Red Snapper (band)

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Please improve this article if you can. (December 2007)

Red Snapper are a British instrumental band founded in London in 1993 by Ali Friend (bass), Richard Thair (drums), and David Ayers (guitar). The three core members are also joined by various guest musicians and vocalists on different records.

Stylistically, Red Snapper's music contains elements of jazz, funk, jungle, trip-hop, hip-hop and breakbeat, as well as references to early psychedelic and progressive rock.

The band released three EPs before signing to Warp Records for their debut LP Prince Blimey (1996). The band were a somewhat unusual feature of Warp Records' 1990s roster: in contrast to the studio-oriented IDM the label primarily dealt in, the band had a very live and organic sound: a smoky mixture of dub, jazz and all tempos of breakbeat from trip hop to drum and bass. In 1997, Red Snapper (along with the Foo Fighters) supported the Prodigy on their Fat of the Land tour in the UK

For their follow-up Making Bones they were joined by jungle MC Det, Byron Wallen the acclaimed World Jazz Trumpeter and singer Alison David. The latter was replaced by Karim Kendra by their third album, Our Aim Is to Satisfy Red Snapper (2000).

In early 2002, Red Snapper announced its dissolution.

Also in 2002 the compilation "It's All Good" was released, it included a previously unreleased track, Ultraviolet. The next year (2003) an album of remixes was released, Redone, which included tracks remixed by the Snapper themselves. David Ayers and Felix Tod were credited as The Creation, Rich Thair remixed Ultraviolet and the Odd Man Out (Odd Man Remix) were done by Ali Friend, Gavin Clark and Ted Barnes. The last track was surprisingly vocalized.

Later the Flameboy Records (owned by Jake Williams, former RS keyboard player) released 4-track vinyl called "RedOne" which included previously unreleased Red Snapper track called "Drill" featuring MC Det.

Red Snapper reformed in 2007 - this was posted on their MySpace page:

"After 6 years apart concentrating on different projects, Red Snapper return. Ali has been working with Beth Orton and his new band Clayhill. David has been focusing on writing music for TV with his work featuring on the highly acclaimed BBC show 'The Tribe'. Rich has been working with Jakeone on their band Toob, with Rennie Pilgrem and the TCR Allstars and Bomb the Bass.

They decided to hook up before Christmas and after a successful jamming session are back in the studio working on new material for their 6th album with saxophonist 'Tom Challenger'.

A live show has been arranged for August in London, with a special appearance at some UK festivals. More details to follow soon."

Red Snapper also appeared at the Bloc Weekend in March 2008.