Although receiving some warm reviews and achieving a modicum of success in the States (where the evergreen "Love Tempo" was a #4 hit on the Billboard dance chart), it's probably true to say that Rotterdam-birthed and Manchester-based dance collective QUANDO QUANGO were a good few years ahead of their time.
Since their 1980s heyday, of course, key members Hillegonda Rietveld and Mike Pickering have gone on to far greater public recognition: Rietveld academically with her studies of House Music and a post as a senior lecturer at a London University and Pickering more famously as a prime mover in chart-gobbling pop/ dance troupe M People and as a world-renowned DJ, who for many years operated from Manchester's legendary Hacienda Club.
However, even the briefest re-appraisal of their 1985 album for Factory, "Pigs & Battleships" demonstrates they had of course got their formula right all along and - almost 20 years after it first circulated - this album remains a treat for head, heart and feet.
Indeed, "Pigs & Battleships" exudes a sussed, catch-all cosmopolitan feel which continues to serve it well. Superb opening track "Genius" is almost a microcosm of what follows, featuring expansive, New Order-style keyboards, pre-House piano ripples, Latino percussion and the smartest of backbeats. Later on, fanfare trumpet and some lovely arpgeggios from guest guitarist (my hero!) Vini Reilly of Durutti Column fame turn the heat up further and offer notice that we're in for quite a ride.
And so it proves. "Pigs & Battleships" covers a variety of bases successfully, taking in 80's style club moves ("Rebel"), smouldering sambas with gorgeous jazzy piano from ACR/ Swing Out Sister man Andy Connell ("S.T") and - best of all - nudges into updates of that classic 70's Jamaican reggae vibe via the woozy lope of "Happy Boy" and the fabulous almost-Lover's Rock of the sunny "This Feeling." Very attractive indeed, people.
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Brilliantly, the album proper closes with a svelte, surefooted cover of War's "Low Rider", but that's not the end of it as LTM (as usual) spoil us rotten with a slew of extra tracks and remixes. Respected NYC dance producer Michael Kamins mixed the album and he also works his magic over the extended mixes of QQ's twin calling cards - "Love Tempo" and "Atom Rock." Both are great, though "Love Tempo" works especially well in this stripped down, jarringly insistent new incarnation. Oh, and we even get the disciplined funk of "Tingle," which still sounds cool, despite the dated, rubbery Mark King-style basslines.
Quando Quango, then, are well overdue a generous helping of real recognition, regardless of their two main protagonists' later successes. They chose their collaborators well, sure, and a fertile address book also helps (the album also features contributions from Johnny Marr, ACR'S Simon Topping and 52nd Street's Bev Johnson), but ultimately this is/ was very much Pickering and Hillegonda's brainchild and it's one that has grown up as an offspring to be entirely proud of.
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