- Deluxe 20th Anniversary Edition
- 2lp Blue/Red vinyl
- With infinity peelable trouser sticker
Originally released in 2002, ?Trouser Jazz? was the hotly anticipated follow-up to the Manchester-based DJ, producer, record collector and cartoonist?s barnstorming Ninja Tune debut ?Keep it Unreal? (1999). As a DJ, Andy Carthy aka Mr. Scruff plays across the board, moving between soul, funk, hip hop, jazz, reggae, latin, african, ska, disco, house, funk, electro, breaks, soundtracks and loads more. As a producer he makes music that draws on these influences, with a large dose of cheek and good humour. His cartoon drawings illustrate gig flyers, posters, record sleeves, t-shirts and occasionally accompany him at gigs as live animated visuals.
?Trouser Jazz? ? recorded largely at Carthy?s home studio with engineer Danny Evans ? neatly encapsulated Scruff?s ethos, his joie de vivre and his inimitable combination of tight knit funk, expansive sonics and dancefloor dynamite.
?The album is a real mixture of moods and tempos, just like my DJ sets, twisting my influences and inspirations into different shapes,? explains Andy. ?It was also the time when I started to develop my low-end addiction, as tracks such as ?Ug? and ?Shelf Wobbler? testify. The collaborations were enjoyable too, from Bernard Moss? one-take flute that Seaming & Sneaky built a track around on ?Valley of the Sausages?, Braintax?s medieval working-class themed rap on 'Vibrate', Sneaky?s bass and Andy Kingslow?s abrasive synth solo on ?Shrimp? (which was the first of many tracks we did together), Andy K again on ?Champion Nibble?, Niko?s glorious & touching vocals on ?Come Alive? and Seaming's otherworldly vocals on ?Beyond?. When I listen back to Trouser Jazz, I can feel the fun and energy from those studio sessions.?
Everyone including Pitchfork delighted in the record?s joyful eclecticism: ?Trouser Jazz is quite possibly the answer to all of your sugar-fueled Saturday morning disco prayers, churning out one chocolate-frosted cereal box prize after another and bringing down the house with an inspired mix of rubbery funk, hipster soul and gleefully contorted, krush groovin? hip-hop.?
It?s tough to pick out highlights in a set of consistently top drawer productions but ?Shrimp? is an inspired fusion of Mizell Brothers cool and Roger Troutman?s squelchy funk; ?Come Alive? is a triumphant soulful jaunt blessed with Niko?s vocal and rooted by the most hypnotic bassline on the album. Meanwhile the outright dumb ?Ug? is ?a giant teddy bear of a track? the subcutaneous bellow of the bassline, the Flat Eric keyboard squawks and slithering hi-hat snaps propel it to the top of the heap? (Pitchfork). Undoubtedly it was the aforementioned characteristics that made ?Ug? a stone cold backroom classic.
