A CERTAIN RATIO @ DINGWALLS, LONDON

Following their recent companion releases of their third and fifth studio albums on Mute records, ‘Sextet’ (1982) and ‘Force’ (1986), which celebrate their 44-45th and 40th anniversaries this year respectively, A Certain Ratio were on a special tour performing the entire album track lists across two sets. The remastered versions of these albums are named ‘The Joy of Sextet’ and ‘Force Majeure’ and also include tracks not on the original releases.

With their core lineup of Jez Kerr (vocals, keyboard, sampling), Martin Moscrop (guitar, trumpet, drums, percussion) and Donald Johnson (drums, bass, vocals) along with newer members Matt Steele (keyboards – second set only) and Viv Griffin (bass, backing vocals, percussion), they began with ‘Sextet’ on its opening track ‘Lucinda’, which was peppered with Moscrop’s Herbie Hancock stylised guitar. ‘Crystal’, as its name suggests, had clangy prismatic chimes and Griffin echoing Kerr’s vocals. The percussive chaos of ‘Gum’ was pinned by the swoops of Moscrop’s trumpet and they played a uniquely live version of the album’s single, ‘Knife Slits Water’ (which appears twice on the new release also as a mix), with Moscrop swapping duties with Johnson and delivering drum smashes; unfortunately the venue’s lighting coordinator condemned them to play this track in darkness.

Instrumental piece ‘Tumba Rumba’, with tribal taps and brassy elephant shrieks, burrowed into zippy electronic dives (which could have been louder); ‘Day One’ saw Griffin on vocals and Moscrop on bongo drums, with the former also singing in the sink of ‘Rialto’ and the latter doing trumpet drills. ‘Below the Canal’ was a percussive cinematic instrumental, only featuring vocals by Kerr on vocoder.

The second set for ‘Force’, a much funkier, melodious album which picked up the atmosphere somewhat, began on ‘Only Together’, a duet between Kerr and Viv (who have by now developed a close singing partnership), now with the addition of Steele on keyboards. The thickly laid funk continued in the aptly named album single ‘Bootsy’ and the warm shimmery synths of ‘Fever 103°’ peaked with its soft-laid chorus, but the most interesting track of the set, as it also is on the album, was ‘Naked and White’: its refrains giving out to a moodier soundscape soothed over by Kerr’s vocals and then ending in the industrial clatter of drums and cymbal crashes, which could have been drawn out even longer as on the new release, ‘Force Majeure’.

There were echoes of 1987’s ‘The Big E (I Won’t Stop Loving You)’ in ‘And Then She Smiles’; ‘Take Me Down’, with Moscrop’s pedal effects, ended in a single hum bubbling out at the song’s end. The band performed the enigmatic instrumental ‘Anthem’ and title track ‘Force’, not included on the original album, received its first live play on this tour, with no chorus but flashes of Serge Gainsbourg styled interludes. Added to the set list from their ‘Greetings Four’ first EP – released in the same year as ‘Force’ and on which its other tracks, ‘Bootsy’ and ‘Fever 103°’, also appear – was ‘The Runner’: the most dystopian, dark song of the evening which nods to Factory Records contemporaries, Joy Division. ‘Inside’, also from the EP, was another set list highlight that was sung by Johnson, before the band traditionally finished on their carnival track, ‘Si Firmi o Grido’. Despite the sound and lighting issues at a venue that perhaps wasn’t their usual, the show recovered, with special commendations to Griffin’s contributions on vocals in a lineup she has very much become an integral part of and Kerr’s continued persistence despite his health issues, bringing these fantastic albums back to live.

09/10/26: A Certain Ratio @ Dingwalls, London.