Press Information 

Provisoin

Warner Bros press release 
Author unknown

Almost a decade later, Scritti Politti break a three year silence with 'Oh Patti (Don't Feel Sorry For Loverboy)' a silkspun technosoul ballad featuring the inimitable trumpet of Miles Davis. Since 1985's 'Cupid & Psyche 85', Scritti Politti have come to stand for a sound and vision of synthetic white soul that is simply immaculate. The one constant in this extraordinary pop odyssey has been the voice, the songwriting and the curiosity of founding member Green Gartside, a Welshman terminally smitten by the beauties of pop's lexicon of love.

The first stage in Scritti Politti's assimilation of pop prowess came with 1981's dreamily languid 'Sweetest Girl', a meditation on sexual politics packaged in a chic Dunhill-pastiche of a sleeve. Here was something altogether more cool, calculated and calm than the guitar-twitchings and time-changes of their initial releases. This Scritti Politti consisted of Green, drum programmer Tom Morley and organizer Matthew, an odd trio determined to storm the charts from that flagship of independent labels, Rough Trade.

Augmented by an assortment of backing singers and additional musicians, this group went on to produce 'Faithless', a delirious soul swirl that drew unashamedly on black tradition to examine a radical doubt that continues to obsess metropolitan intellectuals and a lot of ordinary folks besides. "Gospel and soul used to give strength to black people in the States", remarked Green. "The same strength and passion is there in our music, but I'm trying to relocate soul in a new sense of faithfulness, of not living by certainties". These two singles were swiftly followed up by a debut LP, 'Songs To Remember', that underlined the group's new image of double-breasted elegance and pop savvy.

The Scritti Politti we know today began to emerge from its chrysalis in late 1982, when Tom Morley left the group and Green finally decided to base Scritti upon a skillful elegance seemingly at odds with the group's initial allegiance to punk beliefs. He is now determined to follow his muse to its source and work with only the very best professionals.

In 1983, Green made his first trip to New York to work with musicians and producers who were making the soul and dance music he most admired. New York was especially attractive because of its burgeoning hip hop scene which offered the only "prevailing aesthetic" which Green found remotely challenging or which offered the kind of excitement that had first inspired him in punk days. In New York, Green hooked up with two gentlemen who shared his curiosity, drummer Fred Maher (ex-Material, Richard Hell, Lou Reed) and keyboard and synth virtuoso David Gamson (ex-Ze Records). This trio have remained a constant ever since, forging a Scritti Politti that merges their intellectual curiosity with the slickest black dance music of the '80s.

The trio began by recording with Arif Mardin, a veteran of Atlantic's golden soul years, who enlisted the services of session giants like Steve Ferrone, Paul Jackson Jnr., Marcus Miller, Fonzi Thornton and Tawatha Agee, the heart of New York's modern soul mafia. The sessions resulted in two Top 20 hits, 'Wood Beez' and 'Absolute', that relocated Green's lyrical concerns and sweet soul vocals in 1984's slickest dance textures. The LP, 'Cupid & Psyche 85', followed in May '85, combining those New York sessions with material recorded by Green, Maher and Gamson in London.

"We've carefully steered away from being too imitative of black music", Green noted at the time. "The songs have English pop concerns and melodies alongside dance grooves". Another single, 'The Word Girl', helped launch the LP and establish Green as a somewhat reluctant pop star, albeit one unwilling to enslave himself to your typically brief pop career.

The meticulous attention to detail and texture that characterized the LP won Scritti a host of fans, a number of whom have unwittingly delayed the follow-up. A friendship with Miles Davis resulted in the trumpeter covering 'Cupid & Psyche's 'Perfect Way' for his Tutu classic, while Green and Gamson contributed the title track to Al Jarreau痴 'L Is For Lover' LP and gave Chaka Khan 'Love Of A Lifetime'. Meanwhile Fred Maher has been busy helping produce Marlon Jackson's first solo album. Scritti have not faultered, however, from perfecting their own work. As Green observes, "Other people have careers that start, become huge and disappear in the time it takes us to make a record. Great chunks of pop history come and go!"

Yet the sheer class of Scritti Politti's third LP, 'Provision', make those chunks seem like so much ephemera. The new LP draws more on dance patterns from the '60s and '70s than its predecessor and contrives a soulful unity that's as sweet as Green's beloved white Chocolate and as bad for the heart. The old doubts remain as do Green's abiding concern with love, language and other uncertainties; yet even Green can now admit that Scritti's rites of passage have led somewhere special, somewhere that makes an individual and sweet kind of sense. "I haven't totally shaken off the preoccupations of those days", he explains, "but I came to realize that you do need a certain faux-naivete to make pop. I still feel retarded by fear... but then I look back to where I came from, and it all seems quite bold."

Bold, stylish and still unmistakably Scritti Politti.