An intriguing in-concert archival release by the ever-vigilant LTM label, "Live In Groningen..." catches influential Mancunian funksters A CERTAIN RATIO trawling around the European club circuit with fellow Factory chums Section 25 in the dark months following Ian Curtis's death.
At the time, both bands were quietly building up a reputation and playing mostly the same venues Joy Division had blazed through only nine months earlier and a frank and amusing tour diary excerpt from Section 25's Larry Cassidy is included featuring anecdotes such as "got little or no reaction that night...Anarchy and Crass slogans all over the place, and the van was graffitied...things like 'Brits go home' etc" soon makes you realise that however hotly-tipped a young band may be, it's no guarantee of a warm reception on the toilet circuit wherever you may be.
Regardless of the tribuations offstage, though, clearly ACR were cooking onstage as this rarely-heard set proves. They'd previously spent six weeks in the States recording their debut album "To Each..." with Martin Hannett and begun to bring vocalist Martha Tilson into their scheme of things. Tilson hadn't yet made the trip to Europe though, and thus this set features the original ACR quintet of Donald Johnson, Jeremy Kerr, Martin Moscrop, Peter Terrell and Simon Topping. It also showcases a band who had recorded several fantastic singles (including "Shack Up" and "Flight") but who were bored with playing them and their earlier material from the "Graveyard & The Ballroom" cassette by this stage.
Thus, this live set features predominantly material from "To Each..." and ignores the classic singles. Initially, this was a worry for your reviewer who was always pretty underwhelmed with the rather flat and dry "To Each..." back in the day, but at least live most of these songs take on an extra dimension are performed with tautness and verve by a band keen to push on into fresh sonic territories.
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"Felch" is the opener, and it's disorientating, dark and funky, eerily mirroring Joy Division's "Exercise One" until Kerr's elasticated basslines and Dojo's frenetic drums kick in big-style and are accentuated by stabs of trumpet. It's somehow hot and cool all at once, a trick the ensuing "Oceans" also pulls off with its' faltering, hi-hat heavy intro and then the lithe funk sliding into place and the heavily-echoed vocals ricocheting all over the place.
"Shack Up"s B-side, "And Then Again" is a concession to earlier ACR, and indeed it's menacing, forbidding funk peppered with discordant trumpet sounds closer to the likes of The Pop Group and Clock DVA than the band's rather suaver future offerings. Nonetheless, it's pretty good, as is the tricksy, rimshot-heavy "Forced Laugh" and - amazingly - the 12-minute percussion workout that is "Winter Hill": a track that on record is more liable to have me running to do the washing up than the Velvets "Sister Ray", yet here sets up an ultra-hypnotic drone that is difficult to shake once it's tugged you in.
So ultimately "Live in Groningen" is surprisingly pleasurable. It throws the rather drab "To Each..." material into sharp relief and showcases a sharp, tight and economic band who were champing at the bit to move on. It's weathered the ravages of time and sounds like a diverting archaeological find rather than simply a curate's egg. Not bad after 25 years.
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