[Cover photo credit to Paul Husband]

A Certain Ratio, featuring Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson, have released a new four-track EP, Christmasville UK, via Mute.

The EP features the group’s first-ever Christmas track, “Now and Laughter”, which “embodies all of the hope and goodwill of the season” and is accompanied by a video of the guys celebrating Christmas together.

Originally demoed during the It All Comes Down to This album sessions, the guitar chords are based on the chords from “The Big E” / “Won’t Stop Loving You”, while the lyrics “acknowledge the unsung heroes that are on hand when the pressures of the festivities can become too much to bear.”

The band have invited some of the extended ACR family to join the celebrations and rework tracks from their 2024 album, It All Comes Down to This.

Jane Weaver says of her remix for “Where You Coming From”:

It was a joy to rework a track by ACR, true originals with a strong musical ID. I wanted to create something that incorporated more electronic instrumentation, drum machines and a variety of synths and effects so it still had a pop edge but with a new age chordal sentiment that matched the lyrics and vocal melody, perhaps it was a subconscious homage to both our musical pasts working with Rob Gretton. co-founder of the legendary Haçienda night club… I’m sure he would have been delighted with our collaboration!

Some newer friends have been invited into the fold too. London-based Jezebell, who worked on “We All Need” to complete the EP, explains that:

’We All Need’ is a sermon of uplift crawling out of a sewer of druggy darkness. As usual, Jezebell got stuck in the sewer and threw a party in the dark.