A Certain Ratio - Early

We must be extremely thankful to Soul Jazz Records, which is resurrecting some unfairly forgotten punk-funk material. Music that is as futuristic as untrendy in these times of safe bets even in the supposedly alternative field...
There's In The Beginning There Was Rhythm, a compilation with 23 Skidoo, The Slits, Gang Of Four, Pop Group... how many teenagers know these bands? And still they were making music for today twenty years ago, but they didn't know that music in the 21st century would have sounded like their parents' music... There was still the illusion of looking forward, of mixing strong stuff, tunes and rhythms, and of Doing It Yourself, whatever your knowledge and means were...
The best band in that compilation is A Certain Ratio, who also have this very compilation of their own, a bunch of clueless teenagers which have been as lucky as unlucky...
They were lucky because they wanted to sound like Earth, Wind And Fire, they wanted to play real funky, not new wave... but they didn't know at all how to do it, and were corrupted by Tony Wilson and the Factory gang into mixing punk and funk... they didn't plan it, it came out of lack of knowledge and circumstances... Simon Topping wanted to sound like that hot rare groove stuff from America, and yet he had that voice that sounded so much like Ian Curtis... the perverted genius of Martin Hannett did the rest, not teaching the guys how to play the funk, but filtering their poor instruments through a load of new wave effects.
So you get this unique bass which is like New Order's Peter Hook playing jazz at an underground New York party, and the fact that it came all out from pure luck makes it even more funny. Unconscious funk genius corrupted by punk bastards, you'll never have a band like this on the scene anymore. Were ACR able to play as they wanted, they wouldn't have sounded so good... had they found a honest producer or manager, and we wouldn't have had such a great band... A similar story to New Order, creating their best electro stuff trying gear they didn't know how to play, especially Gillian Gilbert... they wanted dance, but made something slightly different...
ACR were unlucky because as soon as they learnt how to play the funk the most of the people lost interest in them... they did some excellent soul and funk music, but didn't sound unique anymore and Factory didn't treat them at the level of the other Madchester bands... they tried a major label deal, and of course it was a disaster, also because they couldn't completely get rid of the indie attitude, it was soul, but alternative soul... they went back home at Rob Gretton's label... small label, small success, and they were already untrendy by then... Creation rereleased the albums in the 90s, but was too busy with Britpop to give any proper attention, so ACR's music, after four good labels, may still be rare to find... The funny thing is nobody knows it, but ACR still exist and play gigs in small clubs.
But let's go back to their most glorious days, 1978-85, when they did this austere and exciting mix of punk and funk and played Banbarra's funk anthem Shack Up dressed as boy scouts and promoted their gigs with posters of Nazi parades (that was Saville, one of the perverted bastards). Of course the press accused them of fascism, deciding to ignore they were lefties with a black drummer, but that was all part of the fun. Every song here is a casual masterwork, from the funeral party of Flight to the spiky funk of The Fox... and the latin acid fo Blown Away and Skipscada... percussions were excellent, after all Donald Johnson was the onlty one who could actually play his instrument... but still you have the fabulous bass of tracks like Knife Slits Water... by Sounds Like Something Dirty they had eventually learnt how to play, and play damn well too, but they also bacame fond of the new wave attitude and actually won't ever get past it, fortunately enough...
This is not a plain compilation, you get also a booklet with a very interesting retropsective interview and a second CD full of rarities: the pearl is the video of Tribeca, ACR live in New York, 1980, black and white, they all play percussion locked into a room... they play the wonderful Forced Laugh which isn't included in the audio tracks... and what about the original 7" of All Night Party, when they hadn't yet a drummer, and Tony Wilson didn't even think to get one for the record... or the Peel Sessions, the fabulous Felch, the truly rare Tumba Rhumba and Abracadubra, a 12" which was released by the mysterious Sir Horatio... yes, it was ACR trying to sound more funk and dub, but everyone could still recognize the Mancunian indie element, however they tried to hide it... glorious punk-funk by accident.

Rating: 10/10