A Certain Ratio

British post-punk outfit A Certain Ratio stand out through a vast catalog blending funk laced with brass, Brazilian jazz, dub, electro, and further intensely rhythmic styles. Their recording bow arrived in 1979 via "All Night Party," a single whose bite rivaled anything contemporaneous. Seven of their releases reached the U.K. independent singles chart's upper tier during the early Factory Records era, led by "Flight" and "Waterline," while five albums appeared, among them The Graveyard and the Ballroom (1980) and Sextet (1982). Stints on major-label A&M and Rob Gretton's independent Robs Records in the late 1980s and early 1990s preceded a period of sporadic activity. Return to the studio came with Mind Made Up (2008), after which recording and performance resumed steadily. New material after ten years surfaced first on the 2018 anthology ACR:Set, then on ACR:Box (2019) with its array of rare and previously unreleased tracks. Studio albums that followed include ACR Loco (2020), 1982 (2023), and the streamlined It All Comes Down to This (2024), together with several EPs.

The group's name derives from a phrase in Brian Eno's "The True Wheel." Bassist Jeremy Kerr, guitarist and trumpeter Martin Moscrop, guitarist Peter Terrell, and vocalist and trumpeter Simon Topping formed the quartet in 1977. Joy Division manager Rob Gretton witnessed an early show and alerted Tony Wilson, who signed them to Factory and assumed management duties. The Martin Hannett-produced single "All Night Party"/"The Thin Boys" marked their 7" debut in 1979, after which drummer Donald Johnson joined. Studio and live recordings from that period surfaced on the 1980 cassette The Graveyard and the Ballroom.

Although their tone remained austere, funk soon permeated the material. This direction crystallized later that year with a direct reading of Banbarra's "Shack Up," issued on Factory Benelux. Factory work continued with the atmospheric "Flight," a career peak and the first of seven U.K. independent Top Ten hits. Additional vocalist Martha Tilson came aboard for the 1981 album To Each..., a stark and occasionally droning set that closed their Hannett collaborations; the self-produced 12" "Waterline" crystallized post-punk funk augmented by electronics. Between those projects, "Shack Up" (appearing in the U.S. as the B-side of a Factory stateside 12") logged ten weeks on Billboard's Top Disco 100, peaking at number 46. In 1982 the band delivered Sextet and I'd Like to See You Again, releases that broadened their palette with post-disco R&B, Latin, Brazilian, and jazz ingredients and, under the Sir Horatio alias, yielded a dub-inflected single. Tilson exited before the second of those albums; Terrell departed by year's end. Topping left to join Quando Quango ahead of the 1983 single "I Need Someone Tonite," which confirmed keyboardist Andy Connell's full membership.

Scattered 1984 and 1985 singles "Life's a Scream," "Brazilia," and "Wild Party" introduced saxophonist Tony Quigley. After Connell, Kerr, and Moscrop concluded their Kalima (formerly Swamp Children) involvement, ACR completed one further Factory album, the vibrant 1986 release Force. Connell subsequently focused on Swing Out Sister, whose Corinne Drewery appeared on the track "Bootsy." The remaining members moved to A&M, yielding the short-lived results Good Together (1989) and ACR:MCR (1990). Liam Mullan was added before the shift to Robs, where Up in Downsville emerged in 1992. Creation subsidiary Rev-Ola later secured most of the back catalog and issued 1994's Looking for a Certain Ratio, a remix collection featuring Electronic, the Other Two, Graham Massey, and Sub Sub, among other Manchester peers. A second Robs album, Change the Station, followed in 1997.

Although no new studio album appeared for more than a decade, portions of the discography resurfaced in the early 2000s via Soul Jazz and LTM. Early recordings simultaneously influenced a fresh wave of acts including the Rapture and Franz Ferdinand. Mind Made Up, counted as the ninth studio album when including The Graveyard and the Ballroom, surfaced in 2008 on Le Maquis. Updating their funk-based approach, it featured longtime collaborator Denise Johnson on three tracks. LTM reissued the set two years later. ACR maintained live activity into the late 2010s; between 2017 and 2019 Mute Records handled further expansions, reissues, and anthologies. The overview ACR:Set contained new recordings, among them a collaboration with Manchester post-punk veteran Barry Adamson. ACR:Box marked the 40th anniversary with highlights, rarities, and unreleased studio material. Energized by the retrospective and renewed performances, the band tracked ACR Loco, their first album in twelve years, with guests Mike Joyce, Eric Random, and Sink Ya Teeth. The September release came two months after Denise Johnson's passing. Further 2021 output comprised the remix album Loco Remezclada and the EP trilogy ACR:EPA, ACR:EPC, and ACR:EPR. The 2023 return 1982 proved not archival but fresh material, this time showcasing Manchester vocalist Ellen Beth Abdi. For the subsequent album Jeremy Kerr, Martin Moscrop, and Donald Johnson handled nearly all instrumentation under producer Dan Carey (Bat for Lashes, Fontaines D.C., Black Midi), who had earlier remixed a track from Loco Remezclada. The resulting lean set, It All Comes Down to This, appeared in 2024.