A Certain Ratio

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.

Their best stuff is far, far better than anything Section 25 did.

oh, come on. acr could be a mighty band, but nothing they did touches "hilltop". (and nothing in the entire universe touches the hilltop megamix. an album in a song! genius.)

that said: i did go through a small period of genuinely believing "i won't stop loving you" to be the greatest song in the whole world, so ask me again in a year's time.

Oh, wait.

Bimble - is the 'horns' thing you refer to Tony Quigley's soprano sax work? If so, yes it's great and unique. The solo in And Then She Smiled is wonderful.

It's interesting that SXXV were mentioned - I think both bands are cut from the same cloth - experimentalists wh0 never stayed still. In fact that's really the Factory ethos. I think of ACR and SXXV in the same way as I think of Can. In fact Can must have been really important influences on both bands. (look out for the cheeky steal of the Aspectacle bass line in Knife Slits Water! There's also a ley line direct from Monster Movies to Aways Now)

Bimble - what is it about Sextet that makes it hard to deal with for you? I agree about MCR - it's kinda dull.

I agree with grimly's comments re : Hilltop and it's megamix. Staggering!

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