Scritti Politti - Absolute Scritti Politti 2021-10-02 | Absolute Green Gartside: “Stompingly fabulous kick, snare and toms. A great Gary Langan mix. An arrangement that Arif Mardin called: ‘Gangbusters from the get-go.’ We mixed at Sarm West in London. The Gents toilet there was definitely used as an additional reverb. You had to pee really quietly when mixes were going to tape. Steve Ferrone on drums, best known for being in The Average White Band and Tom Petty's Heartbreakers. Steve was great. No matter how much, ahem, carousing had been achieved the night before, he was infuriatingly bright as a button the next morning – Did you know: As a 12 year-old child, Steve was hired as a tap dancer in the Max Bygraves summer show. For the uninitiated, Max Bygraves was a British singing comedian whose most famous song was the irrefutably informative You Need Hands. Arif Mardin inserted his own ‘Gamelan' inspired section at 1 minute and 51 seconds. PS: The 'Absolute' is, of course, Kantian.” David Gamson: “Arif had me write out all the charts, including the drum parts, for the musicians. First and only time I've ever done that! Initially, we had all the musicians playing together. Sounded terrible. We ended up doing one instrument at a time.” Green Gartside: The mighty Paul Jackson Jnr on guitar. He worked with The Jacksons and Michael on Destiny, Triumph, Thriller and Bad, so... you know... GODDAM! I remember his slight discomfiture at my earrings and Marxism. Will Lee played bass. He was in the David Letterman band at the time. So yes, I did feel beyond terrifyingly inadequate in that company.” Following a reissue process overseen by Green Gartside the band's acclaimed albums Cupid & Psyche 85 and Anomie & Bonhomie are out now on vinyl.You can buy them here: scrittipolitti.ffm.to/reissues
Scritti Politti - Perfect Way Scritti Politti 2021-10-15 | Green Gartside: “‘KA-CHANG!’ Perfect Gamson magic. David and I were talking about the origin-myth of the guitar 'Ka-Chang'. What was the first such 'Ka-Chang' in recorded history? The Scritti of Fred, David and I never did play live. I remember we had a tour lined up and kinda reluctantly went into a rehearsal place somewhere in Manhattan to figure out how the fuck this album could be played. I was shit scared about performing in public and David has never really seen the appeal of playing live. Fred, on the other hand, was a seasoned veteran. If I recall correctly, it became apparent pretty immediately that we couldn’t reproduce the sound of Cupid & Psyche live, and our hearts weren’t in it. The project was abandoned. The current Scritti line-up figured out a way to play Perfect Way live so we debuted it in Japan 30 years, or more, after it was recorded.”Following a reissue process overseen by Green Gartside the band's acclaimed albums Cupid & Psyche 85 and Anomie & Bonhomie are out now on vinyl.You can buy them here: scrittipolitti.ffm.to/reissues#scrittipolitti #perfectway #cupidandpsyche85
Scritti Politti - Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin) Scritti Politti 2021-09-24 | Directed by John Scarlett-Davis and featuring a young Michael Clark.Green Gartside: “As The Funky Four Plus One said: ’That's The Joint!' Wood Beez started with an idea based on part of a lyric in Dave and Ansell Collins’ record Double Barrel. I love playing this live nowadays.” David Gamson: “Like Absolute, the DNA of this is an acoustic guitar-based song that’s been arranged in a completely different way. Whenever I listen I still get the thrill of hearing all our ideas realised in the studio with all these amazing musicians.” GG: David and I were just reminiscing about how the rapid fire kick drum pattern happened by accident when programming the 808 drum machine. We didn’t have an 808 then, so Fred borrowed Brian Eno's. Great backgrounds from Tawatha Agee, who sang with Mtume – remember Juicy Fruit? – and Fonzi Thornton, who sang with Chic and Luther Vandross. Scritti recording engineer Ray Bardani was Luther's friend and longtime engineer. I think he hooked us up… B.J. Nelson is in there too, of course. She was a key part of the sound.”Following a reissue process overseen by Green Gartside the band's acclaimed albums Cupid & Psyche 85 and Anomie & Bonhomie are out now on vinyl. You can buy them here: scrittipolitti.ffm.to/reissues
Scritti Politti - Hypnotize (Official Video) Scritti Politti 2021-09-10 | David Gamson: “Man, I just remember this one took forever. We mixed this for like two weeks at Sarm West with Gary Langan while inhaling fumes from the mannequin factory next door. I might have made that up. Well, I think it was a mannequin factory...” Green Gartside: “Fabulous fun with a Fairlight. It would have set you back about £30,000 in those days. We rented one from a guy called Ned Liben who was the company's NY rep. He went on to form Ēbn-Ōzn, who gifted us all with AEIOU And Sometimes Y. I spent much of the time making this album with a stomach-churning sense of inadequacy and lack of self-worth. The rest of the time I felt extraordinarily fortunate to be playing the part of someone whose idle fancies had become a reality.”Following a reissue process overseen by Green Gartside the band's acclaimed albums Cupid & Psyche 85 and Anomie & Bonhomie are out now on vinyl. You can buy them here: scrittipolitti.ffm.to/reissues
Scritti Politti - Tinseltown to the Boogiedown (Official Video) Scritti Politti 2021-08-27 | Tinseltown to the Boogiedown - featuring Mos Def and Lee MajorsGreen Gartside: “There are no real samples on this record. Anything that sounds like a sample I made with a couple of cassette recorders in a flat above a dentist’s surgery in Newport, South Wales. Don’t ask. The record is really an unguarded effusion of influences with free rein given to the urge to strum a guitar – which overcomes me, periodically – and a compulsion to pretend to be DJ Premier. Strings are by the peerless Paul Riser the Motown genius who arranged some of the greatest records ever: My Girl, I Heard It Through The Grapevine and Papa Was A Rolling Stone. ‘From night stick to plungers to N.Y.P.D.’ raps Lee Majors. Remember Louima?”David Gamson: “Motown strings on a hip hop track! I remember we mixed this a few times and I ended-up doing the final mix in the second bedroom at my house in LA, which was my studio. This might have been my first attempt to mix anything other than demos. I think I played bass on this too. All the collaborations with guest rappers, singers and musicians, really made recording this album a joy.”Following a reissue process overseen by Green Gartside the band's acclaimed albums Cupid & Psyche 85 and Anomie & Bonhomie are out now on vinyl. You can buy them here: scrittipolitti.ffm.to/reissues
Scritti Politti - Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin) (US version) Scritti Politti 2021-08-13 | Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin) - Directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.Green Gartside: “As The Funky Four Plus One said: ’That's The Joint!' Wood Beez started with an idea based on part of a lyric in Dave and Ansell Collins’ record Double Barrel. I love playing this live nowadays.” David Gamson: “Like Absolute, the DNA of this is an acoustic guitar-based song that’s been arranged in a completely different way. Whenever I listen I still get the thrill of hearing all our ideas realised in the studio with all these amazing musicians.” GG: David and I were just reminiscing about how the rapid fire kick drum pattern happened by accident when programming the 808 drum machine. We didn’t have an 808 then, so Fred borrowed Brian Eno's. Great backgrounds from Tawatha Agee, who sang with Mtume – remember Juicy Fruit? – and Fonzi Thornton, who sang with Chic and Luther Vandross. Scritti recording engineer Ray Bardani was Luther's friend and longtime engineer. I think he hooked us up… B.J. Nelson is in there too, of course. She was a key part of the sound.”Following a reissue process overseen by Green Gartside the band's acclaimed albums Cupid & Psyche 85 and Anomie & Bonhomie are out now on vinyl. You can buy them here: scrittipolitti.ffm.to/reissues
Scritti Politti - The Word Girl Scritti Politti 2021-07-30 | 'The Word Girl' was the fourth single to be taken from 'Cupid & Psyche '85' and was released in 1985.'Cupid and Psyche '85' was reissued by Rough Trade on Friday 30th July 2021 on CD and LP. The Word GirlGreen Gartside: “Although much of the work on this album was done behind massive gleaming SSL consoles in huge New York studios – with trouser-wateringly exorbitant hourly rates – we did the vocals for this at a residential studio in the English countryside. It was winter, and from the vocal booth, I could look out of the window across the snow-laden fields. I remember seeing a handful of particularly forlorn-looking sheep standing, staring vacantly, in the drifts as the flakes fell. One, in particular, was eyeing me purposefully. I think my vocal performance somehow captured or embodied something of the plight of that disconsolate ruminant.” David Gamson: “Those melodies! Green really knocked it out of the park on this song. When it became clear that it was sounding like a single, we did a bunch of edits trying to figure out how to get a third chorus in there. Never did figure it out. GG: “The lovely Earl Falconer from UB40 came to play bass on this, but that didn’t work out. The finished part is Gamson minimoog sans parallèle. Our drummer Fred Maher was responsible for the rang- tang clanging fills. Dollops of ill-digested Derridean- isms are strewn throughout this record. There are a few or two for you to enjoy here, for sure.”
Scritti Politti - A Day Late and a Dollar Short Scritti Politti 2011-02-03 | Music video by Scritti Politti performing A Day Late and a Dollar Short. (P) 2011 The copyright in this audiovisual recording is owned by Virgin Records Ltd
