A Certain Ratio Sextet

Mute are delighted to announce the reissue of Sextet, the 1982 album from A Certain Ratio. After singer Martha Tilson joined up to give trumpeter Simon Topping a break from his reluctant position as frontman, A Certain Ratio’s six-piece lineup recorded and self- produced their third album, released at the beginning of 1982. Thirty-six years later, it still sounds like no other record: it’s either that era’s creepiest, boggiest dance album or its funkiest smear of brittle art-noise. A gorgeous mess, slumped against the back wall of the best dance club in town circa 1982. Featuring classic tracks “Knife Slits Water” and “Lucinda”, Sextet is the apex of A Certain Ratio’s weird relationship to pop—grasping at the mainstream with one hand, shoving it away with the other. The Quietus has called it “a visionary musical statement” and “arguably their greatest moment [...] Not since Public Image Limited’s dominant Metal Box had a band so seamlessly traversed such an unexpectedly broad musical landscape.” Sextet will be reissued on CD and in a limited orange vinyl LP edition on July 27, 2018 via Mute.