Despite shifting a whole truckload of copies of his latest record ‘Trouser Jazz’, Stockport comedy beatster Mr Scruff has so far managed to elude any serious mainstream critical success. In part, we suspect, this is down to his habit of festooning his record sleeves with pictures of cartoon testicles tucking into pies and playing French horns.
Musically, however, Scruff is a rare breed of pop alchemist - the sort that throws big gobbets of wobbly lounge-jazz, disco, and African funk into his bubbling cauldron, but is modest enough to present the results with an idiot grin rather than the smug smirk of a dedicated ethnic tourist. An endearingly stoopid record.
Louis Pattison
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