Needle Time

  Sir Horatio - Abracadubra b/w Sommadub [MIX 1T UK 1982 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Heavy dub from the council estates of Wythenshawe and urban decaying tower blocks of Hulme, Manchester released as a 12" dub plate on the anonymous 666 Records.  "They wanted people to believe that this was a authentic dub plate from some Reggae producer. But the name Sir Horatio sounded too much like A Certain Ratio. As a dub record it worked very well. Terrific deep dubby mixing and production. The cover showing a leaf of marijuana gave a clear impression on the condition you had to be to fully enjoy this record." Recorded just after the sessions for the Sextet album, and distributed locally in Manchester and by dub vendors in London, most who actually bought this record were aware that it was A Certain Ratio in disguise, as ACR had added Sommadub to their live set at gigs from May 1981. Play loud. A1 Abracadubra B1 Sommadub

  A Certain Ratio - Looking For A Certain Ratio [CRELP 159 UK 2LP 1994 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] Some of you will know my position when it comes to late eighties/early nineties dance music remixes, those feelings tend to get magnified when it comes to remix engineers tinkering with a band that I've followed since the early eighties. Looking For A Certain Ratio was a double 33rpm or compact disc set closing the chapter on their brief reissue relationship with Creation Records.  The band went to a variety of remix chums, mostly from Manchester to work back catelogue tracks from the eighties into dancefloor tracks for the nineties ....with varying levels of success. Those involved include Graham Massey (808 State), Bernard Sumner (New Order & Electronic), John McCready & Jon DaSilva (Hacienda DJs), Sub Sub (now Doves) and Mark Brydon (from Fon Records & Chakk). I am no fan of what Bernard Sumner did to Shack Up , however Graham Massey's remix of Flight is interest...

  A Certain Ratio - Life's A Scream [FAC 112 UK 1984 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] We haven't had any ACR in a while, so here is their 1984 come-back single, Life's A Scream . Having endured a few comings & goings since 1982, the band settled on a solid line-up of Jez Kerr on vocals and bass, Martin Moscrop on guitar, Andy Connell on keyboards and Donald Johnson on drums & percussion.  Quite different to what had come before, the single proved a more maturing sound which was to eventually result in their well received Force album. It also marked Kerr's debut on vocals, a position he has maintained ever since.  A1 Lifes A Scream B1 There's Only This

  A Certain Ratio - 1982 [STUMM480 UK 2023 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] ACR's deal with Mute Records continues to be fruitful, as after a few lengthy hiatuses, we now get the second studio album in three years. Unhindered by lock down, but slowed down by Jez Kerr's health, here is the retrospectively titled 1982 . This is not a retro record, despite what the sleeve may suggest, this is very much an album for today, with just a couple of old references thrown in. The introduction of singer Ellen Beth Abdi and highly talented keyboard player Matt Steele has certainly breathed new life into these sixty-plus post-punk funksters. What is also noticeable is that this record is much more dynamic sounding than their other Mute releases, so you need to crank it up. Well done to the band and Air Mastering for restraint in getting the numbers to DR13. I would however propose that you avoid the compact disc. Let's get the 1982 references out of the way first, the title track 1982 is Knife ...

  A Certain Ratio - Knife Slits Water [FAC 62 UK 7" 1982 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] There were three different studio versions of A Certain Ratio's Knife Slits Water for official release. Ask me which do I prefer, and depending on my mood, I would regularly suggest the original UK seven inch single.  The track was originally written in early 1981 as a dark & moody seven and a half minute proto-funk track during the sessions for the album Sextet featuring vocals and lyrics by Martha Tilson. She had returned to the USA by early 1982, so the re-recorded four minute seven inch version featured dreamy soulful vocals by Donald Johnson, who also performed the track's iconic bassline.  A very different, more uptempo and effect-filled ten minute twelve inch version was also recorded and released in September 1982 with Simon Topping vocals, Johnson provided the vocal harmonies and a slightly different bassline. Factory Records were share holders in MVS (Record Pressings) Ltd (alo...

  A Certain Ratio - Fila Brazillia Versus A Certain Ratio [T019 12'' WL UK 2003 24-Bit FLAC] I've no real desire to post any more ACR for the forseeable future, so to finish off, here is an obscure white label pre-sold to fans during early 2003. A low key official release appeared a little later, however as the band had seemed dormant since 1996, sales were limited. The lead track, Starlight had previously been previewed as a demo and this was to be it's debut on vinyl before the Mind Made Up album five years later. Very Busy Man also appeared re-recorded on the first compact disc versions of that album, Fila Brazillia's re-work of Wild Party is just damn funky. A1 Starlight (Fila Brazillia Mix) B1 Wild Party (Fila Brazillia Remix) B2 I'm A Very Busy Man (Fila Brazillia Mix)

  A Certain Ratio - Won't Stop Loving You [ACRY 540 UK 1990 24-Bit FLAC] In the summer of 1990, A&M Records were forced to abort the release of a new recording of ACR's Shack Up - an uncleared sample of Shine On You Crazy Diamond on the Norman Cook remix was suggested as the reason. The gap was filled by the band's reworking of The Big E , giving it a much more upbeat and commercial club sound, with New Order's Bernard Sumner adding keyboards and sequencers. The result was a huge pounding commercial dance single which failed to dent the charts and signaled the beginning of the end of the band's relationship with the label. Note the significantly blatant sampling of Banbarra's Shack Up on the Norman Cook remix. A1 Won't Stop Loving You (Bernard Sumner Mix) B1 Won't Stop Loving You (Norman Cook Mix) B2 Won't Stop Loving You (Instrumental)

  A Certain Ratio - Good Together [No Cat 12" WL UK 1989 24-Bit FLAC] I still recall the day in the summer of 1989 when a sweaty-handed A&M Records rep handed me this anonymous 12" white label, knowing that I was an ACR fan, he remarked along the lines of..." You might want to play this instore now "....I did. Within minutes, we were getting requests at the counter for copies, selling all his promo stock in one swoop - except of course this copy which I persuaded him to gift me.  According to Discogs, only 500 copies were pressed. At about the same time, electronic dance records such as 808 State's Quadrastate were in significant demand - so here was a major record label with what could have been a squelchy Manc-monster of a dance hit ...and they just sat on it. The track was eventually an extra track on the compact disc version on the album of the same name, then a year later it was eventually released as a seven-inch only and as lead track on the  Four F...

  A Certain Ratio - Your Blue Eyes [ACRY 534 UK 1989 24-Bit FLAC] Trevor Horn's right-hand-man, Stuart Bruce was chosen to remix Your Blue Eyes for the 'final' single from the Good Together album. This uplifting slice of eighties pop again failed to inspire the British record buying public and it vanished quickly without any trace.  It was then, the band (and their label) started to dabble with what had gone before in an attempt to restore credibility, realign with the band's fanbase ....and generate sales. A1 Your Blue Eyes (Extended Version) B1 Thin Grey Line B2 Coldest Days

  A Certain Ratio - Backs To The Wall [ACRY 517 UK 1989 24-Bit FLAC] In theory, getting Frankie Knuckles to make a twelve inch remix of ACR's Backs To The Wall sounded like a great idea. Whilst these days, the track may sound like just any other dated pop/house remix, but at the time these were all the rage and his regal Knuckles was in great demand.  Here is where it all went wrong: A&M financed a lavish (and possibly quite expensive) pop video filmed as a dance party on a River Thames riverboat during the summer of 1989 as a promotional tool and it was prime MTV material. The single was then released on the 28th August 1989 - one week after 51 people tragically died on the Thames in the  Marchioness party-boat disaster. Consequently, the video was never aired beyond A&M instore promotional videos.  The single never sold in any quantity and failed to chart. The Knuckles remix does give the originally funky album track a bouncy club-ready feel, with Dojo'...

  A Certain Ratio - The Big E [ACRY 514 UK 1989 24-Bit FLAC] In all my years of blogging, A Certain Ratio are very likely my most covered band, The Big E was their biggest stab at the hit parade. The song is lush & textured pop music, wrapped in a highly polished Julian Mendelsohn production, it could have been a huge hit on the radio - it wasn't. It could have repaid the Mancunian trio for all their years of hard graft after they jumped from the important yet commercially naïve  Factory Records into the arms of sharp and shiny suited major label execs - it didn't.  A few weeks ago, I promised a multi-resolution re-visit to those singles from their A&M Records years, here is the first. A1 The Big E B1 Love Is The Way (Instrumental) B2 Day 2

  A Certain Ratio - Good Together [AMA 9008 UK 1989 24-Bit FLAC] This end of year post was going to be the triple vinyl edition of A Certain Ratio's  Loco Remezclada remix album, however despite three deep cleans of an original 'mint' copy, I cannot get a clean enough rip from the sparkly clear & violet vinyl chosen for this release. Instead, I have gone back in time and pulled out the band's most overlooked album release for a brand new clean rip in a choice of resolutions. The rumour at the time was that ACR got a big pile of cash for signing to Herb Alpert's A&M Records. I'm sure it wasn't a fortune, but it was enough for the band to set up their own Soundstation recording studio. Ask a band member these days and they'll always say that this era in their history is best forgotten, so the chances of Good Together getting a reissue, until recently ...were zilch. That changed after ACR's recent deal with Mute Records, however it should be ...

  A Certain Ratio - Do The Du (Casse) [FACUS 4 USA 1981 24-Bit FLAC] So what could possibly follow Flight ? Please ditch all my previous efforts with this forty year old twelve inch & be prepared to be literally  blown away. Here's what I wrote last time..... Wikipedia is your friend here.... (with thanks to robM ), Isidore Lucien Ducasse was a Uruguayan poet of French blood who wrote Poésies and  Les Chants de Maldoror under the pseudonym Comte de Lautréamont . He was widely regarded as a major influence on the surrealist and situationist movements. My money says that a certain AH Wilson had something to do with that rather than four or five young lads from Hulme & Wythenshawe. That's part one of your history lesson over for today.... Part two.... ripped in 24bits from my original pressing purchased at Sleeves Records, Falkirk in late (likely October) '81 ....funny how you remember your first purchase of a band who were to become one of your favourites. The ...

  A Certain Ratio - Flight [FAC 22 UK 1980 24-Bit FLAC] I wonder how good Flight sounds after a clean to almost spotless, then get's a test drive with the Hana Shibata at 176.4kHz. I wonder...... According to Discogs, there are four versions of this twelve inch single. All of them get their hipsides and flipsides in a muddle due to Factory's dithering and indecision. This is an even newer new rip using penguinflight's copy which (according to Discogs) is the second Tracon pressing as it comes in a slightly thinner inner sleeve and is in near mint condition. My personal copy is the first Tracon pressing; I don't think I've ever come across the CBS pressing as described on Discogs and I am certainly baffled as to how CBS also chose to press on opaque vinyl.  Enough waffling, I put myself firmly in the camp which proudly suggests that this single is Martin Hannetts's finest production work, except for maybe  Unknown Pleasures and Always Now  His well documented pr...

  A Certain Ratio - Sextet [FACT 55 UK 1982 24-Bit FLAC] Back in September 2019, I posted a rip of the 2014 Factory Benelux double vinyl edition of Sextet as my original 1982 Factory Records pressing was showing signs of wear. Keen to get an original Factory pressing ripped, I recently happened upon a very near mint original ....and I just had to hear how it sounded on the new rig. I might even have left the 174.6 kHz files somewhere.... These tracks were first written and performed live from December 1980, they were recorded at Revolution Studios in Cheadle, Manchester in the Spring of 1981, it took Factory over six months to get them pressed up and released to market. Sextet for me is A Certain Ratio at their very best, five young Mancunian chaps in their early twenties return from New York having found the funk to blend into their dark post-punk roots. They also brought back a young American girl to front the group as Simon Topping decided that he did not want to sing anymore...

  A Certain Ratio - I'd Like To See You Again [WSTUMM 409 UK 2020 24-Bit FLAC] I know that I said that I would avoid the coloured vinyl Mute remasters of the ACR back catelogue when I posted my rip of my well worn 1982 Factory Records pressing back in December 2020, but I relented and sent the band £20 for this white vinyl black & white edition ...purely for research purposes of course! The problem is that Mute don't seem to care about the quality of vinyl used these days and this experiment was a test of how the SBooster power supply would give enough 'umph' so that I could drop down a step on the phono amp decibels and hence, possibly, lower the noise floor. To a degree it worked and this remaster certainly punches around the right areas but the vinyl rumble is still noticeable, mostly around Hot Knights for some bizarre reason.  My next post will reveal how well this method works on a far superior 1976 Japanese pressing of an album by another artist. I'd Lik...

  A Certain Ratio - To Each... [FACT 35 UK 1981 24-Bit FLAC] I think we need a new rip of Too Each with the new cartridge... There are two myths about To Each. .. one unproven, possibly true and the other totally false myth that ACR were a bunch of Nazi's. The latter was based upon the imagery used on the inner gatefold sleeve depicting Nazi generals, however the music journalists who were quick to shout nazi clearly missed the superimposed photograph of Donald Johnson peering down from the window above. Those very same scribes were also foolishly to claim that a certain ratio of Jewish blood from one of Hitler's own speeches was the reasoning behind the band's name. Thankfully we all know better. The second myth is that Eastern Artists (E.A.R.S.) studio engineer Bruce Gerstein (or a studio cleaner in another version) zero'd all the levels on the desk before the album master tape was captured, resulting in Martin Hannett having to rework everything back at Strawberry i...

  A Certain Ratio - ACR:EPR [12MUTE 633 UK 2021 24-Bit FLAC] Here is the third of this year's three-pack from A Certain Ratio. $ouls In The City is the kind of dark squelchy funk of which ACR are masters. It is a six minute brooding workout which I have left as one complete track. Rather than three remixes we get three different b-sides of which the dreamy dub of Big Boy Pants stands head and shoulders above the rest of the EP. A1   $ouls In The City (Part 2 &Part 1) A2 Night People B1 Big Boy Pants B2 Downtime Vibes

  A Certain Ratio - Bootsy (Remix) [FAC 16612 AUS 1987 24-Bit FLAC] Factory Records failed to capitalise on A Certain Ratio's Force album, which had been their best work for a number of years. The Australian off-shoot of Factory persuaded one-time Severed Head and early techno producer Robert Rancic to re-work Bootsy off the album as a single. The Manchester label then foolishly chose to ignore the track as a single (one of the best Force tracks) in the UK. Here is my rip of that single from my original twelve. It is also highly likely that I was the one responsible for affixing that import tax label at my then employer ...hence ruining the rather excellent sleeve! A1 Bootsy (Remix) B1 Mickey Way

  A Certain Ratio - ACR:EPC [12 MUTE 632 UK 2021 24-Bit FLAC] One band who have found a new lease of life are A Certain Ratio. The Mute Records deal has certainly kicked them into action, a whole reissue campaign, a (slightly disappointing) rarities boxset, a new album (one of last year's very best) and a whole bunch of singles. Not bad for three blokes into or around their seventh decades. ACR:EPC is the second of three EPs for 2021, this one is more of a compilation as Musik Control was released as a seperate single a few years back and  YOYOGRIP is a blend/mix of two ACR:Loco album tracks. The Guv'nor is a more dreamy techno track which could have fitted around the ACR:MCR years. Emporer Machine is essentially a modern day dancefloor rework of one of the old classics, Do The Du (Casse) with updated loops, samples, effects and lyrics. A1 Emperor Machine (ACR v The Emperor Machine) A2 The Guv’nor B1 YOYOGRIP B2 Musik Kontrol (ACR v Massey)