A Certain Ratio – It All Comes All the way down to This
Mute
Eclectic post-punkers A Certain Ratio have loved a remarkably lengthy shelf life. A staggering 45 years into their profession, the disco-funk/industrial-jazz/world-dance stalwarts have outlasted just about everybody and every thing within the influential Manchester scene from which they arose.
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But It All Comes All the way down to This, their thirteenth album—there have been some hiatuses over time—doesn’t sound like a piece of nostalgia. With assist from Squid producer Dan Carey, the band’s core trio (Donald Johnson, Jez Kerr, and Martin Moscrop) have generated a wealth of recent beats and future-shocked textures, all whereas remaining in contact with their trademark spongy grooves and sharp rhythmic corners.
However this bleeding-edge sensibility has roots previously: Opener “All Comes All the way down to This” combines spiky handled guitar with an elastic rhythm part and warping synth results that instantly recall Brian Eno circa Taking Tiger Mountain (By Technique), the album that impressed the band’s identify. Different tracks have a looser, extra panoramic really feel: “God Is aware of” provides an open-hearted synth melody that means former scene rivals New Order and even poppier contemporaries like Easy Minds. Spoken-word boho trip-hop, tense and twisty warehouse dub, even rowdy dancefloor psych-pop alongside the strains of the Soup Dragons or E.M.F.—it’s all right here. And if that generally makes the album seem to be a survey course in British underground music of the final 40 years, properly, seldom has getting educated been such a blast.
The lyrics can likewise take a reflective flip, with the band reminiscing about pre-Web adolescence on the languidly funky “Property Kings.” Elsewhere, they showcase a sly, confrontational wit: “Heterosexuality’s not regular / It’s simply frequent / A bit like me,” they sing on elegiac nearer “Dorothy Says.”
Practically a half-century into their run, A Certain Ratio have lots to show however stay desirous to be taught—and, above all, to maintain the party going. – GRADE: B
You’ll be able to take a look at It All Comes All the way down to This at Bandcamp and elsewhere.
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