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Intense and diverse, and originally drummerless, ACR released their debut single in 1979 - "All Night Party/The Thin Boys" through Factory Records. Donald Johnson joined as drummer after its release, completing the original line up with Simon Topping, Jez Kerr, Pete Terrell and Martin Moscrop. The band returned to the studio and completed a series of gigs around the country with labelmates Joy Division during late '79 and early 1980. Factory released the debut album "The Graveyard and the Ballroom", a limited edition cassette-only release that contained both studio demos and live tracks. In late 1980, the story switches from post-punk Manchester to the hustle-bustle of the Big Apple, New York City. The band checked into EARS studio, New Jersey, with legendary producer Martin Hannett at the controls. The fruits of these sessions formed ACR's debut studio album, "To Each...", an album on which the impact was single-handedly destroyed by "that idiot hippie" - an in-house engineer at the studio who decided to zero all of Hannett's mix settings before he'd had chance to get the album to tape. The album was eventually remixed and released in January 1981, proceeded by the single, Flight.
Immediately after the release of "To Each...", the band headed back into the studio to record its follow-up, "Sextet". This time the choice of studio was less geographically glamorous - Revolution Studios, in Cheadle Hulme. The album was self-produced, and featured vocals from Martha Tilson, as Simon Topping retreated to the background in the band. By the time of its release in January 1982, "Sextet" was receiving ecstatic reviews from the press. ACR's subsequent album release "I'd Like To See You Again" was based upon stripped down funk and influenced by a more electronic brand of dance music. The emerging club influence is apparent throughout the album It got mixed reviews, this adds to the argument that the band often were ahead of themselves - maybe they were just 'too early'. Pete Terrell, apparently disillusioned by the music industry, left shortly after the albums release. A second US tour beckoned during December 1982, and on the band's return they received another bombshell - Simon 'Dream' Topping departed, and this was the beginning a dark period for the band.
June 85 , they set off to tour the States again, with New Order, and the tapes of these gigs provided the mesmerising "ACR Live In America" album . Then ACR disappeared into the studio to record their fourth and final Factory studio LP - "Force". The album was undeniably their finest recording yet, all the elements had combined perfectly - the ferociously funky rhythm section was tighter and bolder than ever, the effected guitars soared ever higher, Tony's sax cut like a knife through butter.
In 1987, the band signed to a major label - A&M Records, and headed into the studio to record , "Good Together", it ended up a bit too polished. In the year that followed ACR built their own studio, The Soundstation, using the money from the advance paid to them by A&M. The single "I Won't Stop Loving You" was given the remix treatment by both Bernard Sumner and Norman Cook, it was played heavily by Radio 1. Unfortunately, it only skimmed the top forty. It was followed by the distinctly un-commercial, but ultimately fantastic, "ACR:MCR" album. The album was mainly instrumental, crossing from electro to dub to latin. Relations with A&M were beginning to wear thin, the label was disappointed with the bands lack of commercial success, and the band were disappointed with the way the label were trying to shape their sound. The band had one last card up their sleeve. They re-recorded their cover of the Banbarras hit, "Shack-Up", and backed it up with a plethora of remixes, again from Norman Cook. The promo of the single was rushed out to radio stations across the country, then - nothing. ACR and A&M were no longer an item.
During 1994, the band signed a deal with Creation Records who subsequently re-issued the entire ACR Factory back catalogue along with a remix album, "Looking For A Certain Ratio". The remix album featured brand new mixes from the likes of SubSub and New Order's Other Two, plus another re-recording of "Shack-Up". 1996 saw the release "Change The Station"
The turning of a new millennium saw a rush of interest in A Certain Ratio - their influence on a plethora of DJs and musicians across the globe found them constantly referenced through the media. As Punk-Funk once again became the sound of the other city that never sleeps. Since 2003, bands such as The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, Radio 4 have all drawn heavily on the legacy of A Certain Ratio.
In 2002 Soul Jazz Records started a program of reissues of ACR's albums and difficult to find tracks. First release was Early combined with B-Sides, Rarities & Sessions seperately available aswell. A Further re-issues was a 1980 live recording from a concert in Groningen (NL) which was released thru the LTM label. Then in 2008 they finally found the French label Le Marquis prepared to release Mind Made Up , a surprisingly strong showing after 12 years, however it took another 2 years before the album was released in their home country by LTM.
Although the band does not play full time, they continue writing, recording, and performing. A Certain Ratio performed in the U.S. for the first time since 1985 on November 16, 2008 some gigs too packaged with other Factory bands which it has to be said musically they far surpass even though they never got the commercial credit for their contributions to music.
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With the Creation reissues of A Certain Ratio's catalog becoming increasingly tough to track down and with the post-punk revival going on around the time of its release, Early came on time. ACR is an excellent -- if inconsistent -- post-punk band that exemplified a spectacular movement against the old rock guard. In reality, it only seems right to refer to the ACR captured here as a post-punk band for chronology's sake. They came after the punk explosion of 1977, yet they had hardly anything in common with that movement. At their best, they used rock instrumentation to sound little like a rock band, laying a combination of disco, funk, and Latin percussion as the foundation of their sound. They hardly took a cue from punk, evidenced as early on as their second single, a cover of Banbarra's "Shack Up." Early, an assemblage of key moments and rarities that ends with 1985, is one of those compilations that makes no overt commitment to the fanatic or the curious -- an issue that's probably exacerbated by the inclusion of five Peel Session selections. As a result, four songs are presented in two versions, eating up space that could have been taken up by other highlights. The only case where this overlap can be excused is "All Night Party," their first single; the studio version is a drumless din of Mancunian miserableness, while the Peel Session version is given the death disco treatment with drums from Donald Johnson, who wasn't on board at the time of the song's original recording. It would be a bit of a cop-out on the part of the Soul Jazz label to view the second disc -- the one with the B-sides, rarities, and Peel Session material -- merely as the icing on the cake, the bonus. Though Early goes for the price of a single disc, the space provided could have been used a bit better. The discs are far from maxed-out content-wise, and there are a handful of exclusions. All things considered, there is no shortage of great material here, and the packaging is ok.
A Certain Ratio ? Early ( 143mb)
1 01 Do The Du 2:49
1 02 Flight 6:04
1 03 Waterline 4:07
1 04 Shack Up 3:13
1 05 The Fox 3:03
1 06 Blown Away 3:11
1 07 Gum 3:01
1 08 Life's A Scream 6:32
1 09 Skipscada 2:06
1 10 Knife Slits Water 7:32
1 11 Sounds Like Something Dirty 6:54
1 12 Touch 5:03
1 13 Saturn 3:48
A Certain Ratio ? B-Sides, Rarities & Sessions (084mb)
2 01 All Night Party 3:13
2 02 Faceless 2:18
2 03 Do The Du (Peel Session, 1979) 2:41
2 04 All Night Party (Peel Session, 1979) 3:47
2 05 Flight (Peel Session, 1979) 3:15
2 06 Choir (Peel Session, 1979) 3:05
2 07 Skipscada (Peel Session, 1981) 2:04
2 08 Felch (Original NYC Mix) 3:43
2 09 Abracadubra (Sir Horatio) 3:31
2 10 Tumba Rhumba 2:34
2 11 Si Fermir O Grido 3:22
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As tentative as their first A&M release (Good Together) sounded, ACR immediatly bounced back firing on all cilinders on "MCR", an album of new tracks, remixes of 'Good Together' and the Big E renamed Won't Stop Loving You, as well as the much more vibrant live version of Repercussions. 'ACR:MCR' was seen as a return to ACR's roots as it was more dance orientated and harder edged. Vocalist, Denise Johnson joined the band in the studio and on the road around this time. What were they thinking the year before, clearly not enough of what they really were about. Remains a great return to form here. Unfortunately A & M lost interest and ACR was back to square one and released just 3 albums on small poorly distributed labels in the 2 decades that followed.
A Certain Ratio ? acr:mcr(90 113mb)
01 Spirit Dance 5:35
02 Won't Stop Loving You (rmx Bernard Sumner) 6:47
03 BTTW 90 7:50
04 Be What You Wanna Be 5:17
05 Good Together 8:02
06 Funky Heaven 4:23
07 Tribeca 6:02
08 Repercussions Live 5:35
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Produced by Ratio in Manchester between 2006 and 2008, Mind Made Up marks a stunning return to hard-edged funky form. 'The songs are timeless and true to ACR's roots,' says Donald Johnson. 'The emphasis was placed on keeping it simple in the studio. Trickery was kept to a minimum and we never took more than three takes on any track.' Adds Martin Moscrop: 'Most songs we jammed in rehearsal one week and recorded the next, so that they were rough round the edges. And the lyrics are some of the best Jez has ever produced. You'll also hear old ACR influences throughout the album. Teri was actually the first song ACR ever wrote, but it has never been recorded or released until now.'
Originally released by a French label in 2008 and then re-released with an extra track by LTM Records two years later, Mind Made Up, A Certain Ratio's ninth studio release (not counting compilations and other similar efforts), found the group in creative health while approaching 30 years of work and beyond. With Denise Johnson on board to contribute vocals on a number of tracks, the band, still driven at its core by performers like Martin Moscrop, Jez Kerr, and the inimitable Donald Johnson, seems to have returned to full action at just the right moment thanks to a decade's worth of re-appreciation of its darkly inclined punk and funk fusions. That said, a great thing about Mind Made Up is that it feels more like them keeping on rather than trying to stake out a space in a crowded musical landscape. There's an excellent, immediate opening track in "I Feel Light," its tightly wound riff and punchy rhythmic crispness as clear a calling card as ever for the group, but at the same time there's a further ominousness in the arrangement that feels well earned by this point. It's a combination explored at a number of further instances on the disc.
A Certain Ratio ? Mind Made Up (08 119mb)
01 I Feel Light 3:21
02 Down, Down, Down 4:30
03 Everything Is Good 4:25
04 Way To Escape 3:53
05 Rialto 2006 3:58
06 Mind Made Up 5:20
07 Teri 3:45
08 Bird To The Ground 3:42
09 Starlight 5:19
10 Which Is Reality? 3:38
11 Skunk 2:27
12 Very Busy Man 5:44
13 I Feel Light (Dub) 5:11
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elsewhere on this blog
A Certain Ratio - To Each And Everyone ( 81 * 98mb)
A Certain Ratio - Looking For A Certain Ratio ( 94 ^ 148mb)
A Certain Ratio - Looking For A Certain Ratio ( 94 * 99mb)
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Source: http://rho-xs.blogspot.com/2011/08/rhodeo-1132-grooves.html
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