Wythenshawe in Manchester - and here come the thin boys (to quote an early B-side of theirs). Life in 1978 was a bit crap and loads of young musicians were out there busy telling us so. Conversely, I remember hearing an A Certain Ratio song on John Peel's show for the first time and stopping in my tracks thinking, "What the hell is THIS?".
The song in question was "Crippled Child" and I sat still listening to the uncomfortable story of a father seeing his deformed offspring for the first time, questioning the mother, his wife, about the poor mite's bent legs and if he is holding the right baby. The song ends with the father wanting his child to die in the home that he owns - come on, this is not the usual punk fodder. Indeed it wasn't.
In some ways, ACRs early output could be more disturbing than Joy Division with their utterly eerie atmospherics and frenetic jazz-trips during their live performances. For me, one key ACR release showed how the band inadvertently rubbed off on The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem and even early Foals. Jagged scratchy guitar, funky ankle-deep bass and skittering drum patterns born out of jazz and funk influences from the States. Essentially, very little of this music comes from typical English patronage. This was black American music in tough Wythenshawe in the 70's, a transatlantic industrial party gathered together on a cassette-only collection.
Called "The Graveyard & The Ballroom", it was originally (and perversely) wrapped in a PVC see-through wallet issued in various colours. Several reissues of this album have appeared on CD, once more on cassette (as part of Factory's ill-fated but charming tape re-issue series) and on a 2009 vinyl issue, via the superb Soul Jazz imprint (with an extra 12" added).
The album was a launch-pad for the band in a then-competitive independent scene. Some of their music was as uncompromising as that which came out of the so-called American 'no noise' scene (DOA, Defunkt, Liquid Liquid and the like) or from our own not dissimilar acts like 23 Skidoo or early 400 Blows, with both the Graveyard and the live Ballroom sides of this cassette sporting a few chilling compositions in "Genotype/Phenotype" and "Flight", as well as their high-octane rendition of 1st Factory single, "All Night Party" - all this without a drummer. That is, until Donald Johnson arrived, He added pyrotechnic disco beats and soul and funk chops, A Certain Ratio stepped up their game and quickly supercharged their sound.
It's fair to say that ACR occasionally despaired at producer Martin Hannett's non-funky knob-twiddling on their records but Hannett ultimately created his own funk for this album, as well as the follow-up "To Each" and key singles "Do The Du" and "Flight". The Graveyard and the Ballroom remains a timeless document.
The song in question was "Crippled Child" and I sat still listening to the uncomfortable story of a father seeing his deformed offspring for the first time, questioning the mother, his wife, about the poor mite's bent legs and if he is holding the right baby. The song ends with the father wanting his child to die in the home that he owns - come on, this is not the usual punk fodder. Indeed it wasn't.
Called "The Graveyard & The Ballroom", it was originally (and perversely) wrapped in a PVC see-through wallet issued in various colours. Several reissues of this album have appeared on CD, once more on cassette (as part of Factory's ill-fated but charming tape re-issue series) and on a 2009 vinyl issue, via the superb Soul Jazz imprint (with an extra 12" added).
