Apr 17, 2020

RhoDeo 2015 Grooves

Hello,  so i slept through the day, as a result my brain took some time to function again, yes worriesome something i did without much thought delivered questions all of a sudden hmm, well i got through.


Today's Artists are notable for a pioneering and evolving synthesis of acoustic and electronic sounds that has drawn from avant-garde jazz, funk, dub, post-punk, and hip-hop. Guitarist David Ayers, double bassist Ali Friend, and drummer Richard Thair formed the London-based band in 1994, the year they released their first two EPs, both of which featured Beth Orton as the first of several vocal collaborators. After a third EP, it and the preceding releases were licensed to Warp, which compiled them as Reeled & Skinned (1995). Warp remained Red Snapper's home for the proper albums Prince Blimey (1996), Making Bones (1998), and Our Aim Is to Satisfy Red Snapper (2000), a period during which the group also thrived as a live act and supported Björk and Massive Attack, among several other artists. After the trio devoted time to separate projects, they returned on Lo Recordings with Red Snapper (2003), a collection of previously unreleased and live material, and Redone (also 2003), a remix set. Performances and outside activities resumed during the ensuing years as Red Snapper recorded less frequently, documented on A Pale Blue Dot (Lo, 2008) and Key (V2, 2011). The group subsequently toured with a reissued print of the '70s Senegalese road movie Touki Bouki, a film that enabled a deeper exploration of Afrobeat -- one of their enduring inspirations -- and formed the basis of Hyena (Lo, 2014). ........N Joy

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The band released three EPs on Flaw Recordings before signing to Warp Records for their debut album, Prince Blimey (1996). The band were a somewhat unusual feature of Warp Records' 1990s roster: in contrast to the studio-oriented IDM the record label primarily dealt in, the band had a live and organic sound: a smoky mixture of dub, jazz and all tempos of breakbeat from trip hop to drum and bass.In 1997, Red Snapper (along with the Foo Fighters) supported the Prodigy on their Fat of the Land tour in the UK. For their follow-up Making Bones they were joined by jungle MC Det, Byron Wallen the jazz trumpeter, and singer Alison David. The latter was replaced by Karim Kendra by their third album, Our Aim Is to Satisfy (2000).

In early 2002, Red Snapper announced its dissolution. In interviews since the reunion the band said a reason for splitting was too much discussing what to play, rather than playing. Each member wanted to try a different musical direction. Also in 2002 the various artists compilation album It's All Good was released. It included a previously unreleased track, "Ultraviolet", which was also included on Red Snapper, a compilation of unreleased and rare Red Snapper tracks released by Lo Recordings in 2003.

Later in 2003, an album of remixes was released, Redone, which included tracks remixed by the Snapper themselves. Ayers and Felix Tod were credited as The Creation, Thair remixed "Ultraviolet", and the "Odd Man Out" (Odd Man remix) was done by Friend, Gavin Clark and Ted Barnes. The last track included vocals. Later the Flameboy Records (owned by Jake Williams, former RS keyboard player) released a four-track vinyl called "RedOne", which included three tracks from Redone and a previously unreleased Red Snapper track entitled "Drill", featuring MC Det.
Reunion

Red Snapper reformed in 2007 – this was posted on their MySpace page:

    After 6 years apart concentrating on different projects, Red Snapper return. Ali has been working with Beth Orton and his new band Clayhill. David has been focusing on writing music for TV with his work featuring on the highly acclaimed BBC show 'The Tribe'. Rich has been working with Jakeone on their band Toob, with Rennie Pilgrem and the TCR Allstars and Bomb the Bass.

In late 2007, the band decided to rejoin after a jam session. They returned to the recording studio to work on new material for their sixth album. Saxophonist Tom Challenger played at the sessions and became a member of the band. Red Snapper appeared at the Bloc Weekend in March 2008. The band released Pale Blue Dot (Lo Recordings) on 2 October 2008.

In May 2011 the band released Key, their seventh album on V2 Benelux with original band members Rich Thair (drums), Ali Friend (double bass/vocals) and David Ayers (guitar). They are joined by jazz saxophonist Tom Challenger and guest vocalists Gavin Clarke (UNKLE, Clayhill) and Mercury Prize nominee Eliza Carthy. The band are followed up the album with an extensive tour of Europe throughout the summer of 2011.

On 1 September 2014, Red Snapper released the album Hyena on Lo Recordings. It features music that the group composed to accompany the film Touki Bouki.

In 2016, the band toured Belarus and played at the Canary Wharf Jazz Festival.



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The first Red Snapper full-length is an EP collection including three tracks each from Snapper, Swank and Hot Flush originally released on the Flaw Recordings label. Though the tracks are a bit skeletal, collaborations with Sabres of Paradise ("Hot Flush") and Beth Orton ("Snapper," "In Deep") come off quite well.



 Red Snapper - Reeled And Skinned.  (flac   452mb)

01 Snapper (Voc Beth Orton) 4:47
02 One Legged Low Frequency Guy 5:31
03 Swank 6:15
04 Hot Flush 4:10
05 Cortina 5:07
06 Hot Flush (Sabres Of Paradise Remix) 8:05
07 In Deep (Voc Beth Orton) 9:28
08 Wesley Don't Surf 4:59
09 Lobster 10:35
+
10 Son Of Mook 5:58
11 Son Of Mook (Depth Charge Remix 6:12
12 Get Some Sleep Tiger (Plaid Remix) 6:48


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At a time when Warp Records was known as "the premiere electronica label," along comes another album from this mostly acoustic quartet to drop some jaws with good old-fashioned musicianship. Richly accomplished for a sophomore full-length, Prince Blimey finds Red Snapper expanding rather than floundering for ideas. In a time where acid jazz was busy developing by artificial (sampled) means, Red Snapper's musical prowess became a force to be reckoned with, and many of the tracks here place heavy emphasis on the group's secret weapon: the rhythm section. On a drawing pad, many of these songs would look like pyramids, with the base (bass) end getting most of the emphasis and the top corner crammed with little harmonic afterthoughts. The double bass is essential to the success of these tracks, featuring Ali Friend growling, slinking, and sliding on the frets as confidently as Zeus with a thunderbolt in his hands. Similarly, Richard Thair keeps his drums in time with Friend -- hopscotching, marching, and breakbeating from R&B club to jazz dub to acoustic jungle. The flip side to all this is that other elements seem downright compromised. Although there are tight guitar hooks and some very impressive saxophone work (courtesy of Ollie Moore), both frequently get downplayed in the mix. Even guest vocals by Anna Haigh on "The Paranoid" have trouble redirecting the focus. However, with grooves this infectious there's still a lot to appreciate. "3 Strikes and You're Out" gives guitarist David Ayers a little gutbucket blues drawl riff and backmasking acrobatics, and "Thomas the Fib" is the very cigarette dangling from a con artist's lips, replete with catwalking basslines and some haunted vocal cackling. "The Last One" (also released as a single) seems to have the most studio enhancement, laying down rusted bass slides and cavernous drum cans underscoring an increasingly amusing soundbite. The jazzy "Get Some Sleep Tiger" and the fire-alarm funky "Digging Doctor What What" are both relentless, go-for-broke police chases through the dark streets of London, rich with imagery and tension. The last two tracks are looser, where the scaffolding overhead reveals some expanded atmosphere. "Gridlock" is a spaced-out theme, strummed through a black hole like chill-out acid jazz (if there is such a thing), and "Lo-Beam" staggers about for the finale, a late night rock noir in the same vein as David Holmes' grunge epic, Bow Down to the Exit Sign. Only a handful of bands can successfully reside in the category of "electronica" when so little of their material stems from it, so Warp gets points for pushing the envelope just enough. In terms of songwriting, Red Snapper might not live in a completely furnished house, but the foundation is rock solid.



  Red Snapper - Prince Blimey      (flac   470mb)

01 Crusoe Takes A Trip 6:39
02 3 Strikes And You're Out 5:50
03 Thomas The Fib 5:41
04 Get Some Sleep Tiger 4:08
05 Fatboy's Dust 5:15
06 Moonbuggy 1:49
07 The Paranoid (Voc Anna Haigh) 5:38
08 Space Sickness 4:09
09 The Last One 4:17
10 Digging Doctor What What 7:03
11 Gridlock 5:10
12 Lo-Beam 5:38
Loopascoopa EP
13 Last One (Red Snapper Coldcutted And Gutted By DJ Food) 7:23
14 Strike One 3:22
15 Thomas The Fib (Mr. Scruff Mix) 5:12
16 Crusoe Takes A Trip (John McEntire - Tortoise Mix) 6:45

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When a band decides to transfer the backbeats and looped riffs of drum 'n' bass or hip-hop to live instrumentation, it faces a crucial problem. No matter how precisely the live drummer lays down the backbeat, regardless of the bassist's tone, the band will be judged in relation to other live bands; the group will not be able to rely solely on the novelty of realtime performance if it wants to survive criticism. The compositions should reflect the advantages of human interaction.
With Making Bones, Red Snapper present a brilliant downtempo / drum 'n' bass album. The core trio of Richard Thair (drums), Ali Friend (bass), and David Ayers on guitar specialize in a form of layering based on tiers of riffs. On a track such as "Bogeyman", a backbeat and a handful of bass notes establish mood, tempo, and texture; a guitar riff (think the looping Eb lines on Miles Davis' On the Corner ) adds some sharpness or liquidity; and the layering proceeds from there, adding any variation of vocalist, trumpet, trombone, and cello/violin/viola. Several tracks reach a dynamic intensity through juxtaposing these layers of instrumental parts. The only problem with this approach is its mundanity. Similar results could be, and are, achieved in-studio, using samples and synthesizers. I wonder if the "fuck-off jazz" moniker the band has adopted refers to a dismissal of flexible improvisation. Since Charles Lloyd, Cannonball, and Miles Davis began seriously combining funk and rock rhythms with advanced jazz, the best fusion has pushed the groove outward with bold arrangements and improvisations, allowing individual players to transcend the basic beats. Red Snapper rarely does this, and even the trumpeter changes his tone only slightly to give some tracks more dynamism. Before their next album, Red Snapper should consider ways to make great fusion, not just great electronica played on live instruments. It's obvious the Snapper have mastered all aspects of '90s electronic dance, and Making Bones is proof positive.



  Red Snapper - Making Bones  (flac   451mb)

01 The Sleepless (Voc MC Det) 4:44
02 Crease 6:19
03 Image Of You (Voc Alison David) 6:11
04 Bogeyman 4:58
05 The Tunnel 5:23
06 Like A Moving Truck (Voc MC Det) 5:17
07 Spitalfields 6:59
08 Seeing Red (Voc Alison David) 4:48
09 Suckerpunch (Voc MC Det) 5:10
10 4 Dead Monks 5:16
Bns
11 The Sleepless (Shut Up and Dance remix) 3:51
12 Bogeyman (David Holmes mix) 7:42
13 Image of You (Rae and Christian remix) (vocal) 6:51

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Nearly as astonishing as 1998's excellent Making Bones, Red Snapper's third full album again finds the instrumental trio comping over a wealth of great musical ideas wedded to dub, soul-jazz, big-beat, disco, even hard rock. "Shellback" features a pounding Zeppelin breakbeat from drummer Richard Thair and a processional bassline of Ali Friend setting up vocalist Karime Kendra, who floats serenely over the entire production. Kendra resurfaces elsewhere, showing an enviable range by transforming herself into an extroverted diva for the breakbeat disco track "The Rough and the Quick." "The Rake" is a torrid beatbox-funk number with a nasally vocal effect straight out of P-Funk, while "Bussing," "Belladonna," and "They're Hanging Me Tonight" are atmospheric groove cuts with more allegiance to a classic jazz unit like Weather Report than any trip-hop act out there. Red Snapper never appear to run out of ideas or energy, and excellent production and recording unite the disparate styles into a jewel of an album.



  Red Snapper - Our Aim Is To Satisfy Red Snapper  (flac   383mb)

01 Keeping Pigs Together 5:22
02 Some Kind Of Kink 5:26
03 Shellback 5:43
04 Don't Go Nowhere 4:50
05 The Rake 5:14
06 The Rough And The Quick 5:05
07 Bussing 5:24
08 I Stole Your Car 4:14
09 Alaska Street 5:00
10 Belladonna 4:26
11 They're Hanging Me Tonight 6:08


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This 2003 release denotes something of a return to action for this rather talented, acoustic-electric trio. In addition, this outing features seven new pieces amid some older works, and two live tracks. The band really shines through in its multi-layered blend of EFX-driven dance beats and jazzy grooves to complement an abundance of melodically tinged hooks. Effectively, taste is the measuring stick here, as the musicians' shrewd arrangements feature synth horns, quaintly organized treatments, and contrasting themes. No filler material here, thank you! It's an intelligently produced effort, consisting of polytonal works framed upon ostinato motifs, reverberating keyboard-based choruses, breezy guitar licks, and more. They even manage to align various genres such as American folk, worldbeat rhythms, and techno stylizations into various sequences and ethereal soundscapes. Essentially, few working units of this ilk successfully merge disparate elements into something so cohesive and idiosyncratic. A finely crafted program for sure!



Red Snapper - Red Snapper (flac   324mb)

01 Regrettable 5:38
02 Mountains And Valleys 3:28
03 Ultraviolet 6:01
04 Heavy Petting 6:15
05 Dnipro 5:15
06 Hot Flush (Sabres Of Paradise Mix) 8:05
07 Odd Man Out 4:26
08 The Quiet One 3:31
09 The Tunnel (Live) 5:53
10 4 Dead Monks (Live) 5:31

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rho why blame it on the boogie?

Anonymous said...

You're my dog, working hard & free for me ahahahahahahahhahahahahah

Anonymous said...

Never managed to get my hands on "Our Aim..." when it came out....better late than never, eh! Many thanks.

-Brian

Anonymous said...


Would love a re-up of the flacs of these. I have wonky, old, cut-off and staticky version of only 2 of the Red Snapper albums. Bummed that i missed this post first time around.

Thanks for a great blog, and look forward to future posts. And thanks in advance for any help you could provide.

Chris