You might have noticed his work in the collection of Windows 7 sample media, alongside
a koala, penguins and a jellyfish,
a piano tune and
a version of Debussy's "Maid with the Flaxen Hair", or maybe his ditties got you tapping your toes
in a video game. Perhaps you met him at his
tea shop in Manchester (
Google Streetview), home to his
own line of organic teas. Maybe you know him for his marathon mixsets, running
four,
five,
six, or
almost seven hour long. You might know him as
Andy Carthy, but it's a bit more likely you've already heard something of
Mr. Scruff.
Some 19 years ago,
he was a bedroom hip-hop DJ, and by 1994,
his repertoire had expanded. That year he started doing live gigs, playing wherever he could around his hometown of Manchester.
"I played in a lot of bars, plus club events such as a young manumission, a world music night called 'one tree island', a reggae night called 'dubism', and a hip hop/soul/jazz/funk night called 'headfunk'. I played different music at each event, generally whatever I could get away with!"
The next year, he got his first original tracks pressed to wax, with
The "Hocuspocus" EP on a local label,
Rob's Records. There were a few more singles in 1996, and in 1997 Andy Carthy had himself
an album, by way of compiling his early music from Rob's Records and the sub-label, Pleasure Records.
Mr. Scruff was here.
In 1998, Carthy joined
the Ninja Tuna label with
a three-track single, his release being the 62nd single on the label that now has some
a couple hundred singles (plus bundles of albums) under their collective belt. He went on to release two more albums on Ninja Tune,
Keep It Unreal in 1999, and then
Trouse Jazz in 2003. The following year saw the first commercial mix CD from Mr. Scruff,
Keep It Solid Steel Volume 1. Intended to be the
first of an ongoing series of mix CDs,
he was tangled with licensing of vol 2 in 2006, then
shifted his focus to the next studio album in 2007, and
in 2008 it sounded to be shelved, with
the Southport Weekender mixset (
streaming mix,
history of the bi-annual event) available as something of a stand-in. In October of 2008, Mr. Scruff released his 4th album,
Ninja Tuna, and in collaboration with Ninja Tune he created a new sub-label,
Ninja Tuna, for Mr. Scruff's own material and ephemera.
Like many hip-hop and electronic/dance music makers, samples play heavily in Mr. Scruff's tracks. For instance, Carthy pointeed out that "
'Get A Move On' is basically all samples." That particular track relied heavily on
Bird's Lament, by the blind composer/ musician/ inventor Louis Hardin, also known as
Moondog (
prev). Along the musical samples reside some more cheeky things, as heard in
Wail,
Fish,
Ahoy There!, which were the last tracks of his first three albums, each little nautical stories made from a variety of samples.
Much of Mr. Scruff's persona comes through his drawings. He said of his drawings, "
I like the balance and incongruous aspect where I can put a cartoon on a flyer and then be playing hardcore jazz records in the club. If I just put, ‘Come and listen to my rare jazz records’ I’d just get a load of beardy blokes – and I’m sure there will be a load of beardy blokes down and that’s cool if they’re down with a load of other people." The Ninja Tune era albums had singles with music videos featuring Carthy's drawn characters, with
Get A Move On and
Honeydew from the first album, and
Sweet Smoke from the second. Ninja Tuna spawned a number of similarly themed videos, including
This Way,
Stockport Carnival, and
Give Up To Get.
Music Takes Me Up was more produced, featuring the singing Alice Russell lemon.
Still looking for more funky Scruff? Check
almost an hour of MP3s of an interview, or
a bit of the life of Mr. Scruff, in his own words, from push-button electro mix-tapes to 2008. And if his
Soundcloud page doesn't give you enough music, check his old
Hotpot Radio Shows, a mix of stuff with Mr. Scruff and
Treva Whateva, a mate from back in the day. Hotpot.com is down, but
Archive.org caught some pages.
posted by rebent at 11:01 PM on March 31, 2010