Mind Made Up - A Certain Ratio Album Review

A Certain Ratio

Album Review

Having seen ACR wheel out most of this album 'live' over the past 12 months in various venues (London, Brussels and Brighton), I have come to the conclusion that this is a rather posthumous review, especially since this collection first saw the light of day in early 2009 on a small French label. LTM has sprung to the rescue again, offering up less fancy-packaging, new photos and an extra dub re-fix of the albums's opening gambit, "I Feel Light". Tell you what - The dub mix sounds a treat when played as the first track, followed by the standard vocal version, ooh yeah.

2010 and A Certain Ratio are STILL not selling more albums than Madonna - why? Don't look at me like I've just stepped off the Jupiter-shuttle, I'm serious. This is seriously dirty filthy funk and I want to jack it up all night. "I Feel Light" is a hark-back to the days of "To Each" (the Martin Hannett-produced debut album) and "Do The Du" (the early Hannett-produced EP), which is all very ironic considering the same band dispensed with Hannett's services, claiming that he "took all the funk out of us". I disagree - he gave them a new funk, a special funk - a certain funk. Much of this excellent album sounds like his eccentric and testy studio-practices have rubbed off, just a little. The album 'feels' very 'live', but very, very tight and with some nods to their influences (Brasil-funk, samba, NY-noise, Barrio and themselves).

There isn't a filler track on here - "Everything Is Good", "Teri", "Bird To The Ground" and the title track cry out to be spread all over BBC6 Music - I might just walk round to their studios and toss a copy of this CD onto someone's desk and say, "play it - now". All the trademarks from early Factory (and the best A&M-era) releases are present - snakey rhythms, confident vocals and seriously good breaks. "Teri" is apparently a very early song from "Sextet" sessions, so quite how this never got an airing until now I'll never know - it IS a stormer. I wish they'd play it live.

Only "Way To Escape" falls short of the high-standard on here - it's just OK - but the rest, including a "Sextet" track, "Rialto" with a spacey-makeover, flicks switches and clicks metatarsals very nicely thank you. Just keep it away from England's world-cup squad.

Paul Pledger