From his earliest days in 80's Stockport, Andy Carthy has been learning the art of creating a programme of dance music that keeps a crowd bubbling along on a lot more than just one track played after another. As he puts it himself, the most important skill for a DJ is to play great records in the right order.
This means knowing the records exist, knowing that the crowd will trust his judgement and making sure that the whole programme has a tempo and a dynamic of its own. Content, transitions and moods need to work, and they need to work without anyone noticing that someone has done the work.
This particular double CD mix covers the dance, funk, jazz, African, Latin and blues you'd expect from MR SCRUFF. The eclecticism is formidable and there won't be many listeners who could recognise even a half of the artists from a first listen through. Certainly not me. But the measure is that the ones you do notice in the listing – like (let’s say) G LOVE & SPECIAL SAUCE or FELA KUTI will be ones that make you go "wooooh!" and not just, "oh, them".
It's definitely a very cool selection, but it’s not chill-out – definitely not. It’s nearly two and half hours of mostly fine music and it includes some pretty challenging stuff. The Big Chill part is the festival-cum-label behind the invitation to create the collection.
Why would you buy it? I guess because you want more than just background music even when you want background music. I can think of a couple of café bars that would just put these two CDs on and leave them on all day and night. A solitary customer would be happy listening more closely, a couple or small group would be well-balanced between stimulus and relaxation.
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You might ask why buy a mix CD when you can make your own? It’s a good question. The joy of making your own is that you can slip in tracks you secretly love, knowing that the person you give it to will be drawn in to join you. That's what seems to be going on here. With my G.Love standard for comfort, I gradually realise I'm soon listening to a more r&b track from ERNESTO that I wouldn't have bothered with, but which I find is pretty cool. Maybe not the RICK JAMES (high grade schmaltz however you cut it). But it was worth a try.
And that's how it works. Other names to listen out for would be DONALD BYRD and MIKE WESTBROOK (in a very strong opening twenty minutes or so with THE OSUMANE KOUYATE BAND to follow). GRADY TATE's version of Moodance isn’t a great finish to CD1 but I guess everyone will have a track or two they would rather do without.
www.mrscruff.com
www.bigchill.net
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