What exactly is Scritti Politti?
From scratchy post-punk beginnings to unashamedly uber-polished machine-tooled pop. And onwards to home-made meta-pop across a journey of 30 years. It's always been hard to comprehend an artist responsible for both 'Skank Bloc Bologna' and 'Oh Patti (Don't Feel Sorry For Loverboy)' but I love them equally.
I came to the 'Songs To Remember' after the future-perfection of 'Cupid & Psyche '85' and it is probably the coolest of all the Scritti albums. A concoction of dub, Lovers Rock and just a hint of the scratchiness of the early records.
Though I wasn't buying Scritti Politti records (or any records at all for that matter) in 1982, you can see that each single release leading up to the album gained an extra lacquer of polish. The sleeves are works of art, modelled on a range of luxury brands, seeming to suggest that Green Gartside was slowly turning Scritti into something similar.
This extended, extended version of 'Faithless' runs to almost ten minutes. It's a luxurious, funk-tinged thing that spins off into instrumental bliss, weaving Miles Davis-esque trumpet and Roger Troutman vocoder into the loose, relaxed extemporisation. Of course, both these influencers would go on to appear on later Scritti records (answers on a postcard...).
Sublime.
Download Scritti Politti 'Faithless (12" Version)' (alternative pop mp3, RT101) (Rapidshare)
Thanks so much for posting this - been looking for it for a long time :) [No postcard alas, but Miles Davis was on Oh Patti, and Roger Troutman on the wonderful and underrated Boom! There She Was.]
ReplyDeleteHi.
ReplyDeleteI've been looking for this for years.
Did you withdraw it? I tried to download it but it said download not available.