Just one year after “1982”, A Certain Ratio return with their thirteenth album. Among the first bands of Tony Wilson’s historic Factory, produced by Martin Hammett, A Certain Ratio laid the foundations for what would become the Madchester sound in which the icy detachment of new wave and the enveloping warmth of funk would find an ideal fusion point.
As often happens, the role of pioneers did not give the group the notoriety it probably deserved, but it gave them a place among the cult bands, those who receive particular attention when they release a new album.
After a long pause, preceded by a phase of getting stuck in a sound directed towards an overly conventional funk, in 2008 ACR re-emerged with the excellent “Mind Made Up”, followed by two other releases until the recent “It All Comes Down to This”.
Accustomed, in their long career, to surrounding themselves with sessionmen and collaborators, in “It All Comes Down to This”, A Certain Ratio decide to limit themselves to the original nucleus, partially renouncing their modus operandivery linked to the period of great experimentation in which their adventure began.
So the circle closes to the historic Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson, however assisted in the production by Dan Carey, boss of the Speedy Wunderground label (already alongside Black Midi, Kae Tempest and Black Country, New Road), one who groups outside the lines you know.
From the meeting between Dan Carey and ACR, who had already collaborated for the remix of “Down And Dirty” in 2021, emerges the desire to abandon, at least in part, funk, putting the bass aside slapto try to find an unprecedented compromise between the new melodies and the robust rhythms that have always characterized their sound.
We start off strong with the double “All Comes Down To This” and “Keep It Real”: the guitars stand out scratchily, supported by the powerful drive by Donald Johnson, and by the synths that push through every pause and suspension. When the beats slow down, the sounds darken and the atmosphere becomes suffocating in the murky trip-hop of “Surfer Ticket” and the anxiety dub of “Bitten By A Lizard”.
But in “It All Comes Down To This” the changes in climax are recurring; therefore, if some rays of sunshine reappear among the airy synths of “God Knows”, it is in “Where You Coming From”, driven by Jez Kerr’s bass, that you can almost feel the contagious euphoria of what was the Madchester of the 90’s.
In “Estate Kings” it is Donald Johnson who takes the microphone to narrate the Manchester of his past while Martin Moscrop’s trumpet embroiders jazzy textures, and if the final ‘Dorothy Says’ may seem from the title to be a tribute to the Velvets, the soft progress confirms any suspicion.
In essence, the great variety is the strength of “It All Comes Down to This” and despite the risk of deja vu is always around the corner, the Dan Carey and ACR pairing proves to be a winning one. Excellent work by the producer, who was able to enhance the sound of a band with still a great desire to get involved.
In fact, taking back the contagious refrain of “Out From Under”, the only concession to funk on the entire album, “Groove with the rhythm, it’s always giving”, ACR still have a lot to give.
04/27/2024
