8 February 1981, Valentino's, Edinburgh, Scotland
w/ Josef K
- Felch, And Then Again, Flight // Shack Up [incomplete setlist]
Check out the full photo set via flickr.
Review by Chris Kershaw in STUDENT magazine (St Andrews Edition, 12 February 1981)
A Certain Something
A thankfully short break, then A Certain Ratio, a band whose records I love dearly, but had never before seen live. ACR's music - a startling, sparse funk -pounding.spine-tingling bass, hazy, ethereal synth, searing brass, and lots and lots of drums. A dizzy, cascading rhythm that nags at your feet - this is the Modern Dance.
ACR's visuals - practically nil. There is no pretence to vain 'rockist' concepts of 'showmanship', of pandering to an audience. Songs are played, instruments are switched round, no other communication is offered. This could be construed as arrogance. but I don't think so.
'Felch' opens - swirling synth, muted bass breaking into a jerking, spasmodic dance. The words arc sung as if in a trance, the trumpet cuts through like a hot knife. Just try and keep your feet still.
'And Then Again' - two trumpets, two drummers, a bubbling bass, Simon Topping's voice distant, incantory, yet with passion enough to
put 99 per cent of "modern" singers to shame - quite magnificent.
'Flight' closes - three drummers (Topping and Donald Johnson upfront on bongos), bass and synth thrown together in an insistent,
compelling tribal celebration.
Gone... and back for 'Shack Up', the most commercial realisation of ACR's frantic stripped funk (if you don't own this record, you're missing a treat). Tonight it elicits wry smiles as the bass-player almost loses the thread. An example of ACR's apparent casualness, but don't be put off - theirs is a vision as challengingly innovative, and above all, honest as that of anyone else's you'd care to name.
An Uncommon Band.
--
Comments
Post a Comment