Launching their long awaited eleventh studio album, ‘ACR Loco’, dance-funk post-punks A Certain Ratio played a live studio session of the entire tracklist as part of a virtual ‘Evening With A Certain Ratio’, which also included a fan’s Q&A and a 90-minute long DJ set.
This was the band’s first performance without backing singer Denise Johnson, who sadly passed away prior to the album’s release date. The band respectfully marked her absence using an extra microphone with her scarf and tambourine tied to the stand, and an artist’s portrait of the singer hung on the wall.
With original member and lead singer Jez Kerr (bass) at the helm, ACR began on their single ‘Friends Around Us’, which was released as a 7” format, before moving onto ‘Bouncy Bouncy’, featuring Denise’s recorded vocals. Following their performance of ‘Yo Yo Gi’, the band’s other founding members Donald Johnson (drums) and Martin Moscrop (guitar, keyboards) took over on melodic and electronic vocals for ‘Supafreak’.
ACR were joined for ‘Get A Grip’ by Maria Uzor of tribal-punk duo and fellow Mute contemporaries, Sink Ya Teeth, and then performed their second and main single, ‘Berlin’. After playing the last song of the album, the band ended their set by dedicating it to Denise.
In another part of the online stream, Martin and Jez DJ’d a 90-minute set of the band’s own material as well as taking inspiration from a host of other artists including mixes of songs by Deli Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra and Andrew Weatherall.
25/09/20: A Certain Ratio @ Hope Mill Studios, Manchester.
Photos © Ayisha Khan.
© Ayisha Khan.