(Translated from my original Italian text
by Joel Calahan)
A Certain Ratio gave life to one of the most original and forward-thinking
British experiences of the period immediately following the punk rock boom.
The group brought the suicidal pathos of Joy Division to a harmonic camp more
cultivated and sophisticated, renouncing the role of lyric afflatus in favor of
a more futuristic cut to their figure.
Introduced by their single Thin Boys (1979) as the nth
dark-electro-intellectual collective from Manchester
(Simon Topping was, perhaps, the only rival of Ian Curtis as the "voice" of dark punk),
under the influence of the Talking Heads, A Certain Ratio evolved almost
immediately toward a greater emphasis on rhythm
with the successive Shack Up (1980).
The addition of drummer Donald Johnson
(a fan of Parliament)
proved fundamental in defining the
sound of their classic era: together with bassist Jeremy Kerr, Johnson created one of the
most original rhythm sections of the period.
The product of that collaboration was Fox (1980), the most complete of their
afro-funk-jazz works, disfigured by the distorted trumpet blasts of Simon
Topping, and the mechanical rhythms of Do The Du (1980).
Other important stopping places were
Blown Away (1980), immersed in a chaos of Caribbean percussion and
galactic vocalizations, and And Then Again (1980), sullen and hypnotic, with the
languid wailing of the trumpet and spiritualistic vocals.
Their defining style had been a hybrid of refined electronica embroidered
with imperceptibles disturbances, a rhythm section of ghostly accented jazz rock, with
funky guitar riffs and atonal and cadaverous vocals.
The album To Each (Factory, 1981), one of the most interesting of those
years, formalized those experiments in a cerebral and angular sound
(Felch and the monumental tribal dance Winter Hill).
There were, however, already the seeds of the decadence toward
the eclectic techno-funk that followed, expressing itself in austere and weary harmonies
on Sextet (Factory, 1981) and I'd Like To See You Again
(1982), with passages of spineless dance
retracting the more intellectual
instances (Saturn, Touch).
The nine-minute single Knife Slits Water was their final significant work.
At the end of the decade
Topping would be also the instigator of the local house-music scene,
first with the T-Coy project
(Carino and I Ain't Nightclubbing) and later with a new
edition of A Certain Ratio (Acid To Ecstasy).
(Original text by Piero Scaruffi)
Force (Factory, 1986), the last album with keyboardist Andy Connell
who was launching a new career with the
Swing Out Sister,
recycles the stereotypes of funk and disco-music of a decade earlier
proporra` semplicemente una revisione
notably in Bootsy, sung by Corinne Drewery
(frontwoman of Swing Out Sister)
and Mickey Way.
After the poppy Good Together (1989), they tried to adapt to the
"Madchester" vogue with Acr:mcr (1990), that contains
the booming upbeat piano-driven Won't Stop Loving You,
the feverish jazzy and Caribbean-tinged Tribeca, and especially the eight-minute acid techno fantasia BTTW90.
Up in Downsville (1992) and
Change the Station (1996) were irrelevant.
Mind Made Up (2008) was an embarrassing reunion.
The EPs of their golden era were compiled on
Old And The New (Factory, 1986).
Early (Soul Jazz, 2002) is a career retrospective, but actually
does not focus on the early period.
The Graveyard and the Ballroom (Universal Sound, 2004) is a
retrospective of their early music, including the entire 1979 debut cassette.
They seem to disband after the awful
Mind Made Up (2008).
After a long hiatus A Certain Ratio,
still including three original band members (Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop, Donald Johnson),
released
ACR Loco (Mute, 2020), with the
jazz-funk-psychedelic Friends Around Us,
and
1982 (2023), both pointless collections of old-fashioned disco-funk.
