While in Manchester A Certain Ratio was exploring funk (perhaps to avoid being called the new Joy Division), and in London a percussive and horn-laden Spandau Ballet was going to no. 1 on the charts, in Milan State Of Art attempted a personal fusion that united the pop sensibility of Abc and Spandau Ballet with the tribal metropolitan sounds of Liquid Liquid and the Talking Heads, the energy of Funkapolitan and Pig Bag, and the new wave angularness of Manicured Noise and the Pop Group. This retrospective CD, featuring all of the band's studio recordings and some live performances as well, proves their place as attentive and meticulous interpreters of an epoch where mutations were constant and fast.