[8] A Certain Ratio, ‘Shack Up’

A Certain Ratio

A Certain Ratio’s tighter-than-Lady-GaGa’s-knickers rework of Banbarra’s ecstatic 1975 beach-party settlement of the world’s ills through getting together (man) is magnificently dour. It’s faithful to the original’s funk, but the horns, whistles and low-mixed clipped guitars are purest new wave blue-eyed dance. Maybe White Lies could do something similar with ‘Put Your Hands Up For Detroit’. If they were any good.

Old skool keepers of the Mancunian floorfiller flame for more than three decades, ACR went from Latino jazz cats to indie dance grandpops to relics of a revived post-punk scene. They’re as prolific as The Blue Nile these days; no need to keep coming up with the goods if your dustier output still sounds so fresh.

Junior set her face to po on the resolutely ordinary bus trip through Kentish suburbs, nodding to the whipcrack beats. She described Simon Topping’s vocals as “long”. Perhaps she means the vowels. Or the languid funky drabness.

Listen to the beat of the world unite:

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