Keep It Unreal

Mr. Scruff is the nom de disque of the endearingly daft Mancunian Andy Carthy, who replaces hip-hop's gunplay, label whoring and brandy snifters with wordplay, ichthyology and a nice cuppa tea. Keep It Unreal was his first, and best, album for Ninja Tune, and while under most circumstances the reissue of a 10 year-old dance music album would be as unsightly as your dad in a pair of Cheap Monday jeans, Scruff's singular sensibility renders currency and prevailing trends irrelevant to the appreciation of his music. The album's highlight is undoubtedly "Get a Move On", a house reworking of Moondog's "Bird's Lament" that still delights even though it has long since been consigned to the Purgatory of car advert cliché. Scruff has never met a bad pun he doesn't like, and his goofball sense of humour raises its head on "Shanty Town", a collage of sea shanties and fishy non sequiturs set to a queasy bass line, and "Blackpool Roll", which sounds like Pete Rock playing the mighty Wurlitzer organ at a Blackpool workingman's club. Unfortunately, the bonus tracks — mostly unreleased tracks and b-sides — are fairly bland and genericize Scruff's sly winks, ribald guffaws and facility with the… read more »