This is absolutely bloody ass kicking! And I mean it. Don’t judge a book by its cover and a CD by its label. In this particular case the label was “hip hop” and well, maybe there’s some hip hop left-overs in it, but this have nothing to do with what usually we thought of hip hop. This is jazz, modern, alive, pulsing, experimental jazz without being kind of exclusivist, it’s avantgardist without being abstract, in not so many words: this is fucking music! Well, if we trying hard enough we may find some parallels with US3, eventually with the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, but still. If there some other band which reminds me of , perhaps that would be Morphine. Honestly I don’t know where I kept or what I did with my ears in the last few years, but I stumbled into Red Snappers only yesterday while it seems they being around since 1994. But I can take off “Key” from the player since.
CDs:
1995 – Reeled And Skinned
1996 – Prince Blimey
1998 – Making Bones
2000 – Our Aim Is To Satisfy
2002 – It’s All Good
2003 – Red Snapper
2008 – A Pale Blue Dot
A short biography for other ignorants as myself. Red Snapper began in a sweaty rehearsal room in Hammersmith working their dirty jam of hiphop/jazz and rockabilly with sax player Alan Riding which soon became 3 eps on Thair and Dean Thatcher’s label Flaw Recordings. With help from White Noise’s Chris Butler and a belting set at the Jazz Stage Glastonbury they secured a ‘record deal’ with Warp Records. There followed many European/UK shows with punkfunk vocalist Anna Haigh and Ex ‘Pig Bag’ sax player Ollie Moore.
The album ‘Prince Blimey’ was produced and mixed by the band and Tim Holmes (Death In Vegas).Snapper remixes of the likes of Garbage, David Holmes, Sabres of Paradise and Troublefunk furthered their reputation as a truly experimental act.
Rich, David and Ali worked with engineer Luke Gordon, Mc Det and Vocalist Allison David on their following album ‘Making Bones’ which found them supporting the likes of Massive Attack, Bjork and The Prodigy.
The 3 went back into their Waterloo studio and produced another epic album involving vocalist Karim Kendra, MC Det and Mr Williams which resulted in more sellout shows and a bizarre departure from warp records. ‘Red Snapper’ is a much sought after final album on the fantastic Lo Recordings that combines some more journeys into sonic slackness in true ‘snapper’ form. Also check out the remix album ‘ redone’on Lo Recs.
In summer 2007 they were asked to headline a stage at the BigChill festival. Rich, David and Ali were joined onstage by youngblood Tom Challenger on sax, melodica and clarinet and Darius Kedros on sound/dub duty.
the band being commissioned to compose the music for the art/film installations run by Big Chill for the opening of Eurotunnel at St.Pancras. Winter 2007 saw Snapper in the studio recording new tracks with Tim Holmes, instrumental influences ranging from Afrobeat, Hendrix, Rockabilly and surf.
“Key” was released on April 15th on V2.
Intense and dense, but extremely groovy and merging innovative Jazz, Funk, Rock, Psychedelic, Funk, Dub and Hip Hop germs into a groovy, flowing, colorful trip. 14 absolutely freaking tracks, no senseless filling, a perfect release, instantly a favorite. Stunning, I just run out of words.
Red Snapper – Official Site
Red Snapper – on MySpace
