Bleep

Mute’s A Certain Ratio reissues project rolls around to the group’s grandest statement. Even by their own high standards the Manchester band surpassed themselves on Sextet. Their third LP originally came out in 1982, two years after Talking Heads dropped Remain In Light and concurrently with the NYC groove experiments of ESG and Liquid Liquid. All of those sounds are present here, from dry bassline funk tracks like ‘Skipscada’ to the dub-punk of ‘Rialto. These hip strains are then fused with a distinctly English post-punk sensibility that sits somewhere between Public Image Limited’s Metal Box and The Clash’s Sandinista. Even after all these years it still sounds fresh.