Forgive the brevity of this post, my #3 child was born the other day and things are...hectic :-)
My step brother Andy is a DJ, he's my go-to guy when I want to discover new music. A few months ago he recommended "Mr Scruff", I jumped on google's play store and bought the first album I could find. I've been listening to it a fair bit since then, mostly at work. Though it does also get a fair bit of play in the car, my four year old daughter only ever requests two albums: Ninja Tuna and the Back to the Future Soundtrack. It could be worse, it could be the Frozen soundtrack.
My favourite tracks....
#3 Donkey Ride. Reminds me of something from the tv series Treme.
#6 Nice Up The Function. This track is super familiar to me but I don't know why. Does it sound like something else?
#13 Stockport Carnival. Oooo, jazzy!
I like the length of this album, but I don't like that there's any stylistic theme, it's a bit all over the place.
4 out of 5 for me. Get it while it's hot!
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/c8t76mlufbu696m/AAC4M1SIr7nW6rg9dVEZjsBya/Mr%20Scruff?dl=0
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"Let it go! ... Kill me now!" Frozen was on high rotation in our car until I found myself one play away from a complete psychotic break and I played the good ol' "It's my car and I will play what I want today. When you grow up and get a car, you can pick the music" card. Ninja Tuna has become one of the acceptable alternatives for most of the kids, and as Meatloaf says "two out of three ain't bad" :-)
ReplyDeleteThere was something familiar-ish about the Nice up the Function for me too. It bugged me for days before it finally clicked. The opening of it reminds me of the start to Soul Bossa Nova (aka, the Austin Powers theme) and I think it's the octave interval jump in the lower brass/synth sound that does it. There's something else in the vocals around 1:05 but I haven't figured that one out yet.
My favourite tracks are Donkey Ride and Bang the Floor. It's a good album to have running on long drives and in the background to keep me motivated while I'm working and doing the usual round of chores.
I'm giving this one a 4. The heart of a grateful parent goes out to you for this one Ben, for saving me from the Frozen onslaught.
Congrats on the great news, Ben! Here's hoping that child #3 lives of life of musook (with or without club).
ReplyDeleteThis is good chore music, and it's head bobbing sometimes, but it doesn't cohere much as an album. I do encourage you to keep exploring his stuff, Ben (and others). I've had some success in the past, but had never heard this one.
You're right, as an album there's almost no coherence at all!
DeleteCongrats on the baby. Just 8 more until you have enough for a football side.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't get into this fusion jazz albums as much as I could get into some others. Especially some stuff that came out in the 90s that makes my dad upset they would even use the word jazz. He is a 71 year old saxophonist, and laments the fact that he has to play popular music to get gigs.
A word on the length, it really is two albums. "Ninja Tuna" being the first 13 songs and "Bonus Bait" being the last 10, which was left over material from the original album.
I've seen "Ninja Tuna" at the public library a million times but never bothered to check it, so I was happy to finally listen to it. Although I felt most of the album, and especially the "Bonus Bait" material, was light on melody. "Hairy Bumpercress" (Track 4) was my favorite. Given that the musooklub commenters favorites were #3 (twice), #4, #6, #7, and #13, I maybe would have rated it higher if I just listed to the "Ninja Tuna" part. Track 14 "Bunch of Keys" had me looking at the time thinking "when will this end?" to realized I made it only halfway through a 10 minute song.
Lastly, I might be the only one on in Music Club with a PC, but I was confused when track #7 Kalimba appeared twice in the Media Player because it came free with Windows 7. Never though of using Bill Gates to look for new artist.