Ruth - Polaroid/Roman/Photo

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5...according to our Brian on Thu 23 Dec, 2010.

Does anyone realise just how sexy, wired & strange this record actually is? Any album that starts of with such an escalatingly animalistic slice of driving new wave experimental pop as 'Thriller' just HAS to be heard. By absolutely everyone! Intoxicatingly kinky, restlessly inventive and invitingly pan-European (but distinctly French too), this is what happens if you tip Tuxedomoon, early B-52's, Jane Birkin & Teardrop Explodes' horn section into an avant-garde blast furnace. Immediately afterwards you get thrown the absolute slinkiest minimal-wave electro pop tune EVER in the title track. A song so sublime & sensual I feel like sobbing whilst hugging the world with joy. One eerie fucked-up cover of 'She Brings the Rain' by Can later you are seriously wondering if Ruth is some kind of Utopian propaganda unit because this album was a cruelly ignored private press flop in the midst of the Cold War, yet sounds as vital, electrifying & wholly relevant as any "electro-pop" being made today. There are feral noises & grooves from the more reflective quarter of the industrial & post-punk fields plus much of the album is gifted with a timeless krautrock-esque pulse. Seven tunes that saunter knowingly with a verve & a freedom that is quite astounding - even on the funereal dirge-like death-rave of closer 'Tu M'ennuies'! The male & female vocals mingle dynamically on occasion or more often go their separate ways just as free-spiritedly! The lady intones ponderously & dreamily throughout, but always lets the music breathe - she is totally at ease. When boy and girl meet, they sound like horny, somehow detached yet passionate strangers in a bohemian bar somewhere, chitty-chatting amongst rhythms that are both warm yet glacial; there's such an all pervading romantic atmosphere about 'Polaroid/Roman/Photo' that I can't help but feel in my bones I'll love it to death, till death. My Album of the Year, regardless of it's origins. No shit! This numbered re-issue is featured in Red vinyl complete with gatefold sleeve & 12" Sq. lyric booklet including archive photos!!

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After the acclaim and success of Angular Recording Corporation’s ‘Cold Waves & Minimal Electronics’ compilation earlier this year, the label are proud to announce the release of a 25th anniversary deluxe special edition reissue from one of the artists featured on the collection. Ruth’s ‘Polaroïd/Roman/Photo’ was consistently noted as one of the standout tracks from the comp, which received glowing reviews across the board (Pitchfork - 8.2, NME - 8/10, Vice - 9/10, amongst others).

This wasn’t the case the first time around though. Originally released on Paris Records in 1985, Ruth’s LP sold just 50 copies and was relegated to obscurity until the track ‘Polaroïd/Roman/Photo’ started appearing on bootlegs and compilations in the early 2000s, slowly becoming the cult synth pop classic it is today. An original copy goes for upwards of £300 on eBay and Ruth are a shining light from an oft forgotten music scene that is becoming increasingly influential today. You can hear it in the current Parisian sounds of Ed Banger Records and Mark Ronson cites it as “one of my favourite songs ever”.

Ruth was the brainchild of Thierry Müller, a photographer and graphic artist from Paris who drew his inspiration from bands and artists like Brian Eno, Stockhausen, Pere Ubu, Neu, Velvet Underground and Kraftwerk. In the late 70s he began to work on Ruth, releasing the lone album ‘Polaroïd/Roman/Photo’ in 1985. The line up of Ruth was collaborative and fluid, brass mingles with prototype drum machines, and squalling experimentation sits alongside sultry French girls across 40 minutes of edgy pop innovation that sounds remarkably undated alongside contemporary pop music.

From the jittery ‘Thriller’ with its telephone sound samples and an ever ascending synth, to the lanquid ‘Mabelle’, the cover of Can’s ‘She Brings The Rain’, and the sexy soiree of playful vocals and alluring brass that is ‘Polaroïd/Roman/Photo’, this is an album that is now ready to be represented for the attention it deserves.

This deluxe limited edition (limited to 750 hand numbered copies) comes in a gatefold sleeve on heavyweight transparent scarlet vinyl, and features a 12 page booklet of lyrics and photos, plus download codes for the digital version of the album which includes six bonus tracks.