Well, Scritti Politti aren't going to beat Sonic Youth, but everyone should listen to Early, a compilation of their earliest EPs and singles. One of the great forgotten post-punk bands. Also, here's some stuff I wrote about them for the last round:
lethalnezzle wrote:
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I genuinely believe Green Gartside, troubled mastermind behind post-punk/art-pop collective/group/moniker Scritti Politti, to be one of the post-punk era's most interesting and underappreciated artists.
When the group released their first single 'Skank Bloc Bologna' in 1978, few could've imagined the future trajectory of the band, and it is this ability to constantly surprise that is perhaps Gartside's biggest weapon. 'Skank Bloc Bologna', however, is where it all started, and it's an incredible debut single by any standards; fractured guitar lines try their best to put Gartside off his soulful, melancholic, distinctly British crooning (a not dissimilar croon to that of art-rock legend and future collaborator Robert Wyatt), while what I believe to be some sort of toy xylophone adds to the confusion of it all. Gartside sings about "rockers in town with an overestimation", a dig at the overtly macho attitude of punk bands such as The Clash, bands with "a notion, (but not a) hope". As Gartside revealed much later in his career, the Scritti Politti of 1978 were "anti-rock", a genre which he thought was "too strong, too sure, too solid". But these Gramsci reading art-school students "weren't strong, or sure, or solid", and 'Skank Bloc Bologna' is an ode to insecurity and paranoia that sounds every bit as vibrant today as it must've upon its release 35 years ago.
However, it wasn't just the music found on their debut single that was of interest to fans, but the packaging also. Ever the anti-rock socialists, Scritti Politti used the artwork of their self-released debut 7" to demystify the rock music process, breaking down and detailing the costs of each step of the record's production - of their studio time, mastering, pressing and printing - as well as listing the addresses and phone numbers of the studios and companies they'd used for all of this. It was the biggest step towards promoting a complete DIY (do-it-yourself) ethic that any band in the punk era had taken up to that point.
The photocopied sleeve detailing the aforementioned production costs of the record.
The original 2,500 copies of 'Skank Bloc Bologna' sold out pretty rapidly, and the song eventually sold around 15,000 copies altogether. The success of this single and the quality of the songs on it convinced legendary indie label Rough Trade to sign the band. The band released a number of melodic, if jagged, singles and EPs, all underpinned by what The Fall's Mark E. Smith enviously labelled "the best rhythm section in the country". In the song 'Messthetics', which itself acts as some sort of manifesto for the band in those days, Gartside confidently assures the listener that, despite the haphazard sound of some of the band's work, there is something very deliberate about it; "we know what we're doing... we know how it sounds". Anyway, here are a few of my favourite Scritti Politti songs from those early Rough Trade singles (although my absolute favourite, the wonderful 'Hegemony', isn't available on YouTube, but I urge you to check it out if you can find it):
Whilst on tour with Gang of Four and Joy Division, disaster struck. Gartside, overcome by stage fright and anxiety, collapsed with what was thought to have been a heart attack (he wouldn't play live again for 26 years). He found out later that it was actually a severe panic attack, but this nonetheless lead him to retreat to his native Wales to recover. However, every cloud has a silver lining and, whilst holed up in Wales, Gartside became obsessed with the sound of soul, disco and the emerging hip-hop of New York. He recorded 'The Sweetest Girl', a seemingly saccharine sweet synthpop song, which was enhanced by Robert Wyatt on keyboards and a dizzying, disorientating, dubby abuse of various effects, which help to twist and distort a simple ode to love into something altogether more adventurous. It was released on NME's popular C81 compilation, and The New York Times actually named it one of their Top Ten songs of the year, but the label failed to capitalise on the hype and the song was a commercial failure.
However, the fact that the song didn't sell as expected didn't put off major labels, who offered Gartside contracts on the strength of that single. He decided to stay with Rough Trade for the release of the group's debut album, Songs To Remember, in 1982. Full of soulful new wave, the group's debut album was a world away from their fledgling recordings as a spiky, angular post-punk band. During this transition to pop music, Gartside didn't sacrifice anything lyrically, and the album features an ode to French philosopher and father of the idea of deconstruction Jacques Derrida amongst others. It's a fantastic album, taking influence from Stevie Wonder, Prince and David Bowie, and the album became Rough Trade's biggest-selling album up to that point. Here are some of my favourite songs from the album:
Despite the relative success of the album, Scritti Politti were still a cult group. Gartside wanted to be a popstar. This man, who had burst onto the scene singing the praises of DIY ethics and Gramsci, had decided that his ambitions couldn't possibly be matched by Rough Trade any longer, and signed for Virgin in 1983. The original lineup was disbanded, and Gartside cut all ties with his socialist, art-school past and upped and moved to New York, where he surrounded himself with musicians capable of crafting the sort of pop he wanted to. Taking influence from the NY synth-funk and electro he was seeing all around him, this new Scritti Politti set about crafting intelligent morsels of catchy R'n'B/new wave, still containing some of the strange, unpredictable melodic flourishes of early singles like 'Skank Bloc Bologna', but now beefed up by sequencers and drum machines as opposed to wiry lo-fi guitars. Cupid & Psyche '85, the band's second album, would be their most successful, thanks largely to the hits 'Wood Beez', 'Absolute' and 'The Word Girl'. Some had accused Gartside of "selling out", but it was hard to argue with the quality of his particular brand of pop music. He kept this formula for his next album too, 1988's Provision, which featured a star turn from none other than Miles Davis, who had covered Scritti's 'Perfect Way' just a couple of years earlier for his 1986 album Tutu. Provision wasn't quite as successful as Cupid & Psyche, but nonetheless went gold in the UK. Here are a selection of my favourite songs from Gartside's popstar period:
Following on from Provision, Gartside took an ill-feted turn towards pop-reggae, releasing two godawful singles featuring Shabba Ranks and Sweetie Irie respectively. He planned an album of that nature, but thankfully it never arrived. In fact, Scritti Politti wouldn't put out another album until 1999's Anomie & Bonhomie, a mix of hip-hop and everything else Scritti Politti had done up to that point, using both guitar-based rock and electronic pop music to supplement these new hip-hop influences. It was cited by critics as a return to form, but I can't say I'm much of a fan. It did manage to throw up a few gems though, such as this one:
'Tinseltown to the Boogiedown' (ft. Mos Def & Lee Majors)
In 2005, Rough Trade released a compilation of Scritti Politti's pre-Songs To Remember material, appropriately titled Early. In January 2006, Green Gartside performed onstage for the first time since his crippling panic attack in 1980, playing an intimate gig in Brixton under the alias "Double G & The Treacherous Three". Three months later, the new Scritti Politti released their first album of new material since re-signing to original label Rough Trade, White Bread, Black Beer. It was a real return to form, and is my second favourite Scritti album after their debut (or third favourite, if you count Early). It's far more melancholic than anything else Scritti Politti have ever released, but it's pulled off with aplomb. Here are my two favourite songs from the album, and two of my favourite Scritti songs from any era, 'The Boom Boom Bap', his stunning ode to the hip-hop that he loves so much, and 'Petrococadollar', one of the most atmospheric things he has ever recorded:
Over the years, Green Gartside has lead Scritti Politti, in various incarnations, through wiry post-punk that was as impressive as any from the era, through to sugary new wave and straight-up bombastic pop, onto hip-hop, and now to a sound that feels entirely comfortable and is really quite impressive. He's a one-of-a-kind in pop music and, despite a flawed career, he deserves to be mentioned amongst the greats of the post-punk era.
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