A Certain Ratio | |
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 A Certain Ratio performing atNew Century Hall inManchester, 2023 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as |
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| Origin | Flixton, Greater Manchester, England[1] |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Labels | |
| Spinoffs | |
| Members |
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| Past members |
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| Website | acrmcr |
A Certain Ratio (abbreviated asACR) are an Englishpost-punk band formed inGreater Manchester in 1977 by Peter Terrell (guitar), Simon Topping (vocals, trumpet), Jez Kerr (bass guitar, vocals), Martin Moscrop (trumpet, guitar) and Donald Johnson (drums), with Martha Tilson (vocals) joining soon after.[8][9]
One of the firstindie groups to draw heavy influence fromfunk as well asdisco andLatin percussion,[10][11] the band were among the first to debut onTony Wilson'sFactory Records in 1979 with "All Night Party", produced byMartin Hannett.[9] During ACR's early years with Factory, they scored seven Top Ten UK independent releases, highlighted by "Flight" and "Waterline", and released five studio albums beginning withThe Graveyard and the Ballroom (1980).[12]
Following late 1980s and early 1990s phases withA&M Records andRob Gretton's independent Robs Records, ACR was intermittently active. The group returned to the studio for its ninth studio albumMind Made Up (2008) and since then has continued to perform, with its back catalogue reissued through an arrangement withMute Records.
They released their first studio album in twelve years,ACR Loco in September 2020, followed by three EPsA,C andR in 2021, and eleventh studio album,1982, in 2023. Their twelfth studio album,It All Comes Down to This was released in 2024.
The band was formed by vocalist Simon Topping and guitarist and electronics player Peter Terrell, who after initially performing as a duo, were soon joined by bassist and vocalist Jez Kerr and then guitarist and trumpeter Martin Moscrop, the band played without a drummer for a year.[13] The band's name is taken from the lyric ofBrian Eno's song "The True Wheel" from his solo studio albumTaking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (1974).[14] Their early influences includedthe Velvet Underground,Kraftwerk,[15][16]Wire,Brian Eno,[15][17]the Pop Group,[18][19] andPere Ubu.[20] Over time, A Certain Ratio's music took on elements from such acts asJames Brown,Parliament,Funkadelic,Hermeto Pascoal,Airto Moreira, andFlora Purim.[15] A Certain Ratio, by early 1979, were "beginning to forge links between post-punkindustrial and dance-floor funk" (Tony Wilson, Factory Records).[21]
ACR's line-up, with a dark bass-heavy industrial and funk sound, recorded the group's debut single, "All Night Party", released byFactory Records in September 1979 (the label's first single artist release),[6] with Factory label bossTony Wilson also becoming their manager, proclaiming the band to be "the newSex Pistols".[13][22][23] The 5,000 copies that were pressed soon sold out.[24]
On 1 October 1979, the band recorded a session forJohn Peel'sBBC Radio 1 show, by which time Donald Johnson had joined the band on drums. The session included "Do the Du", "All Night Party", "Flight" and "Choir" and was broadcast on 17 October.[9][25]
ACR played their first tour of bigger venues as theopening act on American rock bandTalking Heads' UK tour in December 1979. There are suggestions that watching ACR perform encouraged lead vocalistDavid Byrne and Talking Heads to go in a more funky musical direction.[11][16]
Their next release, thecassette-only compilation ofdemos and live tracksThe Graveyard and the Ballroom, was released in January 1980.[22][26]The Graveyard side of the album was recorded at Graveyard Studios,Prestwich,Greater Manchester in September 1979, produced byFactory'sMartin Hannett.The Ballroom side was a live recording of ACR’s October 1979 gig at theElectric Ballroom,Camden, London.[27] A Certain Ratio consider the release to be "our most punk-funk album. It's got real indie undertones, post-punk undertones".[28]
Martin Moscrop started a second band in 1980,Swamp Children (the name later changed to Kalima), that would go on to share several members with A Certain Ratio.[22]
In July 1980, the band's second single, a cover version of Banbarra's "Shack Up",[9] recorded at a cost of £50,[13] was released. This was followed in November with "Flight" on 12",[29][30] which saw their first placing on theUK Independent Chart, peaking at no. 7.[22][31] "Shack Up" got a US release in January 1981, going on to peak at no. 46 on theBillboardDance Club Songs chart,[32] and the band expanded to a six-piece with the addition of former Occult Chemistry vocalist Martha Tilson,[27] with Topping focusing on trumpet and percussion.[22][13]
The expanded line-up recorded their debut studio album,To Each... The album was recorded inNew Jersey withMartin Hannett producing, and released in May 1981.[33][23] It topped the UK Independent Chart.[22][31]To Each... represents a development in the ACR sound from the raw harshness ofThe Graveyard and the Ballroom to a percussion-based post-punk funk.
They recorded a second Peel session in June 1981. The session, which included "Knife Slits Water", "Day One" and "Skipscada", was broadcast on 2 July.[25] ACR finished the year with the single "Waterline", which was another top 10 indie chart hit.[31] "Waterline" was the first record self-produced by the group. All of ACR’s previous recordings had been produced by Factory's Martin Hannett but the band wanted a different sound. "We thought he was making us sound too much likeJoy Division" (Martin Moscrop, ACR).[6] "Waterline" has a more funk andjazz sound than earlier recordings.
The band's third studio album,Sextet, followed in January 1982,[9] now incorporating elements ofacid jazz, funk, andLatin music, and again topped the indie albums chart,[31] also peaking at no. 55 on theUK Albums Chart.[22][34]Tony Wilson had arranged for ACR to go to New York to recordTo Each... but that album had already been largely written and the influences of New York did not really appear in ACR's music untilSextet. The band's recent stay inNew York had increased the Latin, jazz and Cuban percussion influences in their music.Sextet was the first album that was self-produced by ACR and is closer to the "dark funk" sound the band wanted.[28] ACR rateSextet as one of their stand out albums.[35]
In February 1982, they released thedubreggae single "Abracadubra" under the pseudonym 'Sir Horatio'.[1][22] ACR had further indie charting singles that year with "Guess Who?" and "Knife Slits Water".[31] The group recorded a third Peel session in November, now without Tilson, but withAndy Connell added on keyboards and percussion. This session saw the group show more of a jazz influence in the three tracks ("Who's to Say", "Piu Lento" and "Touch") which were broadcast on the John Peel show of 1 December 1982.[25]
The band's fourth studio album,I'd Like to See You Again,[9] was released in November 1982, reaching no. 2 on the indie albums chart.[22][31] "The new music offered disciplined latin disco, inspired in part byCameo."[16] The album received mixed reviews. "ACR aren't sounding like ACR anymore so much as the latest New York disco imports" (New Musical Express, 1982)[16] "I'd Like to See You Again represented an aesthetic low. In striving for a more accessible sound, the group had become overly clinical." (Adrian Thrills,New Musical Express, August 1985)[36]
The band's two founding members, Topping and Terrell, left the band in late 1982.[27][24] Simon Topping recorded a solo single before forming T-Coy with formerQuando Quango (and laterM People member)Mike Pickering.[22] The band regrouped and returned in October 1983 with the single "I Need Someone Tonight" (with Carol McKenzie on vocals), another top-10 indie hit.[22] Tony Quigley ofKalima joined on saxophone, and the band released three singles in late 1984 and 1985 – "Life's a Scream" (December 1984), "Brazilia" (February 1985) and "Wild Party" (June 1985).[37]
The Old and the New, a compilation album bringing together many of the non-album singles released from ACR's formation up to the end of 1985, came out on Factory Records in January 1986.[37] Connell left in 1985 to formSwing Out Sister, whose lead vocalistCorinne Drewery guested on ACR's next studio album,Force (1986), their last for Factory, released in November 1986.[22] Stuart James co-produced the album with the band. It was recorded and mixed between July and August 1986 at Yello 2 Studios inStockport, Greater Manchester. The album received good reviews from music critics, and spent nine weeks on the UK Independent Albums Chart, peaking at No. 2. "Mickey Way" was the first single from the album, released exclusively in the UK.[27] "Bootsy" was the second single from the album and was released exclusively in Australia. Neither single charted.[38] In January 1986, ACR performed live onChannel 4 music showThe Tube.[39]
New releases were sparse during the next two years.Dojo Records released a 1985 live recording asLive in America in February 1987,[40][41] and Italian label Materiali Sonori released theGreeting Four EP five months later.[22][42] The band signed a recording contract withA&M Records in 1989,[27] the line-up now consisted of Kerr, Moscrop, Johnson, and Quigley, the first releases for the label the singles "The Big E" and "Backs to the Wall", which preceded the band's sixth studio albumGood Together, released in September 1989.[22] A 50–minute recording of a live show from London was broadcast on British television in October.[43] They also set up their own SoundStation studio in Manchester.[24] The band's only significant chart success with A&M came with the 1990 single "Won't Stop Loving You", which peaked at no. 55 on theUK Singles Chart, although the first two singles also made the lower reaches of the chart.[22] The studio albumacr:mcr (1990) followed bringing a new generation of fans from the dance/club scene to ACR.[28] But the band were then dropped from the label.[9]
In 1991, they signed with Rob's Records, owned byNew Order manager and former Factory Records partnerRob Gretton, releasing a string of singles and the albumUp in Downsville (1992).[22][27][9] In 1994,Creation Records began reissuing the band's albums on the Rev-Ola sub-label, and also released twoEPs of remixes.[22] The band's first original material for almost three years was released in August 1996, with the liveSoundstation Volume 1 EP, followed in November with the band's ninth studio albumChange the Station.[44] A secondSoundstation live EP was released in March 1997, the band's last release for some time.[22]
In 2002,Soul Jazz Records reissued the albums with bonus tracks (but using the same masters as the Creation editions). Further re-issues and a live recording from 1980 were also made available on theLTM label.
The band played occasional live shows between 2002 and 2007, and performed in the US for the first time since 1985 on 16 November 2008, headlining the Part Time Punks festival atThe Echo inLos Angeles, releasing a new studio albumMind Made Up the same month, on French label Le Maquis.[1] They performed a headline set at theOffset Festival in London in September 2009, playing alongside fellow post-punk artiststhe Slits, following a one-off live performance commemorating Factory Records inDublin, in March that year. They performed at the Plan K,Molenbeek in WestBrussels on 12 December 2009 as part of the event, A Factory Night (And Then Again).[45] This event also featuredSection 25,the Wake,the Names andBiting Tongues. Towards the end of 2009, the band announced a live appearance at a fund-raising event atBrighton's Concorde 2 venue on 7 March 2010. Their 2008 studio album,Mind Made Up was re-issued via LTM Recordings during 2010, along with a redux version of the 1986 studio album,Force.
In 2018,Mute Records began reissuing their back catalogue, they releasedacr:set, an album of mostly old tracks with two new tracks, one ("Dirty Boy") recorded withBarry Adamson ofMagazine and featuring a recording of Tony Wilson, and undertook a tour of the UK with dates in Ireland and Finland.[1][46][47] In November 2018 they recorded a session forMarc Riley'sBBC Radio 6 Music show, performing new song "Dirty Boy", "Mickey Way", and "Flight".[48]
They released a box set, a 40th anniversary retrospective namedacr:box, in May 2019 and toured in support of this.[49][50] It consists of 53 songs providing a detailed career overview to date.[51][52] A Certain Ratio releasedACR Loco in September 2020 onMute. Their first album of new material in 12 years featured three of the original band members – Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop, and Donald Johnson – along with members of the band's current live ensemble. This was followed by three EP releases and remix albumLoco Remezclada in 2021. ACR's eleventh studio album,1982, was released in 2023. Their twelfth studio album,It All Comes Down to This was released in 2024.
"Wild Party" was used in the soundtrack of the Britishromantic comedy filmLetter to Brezhnev (1985).[53] "Shack Up" was used in the soundtrack ofPatrice Chéreau'sIntimacy (2001). The band are featured in thebiographicalcomedy drama film24 Hour Party People (2002) where Tony Wilson (played bySteve Coogan) describes them as "having all the energy ofJoy Division but better clothes".[6] Martin Moscrop was musical supervisor of the film.[54]
Studio albums
We get a lot of credit but we're not due it – we were influenced bythe Pop Group, who were fantastic – John Waddington's guitar. They were doing the same thing as us, they were listening to American imports and stuff like that and doing their version of it.
We were one of the first urban outfits fusing dub,reggae,jazz, funk, punk and Latin.The Pop Group were one of the only other bands doing this at the time and we were really influenced by them.
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