Mr. Scruff

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Mr. Scruff
Birth name Andrew Carthy
Also known as Mr. Scruff
Born 1972
Origin Flag of the United Kingdom Manchester, England
Genre(s) Downtempo
Trip-Hop
Occupation(s) DJ
Instrument(s) Turntables
Years active 1994–Present
Label(s) Ninja Tune
Pleasure Records
Website www.MrScruff.com

Mr. Scruff is the recording name of Andy Carthy (born in 1972 in Macclesfield, England), a British DJ and artist. He is a native of Stockport, England and studied Fine Art at the Sheffield College of Art.

His DJ name was inspired by his scruffy facial hair, as well as his trademark loose-lined drawing style. He has been DJing since 1994, at first in and around Manchester then nationwide in the United Kingdom. He is known for DJing in marathon sets (often exceeding six hours), his eclectic musical taste, his love of a "nice cup of tea" and the quirky home-produced visuals and animations that are projected on large screens during his gigs.

Contents

[edit] Career

Scruff's debut 12", Hocus Pocus was released on the small Manchester-based label, Robs Records. Subsequent singles and his debut album, Mr. Scruff followed, released on Robs Records subsidiary, Pleasure Records.[1] After a brief stint working with Mark Rae, he moved to the larger Ninja Tune label, and subsequently released the albums Keep It Unreal and Trouser Jazz.

His most notable hit "Get a Move On" is built around "Bird's Lament (In Memory of Charlie Parker)" by Moondog.[2] and has been used in several commercials ranging from Lincoln and Volvo automobiles to France Télécom and GEICO insurance. The song also samples Shifty Henry's "Hyping Woman Blues" and led to a renewal of interest in Henry's compositions.

All of his albums contain tracks about fish, whales and other sea-life, which cut up recordings of voiceovers from children's stories and nature documentaries to create surreal and silly stories.[3] His album artwork and music videos are noted for their whimsical cartoonish look; the cartoons are drawn by Scruff himself, in what he calls "potato style." Scruff also drew cartoons for music magazines such as Jockey Slut in the 1990s.[4] In 2004, Mr Scruff released Keep It Solid Steel Volume 1, the first of what is intended to be a series of several DJ-mixed compilation CDs for Ninja Tune's Solid Steel series of artist mixes.[5] These mixes are designed to recreate the eclectic genres one would expect to hear at a Mr. Scruff club night. In November 2006, Ninja Tune confirmed that the 8th Solid Steel record would be mixed by J Rocc and the 9th would be Volume 2 from Mr. Scruff. Other Solid Steel mixes have been released by fellow Ninja Tune artists including The Herbaliser, Hexstatic, DJ Food and Amon Tobin.

He has a wide array of remixes to his name, and has also produced tracks for others — notably "Echo of Quiet and Green" for sometime-collaborator Niko for her 2004 album Life on Earth. Niko returned the favour, appearing on the track "Come Alive" from the Trouser Jazz album.

Having performed regularly at The Big Chill Festival in Eastnor Castle deer park, Ledbury, Herefordshire, he was asked in 2006 to select the tracks for their compilation album, Big Chill Classics.[6]

Mr. Scruff is scheduled to release several singles in 2008.[1]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

[edit] Collaborations

Mr. Scruff with...

[edit] Cover version

[edit] Song appearances

  • Last segment called "Full Circle" from documentary movie Scratch features Spandex Man with various extra samples added.
  • Episodes of the hit UK TV comedy show Spaced featured the tracks "Spandex Man", "Chipmunk" and "Blackpool Roll" from the Keep It Unreal album.
  • "Spandex Man" was also used on the BBC series Top Gear and is often used on The Real Hustle on BBC Three. It was also a regular featured backing track for scenes in the US cult comedy Arrested Development (TV series).
  • The song "Ug" from the album Trouser Jazz is used in numerous Weebl and Bob cartoons, including the very first one entitled "Pie". The pie as a motif later recurred in one of Scruff's videos (Sweetsmoke).
  • "Get a Move On" was used in a Volvo commercial and subsequently used for ads for Lincoln automobiles, the BBC for snooker highlights and in The Apprentice, and the Adio Footwear in the skateboarding video One Step Beyond for Kenny Anderson's part. It was also chosen by Victoria Wood as one of her eight favourite records on Desert Island Discs. [1]
  • "Blackpool Roll" was used in New Zealand by television network TV ONE as background music as part of their branded channel advertising and show listings.
  • "Spandex Man" features in and is used on the DVD Menu of the film SW9 and the film "Gumball Rally 3000".
  • "Fish" was used by Nexus Productions for the Virgin Atlantic safety video, which features the voices of Vic Reeves and Dani Behr.
  • "Fish" was also used by Reuters Thompson for their UK Customer Service hold music

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Mr. Scruff. About Mr. Scruff. Retrieved on 2008-02-18.
  2. ^ Discogs. Mr. Scruff – Get a Move on / Ug. Retrieved on 2008-02-18.
  3. ^ BBC.co.uk Collective. Editors Review: Mr. Scruff – Trouser Jazz. Retrieved on 2008-02-18.
  4. ^ Mr. Scruff Official Forum. Tell me about your cartoons. Retrieved on 2008-02-18.
  5. ^ Mr. Scruff. Shop: Keep it Solid Steel Part 1 (album). Retrieved on 2008-02-18.
  6. ^ Mr. Scruff. Shop: Big Chill Classics (album). Retrieved on 2008-02-18.

[edit] External links