A CERTAIN RATIO & ELLEN BETH ABDI

I have, perhaps, a reputation for liking my music on the shouty, angry, downright NOISY side. That is not entirely undeserved but my tastes are far broader than that suggests and it was a touch disconcerting when an old friend greeted me with “what the heck are you doing here” or words to that effect...

Whatever, music is a very personal thing and everyone is entitled to their own tastes and all that. ELLEN BETH ABDI’s musical style is very much not my bag at all, for most of her set at least. For the most part the music is distinctly smooth jazz-meets-lounge-meets-easy listening, and it does at times stray into 80s-music-shop-organ-salesman-demonstrating-his-wares territory. But, for all that, Abdi has a fantastic voice, the lyrics are more than decent, she is a very engaging, personable raconteur and I enjoy her set (maybe despite myself), although perhaps not as much as those around me. And then come the last two songs. OH MY WORD! Both drop that keyboard sound and are built on live looped vocals that build into something that is as haunting as it is beautiful. Kinda reminiscent of what Laura Kidd did at times as She Makes War, those last two songs are right up my street. A quick chat after her set suggests Abdi is a decent person and marmalade is one of the more unusual items on the merch table... Certainly an artist whose career I’ll be following with interest.

And so to the main event. For the current tour, A CERTAIN RATIO are the core trio of Jez Kerr (keys, lead vox, percussion), Martin Moscrop (trumpet, guitar, percussion, drums) and Donald Johnson (drums, lead and backing vocals, percussion, bass), with Viv Griffin (bass, backing vox, guitar).

ACR start the set with latest album It All Comes Down To This in its entirety. In lesser hands, this would be a bold - maybe even dangerous - move. From the opening title track to Dorothy Says, the audience are on side and most of them seem familiar with the new material. Bitten By A Lizard is absolutely monumental and Out From Under is very, very danceable whilst Estate Kings mixes haunting trumpet, 80s jazz-funk slap-n-pop bass, spoken word vox from Johnson and blaxploitation soundtrack wah-wah guitar to great effect.

The second half of the set explores the back catalogue from 1980’s The Graveyard and the Ballroom through to last year’s 1982, along with a couple of covers. Of these ten songs, the highlights for me are the percussive instrumental Winter Hill, Do The Du, a perhaps unsurprising guest appearance from local legend Maria Uzor on Get A Grip and menacing closer Knife Slits Water with its triple-lead vox from Johnson, Griffin and Kerr.

There are moments when my mind wanders - the set is 90 minutes long and some of the material gets close to that 80s jazz-funk that makes my teeth itch from the inside - but I am always brought back into things by the originality of Moscrop’s choppy riffs, melodic patterns and use of fx and slide, along with Johnson’s cracking drum work and Kerr’s avuncular uncle personality. The not so secret weapon may be Griffin’s bass - there’s nothing flash but she probably has the best tone I have heard this year and absolutely every note fits just right.

ACR are legends of post-punk and funk-punk. Without their influence, the musical world might be a different, less interesting place. Tonight’s set shows that they deserve their legendary status and should be playing to bigger audiences in larger venues. As things stand, I am very pleased that I have witnessed them play a cracking set in a great venue.