A Certain Ratio (abbreviated as ACR) are an English post-punk band formed in Greater Manchester in 1977 by Peter Terrell (guitar), Simon Topping (vocals, trumpet), Jez Kerr (bass guitar, vocals), Martin Moscrop (trumpet, guitar) and Donald Johnson (drums), with Martha Tilson (vocals) joining soon after.

One of the first indie groups to draw heavy influence from funk as well as disco and Latin percussion, the band were among the first to debut on Tony Wilson's Factory Records in 1979 with "All Night Party", produced by Martin Hannett.

Following late 1980s and early 1990s phases with A&M Records and Rob Gretton's independent Robs Records, ACR was intermittently active. The group returned to the studio for its ninth studio album Mind Made Up (2008) and since then has continued to perform, with its back catalogue reissued through an arrangement with Mute Records.

They released their first studio album in twelve years, ACR Loco in September 2020, followed by three EPs A, C and R in 2021, and eleventh studio album, 1982, in 2023. Their twelfth studio album, It All Comes Down to This was released in 2024.

History

The Factory era

Formation and first releases

The band was formed by vocalist Simon Topping and guitarist and electronics player Peter Terrell, who after initially performing as a duo, were soon joined by bassist and vocalist Jez Kerr and then guitarist and trumpeter Martin Moscrop, the band played without a drummer for a year. The band's name is taken from the lyric of Brian Eno's song "The True Wheel" from his solo studio album Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (1974). Their early influences included the Velvet Underground, Kraftwerk, the Pop Group, and Pere Ubu. Over time, A Certain Ratio's music took on elements from such acts as James Brown, Parliament, Funkadelic, Hermeto Pascoal, Airto Moreira, and Flora Purim.

ACR's line-up, with a dark bass-heavy industrial and funk sound, recorded the group's debut single, "All Night Party", released by Factory Records in September 1979 (the label's first single artist release), The 5,000 copies that were pressed soon sold out.

On 1 October 1979, the band recorded a session for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show, by which time Donald Johnson had joined the band on drums. The session included "Do the Du", "All Night Party", "Flight" and "Choir" and was broadcast on 17 October.

ACR played their first tour of bigger venues as the opening act on American rock band Talking Heads' UK tour in December 1979. There are suggestions that watching ACR perform encouraged lead vocalist David Byrne and Talking Heads to go in a more funky musical direction.

Early albums

Their next release, the cassette-only compilation of demos and live tracks The Graveyard and the Ballroom, was released in January 1980. The Graveyard side of the album was recorded at Graveyard Studios, Prestwich, Greater Manchester in September 1979, produced by Factory's Martin Hannett. The Ballroom side was a live recording of ACR’s October 1979 gig at the Electric Ballroom, Camden, London.

Martin Moscrop started a second band in 1980, Swamp Children (the name later changed to Kalima), that would go on to share several members with A Certain Ratio. which saw their first placing on the UK Independent Chart, peaking at no. 7. "Shack Up" got a US release in January 1981, going on to peak at no. 46 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart, and the band expanded to a six-piece with the addition of former Occult Chemistry vocalist Martha Tilson, Tony Wilson had arranged for ACR to go to New York to record To Each... but that album had already been largely written and the influences of New York did not really appear in ACR's music until Sextet. The band's recent stay in New York had increased the Latin, jazz and Cuban percussion influences in their music. Sextet was the first album that was self-produced by ACR and is closer to the "dark funk" sound the band wanted.

In February 1982, they released the dub reggae single "Abracadubra" under the pseudonym 'Sir Horatio'.

Founders leave

The band's two founding members, Topping and Terrell, left the band in late 1982.

The Old and the New, a compilation album bringing together many of the non-album singles released from ACR's formation up to the end of 1985, came out on Factory Records in January 1986. In January 1986, ACR performed live on Channel 4 music show The Tube.

1989–1997: A&M, Rob's Records, and Creation Records

New releases were sparse during the next two years. Dojo Records released a 1985 live recording as Live in America in February 1987, and Italian label Materiali Sonori released the Greeting Four EP five months later. The band signed a recording contract with A&M Records in 1989, They also set up their own SoundStation studio in Manchester. A second Soundstation live EP was released in March 1997, the band's last release for some time. This event also featured Section 25, the Wake, the Names and Biting Tongues. Towards the end of 2009, the band announced a live appearance at a fund-raising event at Brighton's Concorde 2 venue on 7 March 2010. Their 2008 studio album, Mind Made Up was re-issued via LTM Recordings during 2010, along with a redux version of the 1986 studio album, Force.

In 2018, Mute Records began reissuing their back catalogue, they released acr:set, an album of mostly old tracks with two new tracks, one ("Dirty Boy") recorded with Barry Adamson of Magazine and featuring a recording of Tony Wilson, and undertook a tour of the UK with dates in Ireland and Finland. In November 2018 they recorded a session for Marc Riley's BBC Radio 6 Music show, performing new song "Dirty Boy", "Mickey Way", and "Flight".

They released a box set, a 40th anniversary retrospective named acr:box, in May 2019 and toured in support of this. It consists of 53 songs providing a detailed career overview to date. A Certain Ratio released ACR Loco in September 2020 on Mute. Their first album of new material in 12 years featured three of the original band members – Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop, and Donald Johnson – along with members of the band's current live ensemble. This was followed by three EP releases and remix album Loco Remezclada in 2021. ACR's eleventh studio album, 1982, was released in 2023. Their twelfth studio album, It All Comes Down to This was released in 2024.

In film

"Wild Party" was used in the soundtrack of the British romantic comedy film Letter to Brezhnev (1985). "Shack Up" was used in the soundtrack of Patrice Chéreau's Intimacy (2001). The band are featured in the biographical comedy drama film 24 Hour Party People (2002) where Tony Wilson (played by Steve Coogan) describes them as "having all the energy of Joy Division but better clothes".

Discography

Studio albums

  • The Graveyard and the Ballroom (1980)
  • To Each... (1981)
  • Sextet (1982)
  • I'd Like to See You Again (1982)
  • Force (1986)
  • Good Together (1989)
  • acr:mcr (1990)
  • Up in Downsville (1992)
  • Change the Station (1997)
  • Mind Made Up (2008)
  • ACR Loco (2020)
  • 1982 (2023)
  • It All Comes Down to This (2024)

References

  • A Certain Ratio at Bandcamp
  • ACR at LTM Recordings
  • "An introduction to A Certain Ratio in 10 records" at thevinylfactory.com