Description
Label Review.
1979 debut album. Also available on VINYL.
Our Overview.
Formed in 1978, ACR were one of the first bands to record for Tony Wilson’s Factory Records, debuting with the 7″ single ‘All Night Party/The Thin Boys’. Combining funk, jazz, tape loops and pop, the band were pioneers of punk-funk with their hit ‘Shack Up’ causing waves on both sides of the Atlantic. Their sound was once described as “James Brown on acid.”
This first album was originally only released on cassette and was compiled from a collection of early four-track recordings and a set of live tracks recorded when the band was opening for the Talking Heads. The sound is good for lo-fi recordings, and the band is, for all of their musical amateurishness, precise and controlled. Those seeking an idiosyncratic, interesting art-funk band can do no wrong with this release.
“A Certain Ratio embraced the ethic and culture of the late seventies post-punk explosion, but sounded like nothing else around them and refused to fit in,” reads the press notes. “ACR always do what I don’t expect, who wouldn’t want to work with artists like that?” Mute Records boss Daniel Miller adds. Though various members have come and gone, a core line-up of Jeremy Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson has always remained.