Eclecticism is da bomb

Listening to Mark E. Smith mumbling and yelping on the wonderful Von Sudenfed album "Tromatic Reflexxions" reminded me that I somehow never got round to buying any Fall albums. Most remiss of me considering that I have bought a couple of Pavement albums in the last year, a band clearly influenced by The Fall.

But where to start? The Fall have released over 30 studio and live albums since 1979. Should you just start at the beginning or pick a few random records from throughout their career? Fortunately, I found a bargain in the shape of "The Complete Peel Sessions", a six-disc boxset containing all 24 of The Fall's sessions recorded for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show between 1978 and 2004; a mere snip at £20 and a fine overview of their back catalogue. Absolutely bloody fantastic stuff.

Getting into The Fall's ouevre has given me a bit of a taste for post-punk. The sound of post-punk has been resurrected with great success over the last few years by the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, Futureheads and Bloc Party but I wanted to go back to the source. So I picked up "Entertainment!" by Gang Of Four, "Pink Flag" by Wire and "Marquee Moon" by Television, all released in the late 70s, and it is brilliant stuff. Gang Of Four in particular tickle my fancy as their bass-heavy funk-tinged stylings remind me a little of Primus.

Curiously, I've also been buying and listening to Debussy, Stravinsky and Bartók as well. Talk about musical mood swings.