Scritti Politti

Welsh singer and songwriter Green Gartside channels his creative efforts chiefly through the project called Scritti Politti. Few pop figures match the singular profile Gartside built: an artist who emerged from the hidden layers of London’s late-’70s underground yet climbed to the summit of the U.K. singles chart, a committed student of linguistic structuralism comfortable debating ideas with his acquaintance, the leading deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, and a striking, soft-eyed man whose singing, as one reviewer observed, possesses “a voice that’s eternally 14 years old” even while he towers six feet six inches tall.

Raised in South Wales, the intellectually gifted yet academically indifferent Gartside joined the Young Communist League during adolescence; there he first encountered future Scritti Politti bassist Nial Jinks. A scholarship took him to Leeds Art College, where he met future drummer Tom Morley. In June 1978 both Gartside and Morley left their studies, secured a London flat, and invited Jinks to join them. Emulating the self-reliant English band Desperate Bicycles, Scritti Politti pressed their debut record, Skank Bloc Bologna, barely three months after forming, silkscreening sleeves and rubber-stamping labels by hand. The handmade pressing sold an unexpected 2,500 copies; Rough Trade later assumed distribution and moved roughly 15,000 units overall. Although credited and photographed as a member, Matthew Kay functioned solely as the group’s business manager and contributed nothing musically.

At that point Scritti Politti’s music remained lean, nervy, and deliberately exploratory, marked by sudden shifts, displaced rhythms, and raw, dissonant chords offset by Gartside’s honeyed delivery of densely opaque, politically tinged yet temporally abstract words. Rough Trade nevertheless recognized an underlying melodic appeal. The label swiftly issued the 12-inch EP 4 A-Sides (also titled Pre-Langue EP) and a four-track single drawn from the band’s second Peel Session. Scritti Politti joined a U.K. package tour with Gang of Four and Joy Division, yet crippling stage fright triggered Gartside’s first heart attack at age twenty-three. Once the dates ended he withdrew for a year, returning to South Wales to recuperate.

Re-emerging with an altered approach that placed pop songcraft at the center while preserving cryptic lyrics, Gartside saw a demo of “The Sweetest Girl” placed on an NME giveaway cassette that quickly gained widespread British airplay. Although several months passed before the finished single appeared, the subsequent album Songs to Remember reached stores in September 1981 and earned strong critical praise, climbing to number one on the U.K. independent chart and number six on the national pop chart. By then the original lineup had dissolved; drummer Tom Morley exited that November. Gartside again paused to reassess, during which major labels began competing for his services.

While finishing Songs to Remember Gartside had visited New York and met fellow Rough Trade songwriter David Gamson, who introduced him to Material drummer Fred Maher. The three began recording as Scritti Politti in 1983 under Nile Rodgers’s supervision, yet Gartside recognized that Rough Trade lacked resources for the glossy pop he now envisioned. After parting with the label the Rodgers sessions remained unreleased. Following negotiations that included overtures from Atlantic Records, Gartside accepted Virgin’s offer; he, Gamson, and Maher then methodically assembled the tracks that became Cupid & Psyche 85.

Issued in June 1985, Cupid & Psyche 85 stood out for its unprecedented integration of sampling and sequencing, technologies then costly and technically limited. Gartside’s characteristically elevated diction remained prominent, though comprehension was unnecessary for enjoyment. Several tracks unfold as exchanges with female vocalists; “A Little Knowledge” therefore stands as an uncommon pop miniature tragedy. The bonus cut “Flesh and Blood,” featuring Jamaican rapper Ann Swinton, still sounds strikingly current two decades later. The album’s major successes were “Wood Beez” and “The Word Girl” in Britain and “The Perfect Way” in America, the latter peaking at number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100 and receiving extensive MTV exposure. Few mid-’80s releases retain such timelessness.

Fellow musicians quickly absorbed the album’s technical advances, leaving scant critical attention on their source. After touring, Gartside collaborated with artists such as Chaka Khan. Scritti Politti resurfaced in 1988 with Provision; its planned single “Boom! There She Was” spotlighted the late Roger Troutman. The album fared well in the U.K. yet failed entirely in the U.S., and Gartside himself remained dissatisfied. His stage fright had already ended live appearances, leaving only exhausting rounds of regional interviews with unprepared hosts. Disillusioned, he withdrew once more, this time for nearly ten years.

Anomie & Bonhomie, released in 1999, signaled his return and demonstrated continued engagement with contemporary sounds through work with rappers Mos Def and Jimahl, expanding Scritti Politti’s palette into full hip-hop territory. The album was well crafted yet met only modest public response. Seven years afterward came White Bread Black Beer, recorded entirely by Gartside and benefiting from renewed interest generated by Rough Trade’s 2005 Early compilation. One hopes Gartside will continue, for while ensembles form and disband there remains only one Green Gartside—an artist of uncommon integrity, poetry, and intellect.