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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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