A Certain Ratio

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.)

(My psychoticism quotient is high tonight.)

"So, not like Joy Division at all, then."

Oh jesus wept. In WHAT WAY is it 'JD-parody-ish'? WHAT WAY? WHICH 'Earlier Stuff'. Alright I'll concede that the voice is low-register kinda tuneless and not exactly a million miles from Curtis (of course ST stood in for IC a couple of times) but musically, apart from the original All Night Party/Thin Boys it's nothing like. DoJo's drumming makes sure of that.

BTW - All Night Party on the 'Ballroom' side of G&B has the best intro ever. Droning guitar noise, huge pop as a jack is plugged in, a mumbled word from Topping and a fucking great explosion as DoJo's drums come in insanely fast and syncopated. 'My Life Is Just/An Angry Blur'. Indeed.

I could wibble on for hours, but I'll just say "Go buy" and leave it at that. Sextet to follow soon, I hope.

Go on, Jeff. WIBBLE!

A.C.R.

M.C.R.

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