Mr. Scruff – Keep It Solid Steel

Mr Scruff's "Keep It Solid Steel" is a mainly old school hop hop affair interspersed with jazz, dub, funk and soul.

As with the rest of the Solid Steel series, this 2004 mix is all about the combination of disparate musical styles. Sarah Winton's sweetly soulful "Tell Me How" is juxtaposed with gritty hip hop from Demon Boyz, and the quirky jazz-funk of Stone Alliance's "Sweetie Pie" is used to similar contrasting effect next to the tough rap of Show & A.G.'s "Bounce Ta This".

But this eclecticism is where the Solid Steel influence ends, with none of the poppy mash-ups, tricky turntablism, or uptempo BPMs that characterised the first three mixes. Instead, Scruff sticks to a formula of straightforward, unpretentious mixing and obscure, laidback songs, creating his own unique head-nodding style, but without the more varied, pulse-quickening journeying that Solid Steel usually provides.

The mix peaks early, with Groove Corporation's uptempo remix of Big Youth's "Waterhouse Rock" skillfully emerging from the heavy roots reggae of Mungus Hi Fi & Brother Culture to get the party started. It's a great energy-raising progession, but rather than keep the momentum going, Scruff then brings the energy back down to a uniformly midtempo pace for the rest of the mix, remaining defiantly aloof from anything commercial, contemporary-sounding or attention-grabbing. The mix peaks again at the end, with Soul II Soul's mature soul and the brilliantly uplifting jazz of Pharoah Sanders' "You've Got To Have Freedom" raising the bar.

A solid, sedate and sophisticated foray into the leftfield yesteryear that nods away contentedly in the background, but may have benefitted from a few stronger tracks and a bit more variety of tempo. (7)

lowlights - you philistine, it's one of the stand out tracks on the comp Easter. Keep it real!

Intro – Stockport’s finest Mr Scruff delivers the first in a series of mix cds that aim to reflect his rather wonderful ‘Keep it unreal’ night in deepest darkest Manchester.

Highlights – With 31 tracks there’s bound to be something for everyone but most people will surely, surely agree that Ultramagnetic Mcs “Ego Trippin” is a strictly old skool hip hop gem .

Lowlights – With 31 tracks there’s bound to be something that everyone thinks is crap and surely its the big pile of jazz wank that is Pharaoh Sanders “You’ve Got To Have Freedom”.

Outro – Oh Mr Scruff, how eclectic art thou! There’s so many different styles thrown down from deep jazzy business to classic hop hop via funk, reggae and soul that it could sound muddled in less experienced hands but in Mr Scruff the tracks weave and mesh sweetly.

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