A Certain Ratio

(btw: whats "bootsy" like? never heard it)

Seconded. Most people aren't aware of this amazing song? Or do they just not like it?

I don't understand what all the controversy is about the production on 'To Each...'. I remember it got pretty bad reviews because of it at the time but to me it sounds great - crisp and funky with a good drum sound and some nice atmospherics. Underrated track that everyone should hear : Loss.

For me To Each, Sextet and Graveyard+Ballroom are essential as are the Knife Slits Water and Waterline 12 inchers. From later on 'Force' is brilliant as are the Wild Party and Life's A Scream 12 inchers. I really like 'I'd Like To See You Again' but I can see why most people don't.

Anyway, they came out of the crap period and went great again with the "MCR" album.

As to "To Each.."'s production, I think the band and Hannett slagged it off simply because the early mixes were far better before the engineer in the US cleared the mixing desk (or whatever, the story is in "Early"'s notes). I think it sounds a bit murky, but it suits the material really. And come on... "Winter hill"!!! What a track!

rockist i think simon wosname (topping?) studied latin percussion in ney york. i have a 12 on factory by him which is well smoochy on the timbales (but still crap)

(and yes i know what it means.)

With the pound plunging further against the euro than Tamira Paszek's neckline, I'll think I will wait for a UK release. Thanks for the review, though.

4 full songs now streaming on their MySpace page, true believers! I think they're gonna stream the whole LP eventually.

One of the new songs is called "Everything Is Good". I think that sums up neatly how I felt about what I was listening to. :)

Oh, nice one. Any news yet on where one might be able to get hold of a copy of this fucker?

Just leaked.

where is it leaking?

IN MY PANTS.

you'd get along well with my grandma!

just wait til bimble finds out

Playing "Some Day" off Change The Station now...and I'm on clouds. Oh my god. Have we established yet how this band rule?

Better fucking believe it bitchez

Flight, live 2005:

DID SOMEONE SAY POST PUNK?

Sometimes I wonder why I try to talk about this band here when so few on this board seem to even give a flying shite about them.

A Certain Ratio - performing "Wild Party" (probably my favourite song of them ever) and "Inside" in 1985.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_8-ijfZA2w

hahhaa I already posted that in January! Oh shit, I'm so sorry LOLOLOLOLOL

so few on this board seem to even give a flying shite about them.

seriously? this thread has like 160 some posts.

Yeah, but there's too much me in here, man. Just sayin'. Thanks for posting.

I was watching 24 Hour Party People the other night - I forgot they were all over that. The scene with the shorts was hilarious.

Yeah, but there's too much me in here, man. Just sayin'.

and this is different from any other thread you post in, how?

Hahahahha

So, I've finally acquired a copy of Mind Made Up (or is/was it A Mind Made Up? Do a GIS for the cover and spot the differences). Do they actively not want people to hear this, or something?

Anyway. Looking forward to this, maybe a little unrealistically ...

It's great, innit? Everything Is Good is my new favourite ACR song of all time (that won't last, but still).

Seriously, though, what are they playing at? I'm rather hoping we can lure Martin Moscrop back to the thread because, y'know, arguments over distribution notwithstanding: it's the fucking 21st century and there are myriad ways to get an album heard, none of which they seem to be doing.

Certainly better than releasing it in France and hoping for the best.

haha amen, grimly

I would probably buy this if I saw it on iTunes. Which it isn't.

It mystifies me too why they don't do more to get their music heard. They'd be absolutely perfect on LTM. As a side note, a lot of the original factory crew seem to be undergoing creative renaissances. The last few releases by Durutti Column and especially Section 25 have been good to excellent.

Yep: they've been superb (although, in fairness, Vini's never really put a foot wrong).

Apparently Red Turns To ... have reformed: http://www.myspace.com/redturnsto. Fuck me.

I really like that Red Turn To EP. I wish there was more from that era.

There probably is and they'll just never let us hear it ;)

Anyone else heard the new album, Mind Made Up? Between that and the new Fall album, late seventies Manchester keeps bringing it.

Damn, that reissue of Force is so good.

Iv'e always loved Force even though it was almost universally panned at the time it came out. The record allows me to indulge my secret love of smooth funk-pop without feeling guilty. Has anyone heard any of the ARC stuff that came out on Rob's Records, the label Gretton ran for a brief time in the seventies, is it anything like their other records or is it more dance floor oriented?

timely revive, considering thread starter's display name

I bought Force when I was a nipper on-spec from HMV in Union Street Glasgow, just simply through the artwork being so damn good, it was on Factory *and* it was a nifty cassette box set. When I played it I was a bit let down that it wasn't at-all like JD or NO, I liked it a bit but generally would only listen to Mickey Way and Fever repeatedly. What an object though! I even rebought it on EBay a few years later even though I don't listen to cassettes.

Nowadays, with the absence of any kind of peer prssure, I am greatly digging those mid-eighties coffee table funk tones and pristine production, Corrine Drewery's (sp) voice on Bootsy is lovely too.

http://cerysmaticfactory.info/fact166c.html

I've just started James Nice's Factory Book too and looking forward to chewing on that.

Oh wow, hadn't heard about the book yet!

http://www.cerysmaticfactory.info/shadowplayers_the_rise_and_fall_of_factory_records.html

A Factory book by James Nice? Me want now. Oh and Rob's Records were active eighties to early nineties, durr... I'll have to pick up that Rob's Records sampler from LTM.

the two people with their back to the camera in the bottom photo in that last link are trembling blue stars btw. apparently they were v excited about meeting peter saville, unsurprisingly

also in the bottom pic, the guy in the orange striped shirt and the bald guy in the long sleeve white button up are Vikings (johnny giles + 'emales' author alan jarvis).

oh i thought bald guy was bobby wratten, whoops

doppelgängers? I suppose I'm not sure. Would be cooler if it was Bobby Wratten so let's go with that.

Totally grooving to the "Early" comp tonight. I'm a bit forgiving with some of the lesser tracks on disc 1 but disc 2 is totally ace with some nifty dub experiments. Boy do I lurve me some post-punk dub...

I can't explain why but these guys kind of remind me of Captain Beyond.

email I just received today:

Strut presents FAC. DANCE, an essential new retrospective covering the dance output of Factory Records, the seminal Manchester record label founded by Tony Wilson, Alan Erasmus and designer Peter Saville.

The album turns the spotlight on some of the label's early dancefloor-based work across key 12" mixes and rarities, from the unmistakeable production style of Martin Hannett to pioneering studio work by New Order's Bernard Sumner and A Certain Ratio drummer Donald Johnson, under their BeMusic and DoJo monikers.

Early Factory experiments like Blurt's avant garde mutant funk blast 'Puppeteer' rub shoulders with the fertile post-Joy Division period as the label's unique, coruscating post-punk sound took shape on extended 12" cuts from A Certain Ratio, Section 25 and more. The album also expressly documents Factory's strong links and cross-pollination with New York's 1980s club culture, as New Order joined forces with producer Arthur Baker, fresh from his pioneering electro work with Afrika Bambaataa, while Quando Quango and Marcel King enlisted NY remixer Mark Kamins for tough-edged club treatments. Factory artists including Quando Quango would also perform at some of the city's seminal nightspots, including the Paradise Garage.

The compilation also touches on some of the wider dancefloor directions explored by Factory during its early years - the latin jazz funk of Swamp Children and Kalima, the cool British soul of Tony Henry's 52nd Street and a track from Factory's only overtly reggae single, the Dennis Bovell-produced 'See Them A'Come' by X-O-Dus. Within FAC. DANCE are contained the grooves that would provide the blueprint for the Manchester scene of the late '80s and Factory's heady later years - Happy Mondays, James, Northside and the rest.

FAC. DANCE is compiled and annotated by Bill Brewster of djhistory.com and produced in association with Factory Records Ltd.

"Do The Du" sounds kind of like "Immigrant Song." (Way worse singer, though.)

This is great. More of a new tune than a remix. Wish ACR would go into the studio more often.

https://soundcloud.com/barryadamsonselections/i-got-clothes-acrmcr-rework

Oh look they just did.

new:acr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=220&v=wrwjo2v-F3s

try again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrwjo2v-F3s

also featuring Tony Wilson at the start!

acr:set incidentally is a career-spanning comp that will be released on October 12th

acr:box to be released next month, including:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc_7s3G_IIc
Fairly faithful to the original, sounds great though I wish Grace Jones would have finished her vocal take..

Two versions as well, I wonder what the difference is?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIRGhm8KKbk

This is surprisingly great, not familiar with their 21st century work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vIQafS1RQE