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Seminal Live
Studio album by The Fall
Released	June 1989
Recorded	???
Genre	Rock
Length	41:13 (vinyl) 59:59 (CD/cassette)
Label	Beggars Banquet
Producer(s)	Shan Hira, Mark E. Smith
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Alternative Press (favourable) Nov. 1989 NME (6/10) 24 Jun. 1989 Mark Prindle link Record Mirror (3/5) Jun. 1989
The Fall chronology
I Am Kurious Oranj (1988)	Seminal Live (1989)	Extricate (1990)

Seminal Live is a 1989 album by British 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 lead singer Mark E. Smith, until her return for 1995's Cerebral Caustic.

The studio recordings on Seminal 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. Partly because of this, 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."^[1] 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."^[2] 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."^[3] In fact, it was not really a Fall recording at all, being a track from Craig Leon's 1981 album Nommos over which Mark E. Smith recorded a vocal. Leon went on to produce tracks on the band's next album, Extricate.

Contents 1 Track listing 1.1 Vinyl version 1.2 CD/cassette version 2 Personnel 3 References 4 External link

Side one

1. "Dead Beat Descendant" (Mark E. Smith, Brix E. Smith) – 2:25
2. "Pinball Machine" (Lonnie Irving) – 2:53
3. "HOW" (M. Smith) – 4:18
4. "Squid Law" (M. Smith, Steve Hanley, Craig Scanlon) – 3:42
5. "Mollusc in Tyrol" (M. Smith, Craig Leon) – 5:10

Side two

1. "2 × 4" (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 3:55
2. "Elf Prefix"/"L.A." (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 5:02
3. "Victoria" (Ray Davies) – 2:57
4. "Pay Your Rates" (M. Smith) – 3:52
5. "Intro/Cruisers Creek" (M. Smith, Rogers) – 6:58

1. "Dead Beat Descendant" (Mark E. Smith, Brix E. Smith) – 2:25
2. "Pinball Machine" (Lonnie Irving) – 2:53
3. "HOW" (M. Smith) – 4:18
4. "Squid Law" (M. Smith, Steve Hanley, Craig Scanlon) – 3:42
5. "Mollusc in Tyrol" (M. Smith, Craig Leon) – 5:10
6. "Kurious Oranj" (M. Smith, Hanley, Simon Wolstencroft) – 5:59
7. "Frenz" (M. Smith) – 5:23
8. "Hit the North" (M. Smith, Simon Rogers, B. Smith) – 3:12
9. "2 × 4" (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 3:55
10. "Elf Prefix"/"L.A." (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 5:02
11. "Victoria" (Ray Davies) – 2:57
12. "Pay Your Rates" (M. Smith) – 3:52
13. "Intro/Cruisers Creek" (M. Smith, Rogers) – 6:58
14. "In These Times" (M. Smith) – 4:12

• Tracks 8–10, 12 and 14 recorded at the Arena, Vienna, Austria on 16 April 1988
• Tracks 6, 7, and 11 recorded at an unknown venue, possibly in Manchester^[2], in 1988. Track 13 recorded at Manchester G-Mex; Bill Grundy introduced the band onstage and his intro was used on the album.

• The Fall:
  • Mark E. Smith – vocals; violin on "Elf Prefix"
  • Brix Smith – guitar, vocals
  • Craig Scanlon – guitar
  • Steve Hanley – bass guitar; banjo on "Pinball Machine"
  • Simon Wolstencroft – drums
  • Marcia Schofield – keyboards
• Bill Grundy - voice on "Intro" (uncredited)

1. ^ Collins, Andrew (1989). "Frenz Again". NME.
2. ^ ^{a b} Pettigrew, Jason (1989). Review. Alternative Press.
3. ^ "The Fall—Seminal Live" (1989). Record Mirror

• Lyrics
• Review of "Seminal Live" by Ted Mills, of the All Music Guide