Recently, Jez Kerr of A Certain Ratio has been posting some interesting stuff on his Facebook page, including his own (excellent) recent recordings, along with some fascinating “rarities” (if there’s still such a thing in this digital age) from ACR. Among them is the excellent little documentary Tribeca (no embedding unfortunately), which is about ACR’s time in New York City around 1980 or so (If you look carefully you can see famed producer Martin Hannett working the switches at ACR’s club gig).

Interestingly enough, I saw ACR play Danceteria circa 1981 and their Sunday night set was fantastic. For a warm-up act, however, there was this ragamuffin girl I’d seen around town, dancing and singing alongside two dancers. Even though the music was taped, her small entourage of maybe 50 people seemed absolutely nuts about her, as she made little train motions with her hands and sang her songs. Rock snob that I was, I thought it was jive, and yelled as much while her gang was applauding. No one gave a shit. I was sure I’d never see or hear from her again. That same girl was singing her latest hit, “Like a Virgin” on some awards show not long afterwards.

But enough about Madonna. Here’s “Lucinda” from one of my all-time favorite records, Sextet, an album that was, and still is, way the hell ahead of its time. It’s a mean motherfucker by any standards:
 

 
A live video of their club hit, “Shack Up” (a cover of an obscure break beat number later sampled by Public Enemy in Yo! Bum Rush the Show):