's death in 2018.