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Mark E. Smith, dancing a little and failing to rock out.

The Fall/Von Sudenfed - Reformation: Post TLC/Tromatic Reflexxions

Reformation: Post TLC: [2/5], Tromatic Reflexxions: [3/5] Drunken, sideman-pummeling occasional poet Mark E. Smith has released something like 6,000 albums under the name the Fall. Some have been quite good, offering a fractured take on rockabilly and garage punk over which he's declaimed his endlessly bilious take on life, politics and anything else he's not happy about. This latest dispatch was recorded at the tail end of 2006 with the pickup musicians he recruited to replace a relatively rehearsed band that quit mid-tour. And aside from a fairly conventional cover of the trucker-country classic "White Line Fever," it's a dispirited, half-baked record that sounds as much like a contractual obligation as the shows with the replacement band probably did.

Tromatic Reflexxions, the debut album from Von Sudafed-Smith's collaboration with German electronic duo Mouse On Mars-is slightly more interesting and rewarding. The two knob-twisters provide a series of squelchy, crackly, almost rock-like grooves for Smith to ramble and grumble over. While it's not brilliant, and some tracks (like "Family Feud") are just dumb, it doesn't have anything half as annoying on it as the two-notes-for-10-minutes "Das Bootuboat," from Reformation, so it emerges the winner by default. (NARNACK/DOMINO) Phil Freeman

Official Website: http://www.narnackrecords.com

Official Website: http://www.dominorecordco.com

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