To celebrate a month of being included in the BBC 6 Music Playlist, Number have announced a special live re-work of their track ‘Wedge’ by the highly revered A Certain Ratio. Approaching Number directly for a collaboration, ACR’s Martin Moscrop was eager to work on the band’s music;
“When we first heard Binary we thought these guys must have gone to the same school as ACR because Number’s music is genreless with a real world feel to it. We thought ACR need to collaborate here and see if Ratio + Number = Binary.”
Citing A Certain Ratio as one of their key inspirations going into the album, Rich and Ali are overjoyed to be collaborating with a group who is a key influence on Number’s unique sound:
“Rich and Ali have been influenced by the music of A Certain Ratio since the 80s and their sound, rhythms, melodies and alternative approach to funk played a big part in the creation of Binary; not least the value of trumpet. It was an honour to be approached by ACR to rework each other’s music and we are really excited about what promises to be a highly creative exchange of ideas.”
With a physical release of their incredible debut ‘Binary’ in the pipeline, the brilliant rework will bookend a highly intoxicating package; from the slicing live drums and jagged guitar melodies of ‘Red Flag’, the hypnotic mutant grooves of ‘Titan Shuff’, the do-it-yourself, art school approach to ‘Face Down in Ecstasy’, to the sub-tropical, funk-infused ‘Wedge’ and the sonic industrial inflections of ‘Never Change’, the duo constantly question and re-define their musical sensibilities across ten tracks of warped rhythms and loose limbed grooves.
Number enjoy the clash of old ideas with new ideas; old sounds with new sounds; acoustic with electronic. They seamlessly fuse elements of funk, jazz, post punk and noise into their own unique musical vision, which manages to be both danceable and thrilling at the same time.
