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A Certain Ratio Album Reviews 4out of 5
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Early

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There are few more invigorating sounds than the opening jazz funk guitars that usher in 'Do The Du'; even the BBC's 'Question Of Pop' show deemed it worthy of accompanying the title sequence. A Certain Ratio were amongst the first - perhaps the first - British band to incorporate the influence of black funk music into a traditionally white post-punk scene. Add to this Simon Topping's Ian Curtis impressions on vocals and the inevitable Mancunian melancholy and the result is a very important and influential body of work. Admittedly the group certainly went off the boil in the mid-80s and thereafter. Most of this compilation - as this title suggests - concentrates on the group starting out and the B-sides, Rarities and Sessions on CD2 are at least on a par with the best work on the first disc. Such incendiary noises as 'All Night Party', 'Shack Up' and 'Flight' will be familiar to most followers of the era but 'Faceless', the frenetic tribal assault on 'Blown Away' and the dubby 'Abracadabra' all translate well twenty years from their original release. Remember them this way.
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  CD1 Track Listing
Standout Track Do The Do
02 Flight
03 Waterline
04 Shack Up
05 The Fox
06 Blown Away
07 Gum
08 Life's A Scream
09 Skipscada
10 Knife Slits Water
11 Sounds Like Something Dirty
12 Touch
13 Saturn

Standout Track = Standout Track

  CD2 Track Listing
01 All Night Party (Original 7" Single)
02 Faceless (Graveyard & Ballroom)
03 Do The Du (John Peel Session, 1979)
04 All Night Party (John Peel Session, 1979)
05 Flight (John Peel Session, 1979)
06 Choir (John Peel Session, 1979)
07 Skipscada (John Peel Session, 1981)
08 Felch (Original NYC mix)
09 Abracadabra (Sir Horatio 12")
10 Tumba Rhumba (7" Single B-Side)
11 Si Fermir O Grido ('Touch' Cassette)
12 "Tribeca" Video

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Also Recommended:
A Certain Ratio - The Graveyard And The Ballroom, I'd Like To See You Again
Manicured Noise - Northern Stories 1978/80
Slits, The - Cut
Various Artists - In The Beginning There Was Rhythm
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