A Certain Ratio "The Old & The New" Review

OUT OF THE GRAVEYARD, INTO THE BALLROOM

A CERTAIN RATIO

The Old & The New (Factory)

IT'S A MIRACLE that they're still with us, surviving the flak and the sorry neglect; eternally, it seems, walking in the shadows of Factory front-runners; never quite deathly enough to match Joy Division or as perfectly synthesised as New Order.

Feel free to see this as a purely mercenary offering from Factory, but, as 'The Old & The New' bears witness, ACR have mined their own spiritual seam since '79; untainted (I tell you) by label-mates or contemporaries. Okay, so it's not a barrel of laughs, but nobody said it was going to be easy. I concede that 'Do The Du', 'And Then Again' and 'Thin Boys' may present bleak, bass-fired, mortal pictures of collapsing bedsits (never Curtis copyists, they co-existed with the great man), but somehow ACR's structures - weird conurbations of funk, jazz, soul, avant garde - consistently hook you and lure you inside.

Here’s 'Shack Up' to lift you, throw you off balance, jerk you like a manic marionette; ‘The Fox', haunting and hunted; and the extraordinary samba-shuffle of ‘Blown Away’. Yes (Side One), these were Topping years, and when he left ACR sought to cast off the ‘miserable bastards' mantle and move to higher plains.

As a unit, 'The Old & The New' emerges as much a soundtrack for Factory as for the band; the passage from the void of fading dawns through Romantic landscapes to the current unity of low-life decadence and dance. Side Two slips into the mean brassy streets of 'Sounds Like Something Dirty’; the percussive meanderings of ‘Life's A Scream' led now by the talented Donald Johnston; towards the distortion and drumslam of ‘Wild Party'.

And it's a magnificent package, featuring a cover-mounted seven-inch of ‘Shack Up' and Thin Boys'. I could have done with ‘Forced Laugh' or ‘Back To The Start’ off 'To Each .. .' but this is not The Best Of.. merely the collected singles '78-'85. A fine intro to ACR, a reward for the addicted, and a body-blow to their detractors.

But last is best - the opening track, the inexhaustible glory of ‘Flight’, which seems to define my fascination with ACR. In 'Flight' they reveal that rare quality to produce neo-classical music that's both emotionally disturbing and spiritually uplifting. "The lamp of lite is not extinguished, it shines more brightly in the spirit”. The story so far...

Len Brown