“OUR problem has always been we’re waiting for everybody else to catch up,” says A Certain Ratio’s drummer Donald Johnson. “The minute one of us is not here any more, that’s when someone will go, ‘Wow, have you seen this body of work?’ They’ll all start talking about it with reverence. I stand by everything we’ve ever done and we’re still pushing the envelope.”
ACR may not have tasted mainstream success over their decades-long career, but their influence is undeniable, infiltrating the sound of everyone from Talking Heads and The Red Hot Chili Peppers to The Stone Roses and LCD Soundsystem. Formed in Manchester in 1978, ACR’s anything-goes approach incorporated elements of hard funk, disco, percussive jazz and electronica. Tony Wilson, their Factory label boss, declared them “the new Sex Pistols”.
Following formative trips to New York, they hit an early peak with 1982’s Sextet, since when they’ve continued to experiment, often thrillingly, with rhythm and texture. The latest example is It All Comes Down To This, which finds ACR riding something of a late-career wave. “We’ve managed to steer a course for ourselves without planning anything,” marvels singer/bassist Jez Kerr. “The strength of ACR is in the group, not as individuals. We wanted to try to do everything.”