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Lee Fisher experiences a mixed set from the Mancunian post-punks
Image: A Certain Ratio by Lee Fisher
I haven’t seen A Certain Ratio in a very, very long time so I was pretty hyped for this visit to Newcastle but – to employ a rare-for-me sports metaphor – it was very much a game of two halves. This tour sees them play two key albums from their weirdly intermittent back catalogue, 1982’s Sextet and 1986’s Force. And herein lies the problem: Sextet is a magnificent record full of strange, skeletal, twitchy funk – as much Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire as it is Parliament; Force is, I’m afraid, mince.
So the first set was really impressive – Jez Kerr doesn’t seem to do a whole lot these days, half-heartedly adding some keyboards and vocals – but fellow founder members Donald Johnson and Martin Moscrop swap roles and instruments and seem to be having a good time, while the secret weapon is relative newcomer Viv Griffin, barely into her twenties but doing an incredible job of replicating those booming basslines and sharp guitar slashes along with some great vocals and the odd burst of cowbell. Sextet gems like Lucinda, Waterline and the timeless Knife Slits Water sound haunting and fresh.
Then, after a short break, they return with a second keyboard player and their Force album. Kerr introduces it by offering “that was our experimental jazz album, this was our attempt at a pop album with experimental jazz bits”. It’s not pop, it’s not experimental jazz and it’s not a worthy follow-up to Sextet. It is, unfortunately, ACR trying to be New Order, but landing on ‘Lightning Seeds as played by Level 42’. There’s wet-fart synth-brass and nasty keyboard presets, the basslines aren’t as powerful and the whole thing is an insipid indie mush. It’s not all terrible – Mickey Way still has a sparse, jittery force even in this slightly diluted form and sounds almost like their earlier material. But for the most part the whole thing is dispiriting, especially after the excellent first set. And Jez Kerr’s general demeanour suggests he knows it.
