Amazon.co.uk Review: A product of post-Acid-House Manchester, Mr Scruff is a complete one-off; a cheeky innovator. His debut album is a bold statement, distinctive and confident. Keep It Unreal oscillates wildly between opposing styles--one moment Scruff's in deep, down-tempo dinner jazz territory, the next he's in Coldcut mode, chopping out superb big beat breaks with naughty hooklines to get you pogoing. At one extreme is the wacko humour of Spandex Man, bolshi Fatboy Slim breakbeat and a silly 1920s swing loop that'll make you grin. And then there's the even more ridiculous "Shanty Town", with samples of a Jacknory story about a whale. At the other end of the scale, is Scruff's accomplished acid jazz--like the serene, trip-hoppy "Midnight Feast" or the smoothie cocktail number "Honeydew", with it's loungey female vocals. This man is out there, the Salvador Dali of beats and breaks. --Sarah Champion
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Keeping It Very Real Indeed
Mr Scruff (known as Andy Carthy to his mum) is a multi talented DJ producer who is very difficult to pigeon hole (good the way I like it) - his productions on Keep It Unreal are dreamy and very funky, with crazy samples from children's TV of the 50s and 60s.
The finest moment on here for me is Midnight Feast with it's delightful xylophone and jazzy feel, this is a good one for when you want to drift to sleep, and could probably be fun if you're a DJ cutting between tracks - or for scratchin'. ... Read More
Rating: - uplifting
If you can listen to this album without smiling, you have no soul. My favourite tracks are Get A Move On, Midnight Feast, Honeydew, and Fish, but they're all great :-)
Rating: - Amazing
This is the work of a pure genius, Mr.scruff combines jazz beatz and electronica to create a wrok of art, unbeliveable, not only is this music a easy listen it also has great style and pulls out the happyness in all of us with such great songs as spandex man and shanty town thankyou Mr. scruff.
Rating: - What an album!
I brought this CD on recommendation of my friend and it is a killer album..it mixes some really good beats with some really good chill-out/ambient music. It also has some weird stuff with the likes of 'Shanty town'! Really worth getting...great for parties!
Rating: - Wonderfully cheesy!
I bought this sound-unheard, on the strength of the reviews on this site. So I gave it a spin with a little trepidation, which increased through the first couple of tracks (pleasant enough, but sounding like the intro to something which was reluctant to start). Then it started...
It's a mixture of some of the best mellow ambient-ish stuff for chilling out with a side order of pure silliness! IMHO, Shanty Town is the high point of the album:
What sort of fish are you? / I'm not a fish ... Read More
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