Chris Trottier on Nostr: This is Donald Johnson. He's perhaps the most important post-punk musician you've ...
This is Donald Johnson.
He's perhaps the most important post-punk musician you've never heard about.
Before he joined A Certain Ratio, post-punk was mostly cold and bleak—often drummer-less. Hell, A Certain Ratio themselves were described as Joy Division with better clothes.
But once Donald Johnson joined the band as their drummer, post-punk became actual dance music that you'd hear in real dance clubs. And that's because A Certain Ratio pioneered the use of funk, dub, jazz, punk, and Latin percussion—with Johnson the architect for all of it.
Despite A Certain Ratio being largely obscure to the general public, they had a huge impact. Johnson's rhythms inspired bands as disparate as New Order, Talking Heads, Happy Mondays, A Guy Called Gerald, 808 State, The Rapture, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and LCD Soundsystem. You can hear his fingerprints on genres as far reaching as goth, Manchester, and acid house.
A great track for hearing Donald Johnson's innovative rhythms is the track "Knife Slits Water". Is it post-punk? Sure. But because of Donald Johnson, it's funky as hell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqw5fWER4Gs 
Published at
2026-06-01 17:54:07 UTCEvent JSON
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