Scritti Politti - remember them? The Leeds post-punk band, named after a bastardisation of the Italian for "political writing" (a reference to the political philosopher Gramsci, pop kids) have come out of retirement with a beguiling new work. Called Anomie And Bonhomie (that's "despair and delight" to you), it's a fascinating album which, at times, harks back to the brillance of albums like Cupid And Pscyhe '85 but also includes a few contemporary nods to hiphop and r'n'b, thanks to some cameos from the likes of Mos' Def, and Me'Shell Ndegeocello.

You can tell this is a band who have had a thing about titles from as far back as their earliest release in 1978. Skank Bloc Bologna got them a record deal with Rough Trade records, and a slot on the (then) famous tour with the Gang of Four and The Mekons - the Leeds answer to the Pistols/Clash tour, in a sense.

Their first album, Songs To Remember, made history of sorts when it reached number 12 in the album charts - it was the highest-ever position for a Rough Trade act in those pre-Smiths days. It wasn't until album two, though, that the band really hit their stride: Cupid And Psyche '85 was produced by Aretha Franklin's producer, Arif Mardin, and it sold a few million copies, thanks mainly to the sublime hit single Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin) alongside other hits as Absolute, Hypnotise and The Word Girl.

So far had they travelled from their early cacophonous sound in Leeds that on their next album, Miles Davies asked if he could play on it (a major fan, Davies had already covered the band's Perfect Way on his Tutu album). The album, Provision, didn't quite do the business them and the band's enigmatic front man, Green Gartside, returned to his native South Wales for an extended sabbatical. Until now.

"What was meant to be a couple of years chilling out in Wales turned into five or six and then six or seven," he says. "I don't have a very strong awareness of time - I never had. Making Provision was a bit of an ordeal - I was trying to write, sing and co-produce the thing myself. Some of it was cool, working with Miles Davies and Roger from Zapp, but then came an interminable amount of touring and promotion. Then my manager, who also looked after the Human League, announced his retirement from the music business. We were close friends, shared some political and philosophical outlooks, so his going left a bit of a hole."

"I want back to a valley in Wales and joined a darts team in the village, walked up in the hills - that kind of thing ... One of the problems was that I had no management bugging me to do anything, so there was no pressure. I'd still go into London occasionally and buy loads of hiphop and dancehall records and go back to Wales with them, wondering what, if anything, I could do with them."

After trying out ideas in Newport and London, Green took himself off to New York to record the album. "A lot of people I know who used to love music have had that passion eroded or tarnished over time, but whatever it is that keeps me moved and enthused is a very precious thing," he says of his new(-ish) direction. "I got back in touch with David Gamson [old Scritti Politti head] to see if he had enthusiasm left for another Scritti record, and I met Me'Shell Ndigeocello through him. We recorded the music in Los Angeles, but added the singing and rapping back in New York. I was keen to work with Mos'Def, who I had heard first on the Bush Babees' album before his work with De La Soul."

"There are so many influences on this album, and if you're not down with, say, McCartney's solo albums as well as EPMD and The Beatnuts then you probably ain't gonna like it. But that's my way . . . "

Anomie and Bonhomie by Scritti Politti is on the Virgin label