ACR formed in 1978 and over the last 30 years their pioneering brand of punk-funk briefly had NYC looking to Manchester for pointers and turned out to have a huge influence on the likes of LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, Franz Ferdinand – a whole generation of artists who like to move your feet as well as your mind. One of Factory Record’s many inspired signings, they went on to continually record albums that were ahead of their time and took years to be rediscovered and appreciated. The Soul Jazz label’s reissues in 2004 brought their work to a new audience and since then the band have been carefully selecting shows such as LA’s recent ‘Part Time Punks’ festival alongside The Slits, Love Is All, Pylon, and the sadly cancelled reunion of ACR and ESG which was planned for the Barbican in March. Read on for a full history of A Certain Ratio with comprehensive video and sound…

Video: ACR – Shack Up

When Factory released A Certain Ratio’s first single, ‘All Night Party‘, in 1979, they’d cemented a lineup of  Martin Moscrop, Simon Topping, Jez Kerr, Pete Terrell and Donald Johnson (who had replaced a drum machine). As the second band signed by Tony Wilson to Factory (after Joy Division) they were a exceptional sight and sound at the time – the music a nameless mix of punk, electro, latin and percussion and the look a khaki uniform reminiscent of fascism’s ugly conformity. Incongruous it may sound, and speaking in 2002 Martin Moscrop saw advantages to not being easily categorizable: “‘With music, there’s usually either a really successful or not successful at all, and it’s very hard to survive in that middle ground. We’ve been through a few big phases – before we even released our first single we were on the cover of the NME – but most of the time we’ve been mid-ground. We’re like Villa, one of those teams that stay in the middle of the table forever. You don’t normally get that in music. But we’ve made 16 albums, 54 singles, been on 18 compilations. We might not have had chart success, but we’ve been successful, y’know, artistically.”

Audio: ACR – Flight (John Peel Session, 1979)

The first full-length released by Factory was actually a cassette-only collection of demos and live tracks, ‘The Graveyard and the Ballroom‘, which dropped in 1980. It was a strong collection, with some immediate classics including a live version of ‘Flight’ and this super-tight ‘Do The Du’:

Audio: ACR – Do The Du (Casse)

A following single – ‘Shack Up/And Then Again‘ was released on Belgian label Crepuscule in May 1980 – recorded for £50, it had an impact beyond Northern Europe. A trip to NYC cemented their place in the new movement – gigs with fellow funksters ESG and a very young Madonna beckoned. Film-maker Michael Shamberg made ‘Tribeca’, a piece combining a ACR hypnotic percussion session with live footage:

Video: ‘Tribeca’

The band entered a New Jersey studio with Martin Hannett, Factory’s resident producer, and were confident of a fully-realised studio debut until an American engineer nixed Hannett’s mix settings. Hastily remixed back in Manchester, no-one professed themselves 100% pleased with the result but ‘To Each…‘ is an uncompromising, dark album that has more in common with Joy Division than ESG.

Video: ACR – Forced Laugh (from ‘To Each…)

Follow-up album ‘Sextet‘ had a much easier gestation, thankfully, and was released swiftly in January 1982. A more straight-forward funk sound, Simon Topping found himself moved to the background as Martha Tilson, who they met in Belgium, lent a sweeter sound to the lead vocals. Reviews were good, and the cleaner sound moved them into a new category of punk-funk along with the likes of The Pop Group, Maximum Joy and 23 Skidoo.

Audio: ACR – Knife Slits Water (from ‘Sextet’)

Again they returned straight to the studio, completing ‘I’d Like To See You Again‘ just two months after the release of ‘Sextet’, and without Martha Tilson who had left the band. Another Belgian single preceded the album, a 12″ mix of ‘Guess Who’ in July 1982, and around the same time played at the Hacienda:

Video: ACR – Back To The Start (live@ The Hacienda, July 1982)

Reviews weren’t as complimentary this time, as if they’d ever really ‘got’ ACR in the first place. It’s been called “patchy”, NME’s review of the time began with “I REALLY wanted to love the new A Certain Ratio LP. After countless plays I’ve accepted it’s not going to click the way I’d hoped,” and got worse. Certainly contemporary reviews have been kinder on the album, with a lot of 4-and-5 star reviews for the 21st century reissue and AllMusicGuide’s summation as “the fact that this album fared well on the dancefloor some 20 years after its release may indicate that A Certain Ratio was ahead of their time.” A 7″ version of ‘Knife Slits Water‘ was the most successful ACR release from this period, however – the perfect driving rhythm courtesy of Donald Johnson keeps the track alive – check the version here:

Video: ACR – Knife Slits Water (7″ version)

1983 began with Simon Topping leaving the band, saw cleaner-sounding single ‘I Need Someone Tonite‘ trashed by the NME: “ACR are eager to please with their abstract remembrance of the late 70’s soulboy – all the warped and wired nostalgia of an allnighter at Southend,” and finished with Tony Wilson ending his association as the band’s manager. Bassist Jez Kerr pulled no punches as he recalled the period earlier this year: “It was a big blow when Simon left, because he was the lyric writer. Then it was pushed onto me, the lyrics and the singing. Previous to that I got to stand off with Donald and play the bass and the drums. I really enjoyed that. That’s why my bass playing was good then.

“Once I started singing, it had to simplify a lot. I’ve had to change, and it’s taken me about 15 years to work out how to write a lyric. I cringe when I hear the lyrics on the early albums like ‘Force’, because I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was trying, but it was very amateurish and my singing’s pretty awful as well. I was trying too hard. On the new album, I think the lyrics are actually pretty good, I’ve managed to find a way of getting into it.”

As with other classic post-punk-era bands (such as Wire), the mid-80s period is just as musically valuable as the ‘classic’ years. The 1985 single ‘Wild Party/Sounds Like Something Dirty‘ is a classic in it’s own right – check out this ultra-rare clip from UK TV show ‘The Tube’:

Video: ACR – Wild Party / Inside (The Tube, 1985)

A 1985 US tour was captured and later released as ‘Live In America‘, another strong testament to the idea that they were becoming a tighter, funkier and altogether better live act. 1986 saw a Factory singles comp ‘The Old And the New‘ and a new studio release, ‘Force‘, which again holds up very well today. It was, however, their last record for Factory and the beginning of a major label period.

Video: ACR – Si Firmi O Grido (from ‘Force’)

The band themselves are brutally honest that the resulting album, ‘Good Together‘, was just TOO polished. It surely had the tunes to be bigger than it was but for whatever reasons it didn’t deliver new label A&M the hits they were expecting. As they now state: “Spending a whole week in the studio just trying to get the ‘perfect drum sound’ seemed a far cry from recording the whole of ‘Shack-Up’ for fifty quid back in 1980.” The album is maybe reminiscent of late-80s period Wire in that while the production can sound quite ‘of-it’s-time’, there are enough deviant pop tunes to captivate the modern listener. Certainly many bands owe a notable debt to the sound both Wire and ACR started around this time but were ultimately unsuccessful with.

Video: ACR – Coldest Days (rehearsal version – original from ‘Good Together’)

With the writing on the wall, ACR released 1990’s ‘ACR:MCR‘ – a much less commercial album than it’s predecessor which predictably did little to improve relations between themselves and A&M. But they were spearheading another movement, working with the likes of Shaun Ryder, Norman Cook and Bernard Sumner on hazy acid tracks as Manchester enjoyed another period as the music capital of the world.

Video: ACR – Good Together (from ‘ACR:MCR)

A switch back to a smaller label, New Order manager’s Rob Gretton’s “Rob’s Records“, saw the album ‘Up In Downsville‘ released in 1992. The 12″ mixes became sought-after club classics but the band continued to steadfastly avoid mainstream success.

Video: ACR – Mello [Soundstation mix]

They signed with Creation Records who dropped a remix album, ‘Looking For A Certain Ratio‘, featuring some great mixes from Way Out West and Sub Sub, and in 1996 a new full-length, ‘Change The Station‘.

Without splitting up, they lay low for a few years until the musical landscape finally caught up with them.As the post-punk explosion in the early 21st century grew, the band found themselves appearing on compilations and recommendation lists and returned to gigging. They found themselves playing to a new audience as Soul Jazz took the opportunity to reissue their classic albums.

A great first ACR purchase is the Soul Jazz compilation ‘Early’, a collection of classic and rare tracks from the 1978-1985 period. Have a nose around on eBay here and on Amazon here. And to play you out and prove the band are just as relevant as ever, here is a clip of ‘Do The Du’ from November 2008’s ‘Part Time Punks’ festival:

Video: ACR – Do The Du (live from ‘Part Time Punks’)