Famously, in life Mark E. Smith never played by the rules, and the same seems to continue in his psychic afterlife. Put together by Smith confidants Ed Blaney and Simon “Ding” Archer, the album takes nine leftover vocal and lyrical pieces from the iconic frontman and reimagines them in new soundscapes — a process that somehow feels entirely in keeping with Smith, who may even have preferred this method, sidestepping the graft and grind of keeping a band together.
It’s not just any two chancers cobbling this together, either. The backing tracks are excellent: grinding, metallic slabs of industrial noise that stand up in their own right, way beyond any Fall-related flag of convenience. And, in truth, whether it is or not is pure distraction.

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