Hi-hats, triangles, drum pads of every kind flicker across the mix for a second or two then never reappear. This is pop exploded, fractured and rebuilt as a mosaic where almost every beat seems to have a different sound from the one before. It's that Scritti principle again, break things up and they get more interesting. But even after a string of 80s revivals, nothing sounds quite like them. Most were hits in Britain, and 'Perfect Way' made them brief stars in America too. The motor for this compilation, as its title and lopsided sequencing makes quite clear, is Scritti's string of singles from their Cupid and Psyche 85 album, produced by Arif Mardin. As breakthrough single 'The 'Sweetest Girl'' put it, 'The strongest words in each belief/ Find out what's behind them.' Of course in 1979 the idea that a motley of squat-dwelling politicos like Scritti Politti might have a breakthrough single- let alone a three-decade career and a best of package like Absolute- would have been preposterous. But it also revealed for the first time one of the unifying threads in Scritti's career- an idea that things become more interesting when they're broken down, and that what's on the surface can reveal that stuff, not obfuscate it. This kind of fascination with and demystification of the rock process seems like an orthodox post-punk move, very of its time. All Rights Reserved ДЇor the sleeve of their first single, 1979's '4 A Sides', Scritti Politti opted not for a picture but instead showed a breakdown of costs- every element of the record's production itemized. ItвЂ™s neither a straightforward singles comp nor a thorough collection of highlights, but itвЂ™s somewhere in between and makes for a representative introduction. After that, it gets a bit random, with post-punk era highlight вЂњSkank Bloc Bologna,вЂќ three highlights from 1982вЂ™s Songs to Remember, the 1991 non-album single вЂњSheвЂ™s a WomanвЂќ (a Beatles cover, featuring Shabba Ranks), and two new burbling electro-pop numbers. Absolute focuses on the Virgin albums - 1985вЂ™s Cupid & Psyche (a masterpiece), 1988вЂ™s Provision, and 1999вЂ™s Anomie & Bonhomie - and frontloads the material from them, which takes up over two-thirds of the disc.

Scritti vanished for a decade, reappeared in the late вЂ90s with a tentative misfire, and then, after a seven-year absence, came back again with an understated, vaguely singer/songwriter-y gem. Within a couple years of surfacing, Green Gartside and his shifting array of associates switched from scrawny and inscrutable post-punk to pristine and R&B-laced sophisti-pop. There is no easy and clean way to anthologize Scritti Politti. Scritti Politti - Absolute - 2011 - Virgin

Scritti politti cupid and psyche 85 rar