Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rap! Slap! A lost classic?, 20 May 2005
I'm prepared to stick my neck out and say I love this strange little record. Becoming a New Order fan in the mid 80s I decided to check out other Factory acts (a mixed bag if there ever was one) and remember picking up the sleeve in Manchester's HMV and being amazed that Factory with its austere, beautiful design aesthetic would release something as cheesy looking as this: ACR, with their shirts off, posing in a 'Man at C&A' style with a very 80s typeface. However look again and you'll see they are chilling out amid the uber-cool 'Gay Traitor', aka the basement bar of the legendary Hacienda. Pretty much sums this record up, a great mix of quite naff and effortlessly cool. This then is the 4th ACR LP, and the last record by the classic lineup before Simon Topping and Peter Terrel left and Andy 'Swing Out Sister' Connel joined. Its an interesting mash-up of old ACR...(Fx-laden guitars, ghostly voices, layers of percussion) with a fruity latin/jazz/pop sensibility which would be their later direction. You can hear they are going for a more slick, funky sound. They've aquired a few new machines; a Vocoder, Clavinet etc but by their own admission didn't know what to do with them...but in doing so create what I find is a wonderfully strange and enjoyable record. This is the sound of a band really stretching themselves to emulate the funk imports they were getting from NYC, not quite managing it but in the process creating one of the best records of their career. It was recorded in Cheadle, but sounds like it was recorded in a jungle on some faraway..very funky planet. Ultramarine and Future Sound of London are but two of the dance acts who later plundered this LP for samples so I'm not alone in my affection for this one! As with all LTM (worthy custodians of much of the Factory back catalogue) re-issues this includes sleeve notes, original packaging and extra tracks. Here you get the superb 7" and 12" versions of 'Knife Slits Water' which capture ACR at their most brutally funky. Also included are the jazzy 'Tumba Rumba', a very strange dubbed-out remix of 'Guess Who' and 'I Need Someone Tonite' 12", their first foray into pop-music and sits well alongside the BeMusic/Dojo dance productions captured on LTMs 'Cool As Ice/Twice As Nice' comps.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, 29 Oct 2009
Back in the late 70s / early 80s ACR were always the coolest band around, with just the right blend of trippy, spaced-out weirdness and tight agit-funk. 30 years ago Joy Division were there for our angst, Cabaret Voltaire or Throbbing Gristle if we wanted to freak out our parents and uncomprehending classmates, but if we wanted to sway our bodies a little, there were only one or two options, of which ACR were streets ahead of the rest. Remember, this was the post-punk period - white kids just didn't dance then, but then Simon Topping and Co made it cool to forget our trenchcoats and macs for a while, and actually start to move. This they accomplished with classic singles like "Shack Up" and the two awesome albums "To Each" and "Sextet".
Which is why this album is a bit of a let-down. Gone are the funky, yet sinister rhythms of "Flight", "Do The Du" or "Winter Hill", only to be replaced by wishy-washy, insipid Level 42-style funk. Sure, on the extended version, you get a couple of versions of the magnificent "Knife Slits Water", but the 7" version had already appeared on "Sextet" whereas if you want the 12" version, go for the superb "In The Beginning There Was Rhythm" compilation on Soul Jazz. Apart from "Knife...", what else stands out? Well, not much I'm afraid. It starts quite well with "Touch" and "Saturn", and the single "Guess Who", which closes the original album is reasonable enough too, although this is not the best version. But in between we get some very uninspiring and, in many cases, instantly forgettable music.
I once read that ACR were great until they learnt to play their instruments. There may just be some truth in that.
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~ Certain Ratio
~ Section 25
~ Durutti Column
~ A Certain Ratio
~ Section 25
