A CERTAIN RATIO – Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson – have released their
Dan Carey produced thirteenth studio album, It All Comes Down to This, today on Mute.
Released almost exactly a year after their acclaimed album 1982, it is further evidence of
the mentality that defines A Certain Ratio, one that has always set them apart from their
peers – a dogged, relentless demand to evolve, re-assess and reinvent with every new
release. After the confident, sprawling, pan-genre strut of 1982 and a tour that celebrated
45 years of ACR performing live, comes this new record from completely out of leftfield.
The record’s ten tracks present ten distinct moods, every bursting moment of it is defiantly,
resiliently alive. It All Comes Down to This, for now at least, is the sound of the current
incarnation of A Certain Ratio. The purest distillation of their essential sound ever
committed to tape, and the first time they have recorded as just the core trio of principle
band members – multi-instrumentalists Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson.
The other essential difference between It All Comes Down to This and its immediate
predecessors is the recording process: after already working together on a remix for Loco
Remezclada (2021), the band turned to the doyen of contemporary underground rock
producers, Dan Carey (Black Midi, Kae Tempest, Black Country New Road) to work on the
album. Known for his rejection of sonic clutter and his uncompromising focus on the
central tenets of the bands and artists he produces, Carey’s instincts closely aligned with
ACR’s desire to return to the basics.
By honing in on the band’s essential building blocks, Carey has teased out a brittle, inner
darkness that has always been latent in ACR, but not always at the surface. And if there is
a residual darkness in the album’s sonic aesthetic, then it pervades the subject matter, too.
“We wrote the album while the world was in turmoil,” explains Moscrop. “Which it still is. If
you think about climate change, corporate war, the environment, Trump in power, Johnson,
the Ukraine war, Israel and Palestine, it really does all come down to this. It’s probably the
most political album we’ve written.”
The band have two special events this weekend: Manchester’s Piccadilly will host album
launch party at Soup on Saturday 20 April, where the band will perform the album in its
entirety before answering questions, and on Sunday 21 April they will be performing and
signing albums at Rough Trade Nottingham. Later in the summer, on Friday 2 August, their
performance at Kendal Calling on Tim Burgess’ Tim Peaks stage will be recorded, pressed
to vinyl and available at a signing event on Sunday 4 August.
ACR’s good friend and collaborator, Ellen Beth Abdi, a name familiar to anyone that has
seen the band’s incendiary live performances in recent years, will be joining the tour as a
very special guest. Ellen, who featured on the band’s last album & tour, is now
concentrating on her solo career – this will be a brilliant chance to catch what ACR’s
Martin Moscrop describes as “some of the most original and inspiring music coming out of
Manchester at the moment.”
