ARTIST: A Certain Ratio
TITLE: Sextet
YEAR RELEASED: 1982
CHART ACTION: #53 UK
SINGLES: Knife Slits Water
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Doubt It
LINEUP: Martin Moscorp, Jez Kerr, Donald Johnson, Simon Topping, Martha Tilson, Andy Connell
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Sparse, spare electro-funk, stealing more from Joy Division than anyone, and it’s just…boring and weird.
SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Having heard some singles by this group, I dove into this record with some good expectations. Yet, hearing an entire album of this spare post-punk dance-funk, I can say that it’s kinda boring, really.
The vocals seem to float here, there, everywhere. The bass lines rumbles, there’s drums, other instruments flit and float about. Is there a song? Or is it random noise?
When they get cohesive, it’s fine, and they will (at least on their singles). But, I’m exiling this one.
NOTES & MINUTIAE: They had a couple of early cassettes and EPs and singles, collected elsewhere.
IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: Yes, remixes, Peel sessions, etc.
GRADE: C: Maybe I just don’t get this album, but I contend there’s not a lot here to get. EXILED