The Fall

Cerebral Caustic is the 1995 album by The Fall on Permanent Records, and the record that brought Brix Smith back into the group six years after she had left. A rough, guitar-led album after the electronic experiments of the early 1990s, it was also made in a hurry. This 5CD box adds a Peel session, rough mixes, a concert in Rennes and the live double album The Twenty-Seven Points.

Brix, by then divorced from Mark E. Smith, had toured with the band in 1994 and shares writing credits on five of the album's twelve songs. Around the two Smiths were Craig Scanlon on guitar, Steve Hanley on bass, Karl Burns and Simon Wolstencroft on drums and Dave Bush on keyboards. Smith produced it with Mike Bennett. Recording was quick: in Spectrum Culture's account, Smith remembered three weeks and Brix only one. By the Rennes concert a few months later, Julia Nagle was playing guitar and keyboards.

The album includes a Frank Zappa cover, I'm Not Satisfied, and a remake of Life Just Bounces from the 1990 EP Dredger. The Joke opens on a charging, distorted riff, Pearl City pairs grinding guitars with treated vocals, and Bonkers in Phoenix sets Brix's voice against a swarm of digital noise. Disc two starts with the group's eighteenth Peel session, broadcast in December 1994, a festive set with Jingle Bell Rock and Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Then come the pre-release rough mixes of ten of the album's songs, plus alternate versions of One Day and Bonkers in Phoenix. Disc three is a concert in Rennes in April 1995. Discs four and five reproduce The Twenty-Seven Points, also from 1995: live recordings made between 1991 and 1995 in Prague, Tel Aviv, London, Glasgow, New York and Manchester, with interludes and two studio tracks unheard before.

The album peaked at number 67 on the UK albums chart. Trouser Press was enthusiastic, calling it "the best Fall album in years" and crediting its catchiness to Brix's return. Reviewing this box for Spectrum Culture, J. Simpson judged the Rennes show "a great Fall live document", recorded in surprisingly clean sound, while finding the album itself a conservative Fall record.

5CD box set on Cherry Red (CRCD5BOX206), 2026, compiled with Conway Paton, with notes by Daryl Easlea, mastering by Andy Pearce and art by Becky Stewart.