Dragnet

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.