The Manchester post-punk veterans Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson, return with a sparklingly eclectic record of electronica, dance, jazz, funk, Afrobeat and more with a retrospective feel on their history. Joined by Tony Quigley on saxophone, Matthew Steele and Ellen Beth Abdi, and mostly recorded in Salford, the album’s title is just, ironically, a phrase used by Kerr when testing a microphone volume, but that title track, with classic retro electro-funk pop is one of the standouts, as well as the brilliantly oddball funk of A Trip To Hulme. Opener Samo, a former Song of the Day, is a fabulous dance track referencing the 1980s artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, with his work animated in the the video, and other standouts include Holy Smoke and Constant Curve (featuring Ellen Beth Abdi & Emperor Machine). But perhaps the most eclectic of all is the closing track, Ballad of ACR, a rather moving, short history of their life and times, which veers off into a wonderfully strange jazz odyssey before the end and includes a tribute to much missed friend and collaborator, the Mancunian legendary singer Denise Johnson, who passed in 2020. Toe-tappingly inventive and original as ever. Out on Mute Records.
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