Factory Benelux: A Certain Ratio / Sextet / FBN 11

19 October 2014

Factory Benelux presents deluxe double vinyl and CD editions of Sextet, the ethereal yet rhythmic second album by Manchester postpunk funk group A Certain Ratio, originally released by Factory Records in January 1982.

Newly remastered, the bonus tracks on both the CD and vinyl formats include non-album single Waterline as well as dub plate Abracadubra (released as Sir Horatio), and the band’s John Peel session from June 1981. The double CD version also includes a further Peel session from November 1982, as well as both extended 12” mixes of Knife Slits Water, and an early demo version of percussive marathon Si Firmir O Grido.

"ACR were as crucial to Factory's original ethos as Joy Division - and as similarly unique and unknowable. For all the music's maximal import - a subliminely taut and yet pliable mesh of funk, Latin and jazz peppered by horns - it flows in minimal waves, its trancey apotheosis being the lengthy Knife Slits Water. Less the 'all night party' of their earliest records and more an all-night seance. Donald Johnson's drumming is especially scintilating, and new arrival Martha Tilson's adenoidal vocal add more uncanny vibes. The choicest extras are the Peel sessions, of which the otherwise unrecorded Who's To Say and Piu Lento added clavinet-enhanced notes of Mahavishnu-slanted fusion. 4 stars" (Mojo, 12/2014)

"A Certain Ratio, contemporaries of Joy Division, were the other extra-hip Manchester band on Factory label. Unlike their colleagues, they actually made it to New York during 1980 - a transformative experience, as they plunged into the city's musical melting pot, eventually absorbing Latin/Nuyorican funk (check the slap bass on Martha Tilson-cooed pop nugget Lucinda), abstract jazz and Brazilian percussion (see the whistle-crazy Skipscada), into their once pallid Lancastrian sound. Sextet's unrivalled triumph was to incorporate all these things, while maintaining a murky, super-weird post-punk edge, and even pushing it with synth drones and electronic drums. A bonus disc of Peel sessions and 12-inch mixes further spotlight the band's exploratory joy. 4 stars" (Uncut, 12/2014)

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