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SCRITTI POLITTI

Scritti Politti

Early

    Early brought together a series of formative recordings from the late 70s and early 80s, for an America-only vinyl release in 2005. The collection, accompanied by sleeve notes from Green Gartside, included the band's debut single Skank Bloc Bologna, along with seminal tracks including The "Sweetest Girl", 28/8/78 and Lions After Slumber, and offered a stunning chance to enjoy the long-overlooked musical foundations of Scritti Politti again.

    Emerging from the scene around Leeds Art School, with fellow travellers The Mekons and The Gang Of Four, and recorded while the band were residing in a Camden squat organised along Marxist principles, these post-punk rallying cries which prefigured Green and co's pop-leaning rebirth several years later, were the songs that grab the attention of John Peel, Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis and a generation of music fans who helped bring the indie music scene – and the labels that accompanied it – into existence. A musical community in which Scritti Politti played an influential and formative role.

    TRACK LISTING

    Skank Bloc Bologna
    Is And Ought The Western World
    28/8/78
    Messthetics
    Hegemony
    Scritlocks Door
    Opec - Immac
    Bibbly-o-tek
    Doubt Beat
    Confidence
    P.A.s
    The "Sweetest Girl"
    Lions After Slumber

    Scritti Politti

    White Bread Black Beer - 2023 Reissue

      Fittingly, for the release of White Bread, Black Beer, which was a beautiful expression of the creative energy Gartside had sustained over two decades at that point, Scritti Politti returned to Rough Trade for the first time since the mid-1980s.

      Humbly described by Green on release as "an album of me playing around in the back room... just me alone at home", White Bread, Black Beer was universally acclaimed. Described as "a return to the top" by The Guardian, "the best record of this restlessly self-critical career" by Uncut and "a sophisticated, gloriously gentle thing" by Pitchfork, the record was duly nominated for the 2006 Mercury Prize (and was only pipped by Arctic Monkeys' debut).

      TRACK LISTING

      The Boom Boom Bap
      No Fine Lines
      Snow In Sun
      Cooking
      Throw
      Dr. Abernathy
      After Six
      Petrococadollar
      E Eleventh Nuts
      Window Wide Open
      Road To No Regret
      Locked
      Mrs. Hughes
      Robin Hood

      Scritti Politti

      Anomie & Bonhomie - Reissue

        11 years after the release of previous album Provision, Scritti Politti erupted back into life with 1999’s Anomie & Bonhomie. Recalibrated, re-evaluated, re-imagined and, eventually, rewarded. Anomie & Bonhomie is the heady results of this artistic rebirth. Illuminated by the band’s stylish pure pop spotlight, collaborations with Mos Def, Lee Majors and Wendy Melvoin give the record a neon-lit, nocturnal shimmer. Hip hop flourishes sit side-by-side with heart-hitting balladry, as truly touching melodies match moments of uncompromising musical grit with their emotional impact.

        TRACK LISTING

        Umm
        Tinseltown
        First Goodbye
        Die Alone
        Mystic Handyman
        Smith ’N’ Slappy
        Born To Be
        The World You Understand (Is Over & Over & Over)
        Here Comes July
        Prince Among Men
        Brushed With Oil, Dusted With Powder

        Scritti Politti

        Cupid & Psyche 85 - Reissue

          From a bedsit in London to New York recording studios… Alternative acclaim to mainstream adulation… Indie label hopefuls to major signings… Despite the series of radical shifts that underpinned its creation, Scritti Politti's second album Cupid & Psyche 85 achieved the virtually impossible. While everything was scaled up – the ambition, the sound, the audience – the singular artistic vision that drove the group not only remained intact and undiluted in these bigger surroundings, but became more inventive, more adventurous and, ultimately, more beloved. Introduced to pianist and programmer David Gamson while making of the band's debut album Songs To Remember, Green Gartside realised he had found a creative foil to help him achieve the ambitions he had for Scritti Politti.

          Partially recorded in New York, with several tracks produced by Arif Mardin (who had worked on Aretha Franklin's I Say A Little Prayer, a track Green beautifully commemorates on this record) and partially in the UK, with Green and Gamson directly overseeing the process, Cupid & Psyche 85 is infused shimmering synths and the heat of classic funk. Yet weaved together by Green's intoxicating melodies, it is also embroidered with ideas from philosophical writings, while taking cues from myths and fables.

          TRACK LISTING

          The Word Girl
          Small Talk
          Absolute
          A Little Knowledge
          Don't Work That Hard
          Perfect Way
          Lover To Fall
          Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)
          Hypnotize


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