Red Snapper are much like a band that creates sounds that have thematic and stylistic roots in electronic music but with they make these with largely non-electronic instruments Immensely popular in 1997, tracks from 1996’s Prince Blimey album emanated from both club soundsystems and in lounge rooms all through last year. With humble beginnings on Dean Thatcher’s (The Aloof) label Flaw, Red Snapper have become one of Sheffield label Warp’s best selling acts. Comprising Richard Thair, Ali Friend and David Ayers, Red Snapper blend electronics, double bass, guitars and drums into a spicy cocktail of sleazy basslines and breakbeats on a very cinematic tip. This month’s release of Making Bones is the third album from Red Snapper following on from 1996’s Prince Blimey and 1995’s singles compilation Reeled And Skinned and features the vocal talents of MC Det best known for his work on the jungle label S.O.U.R. and Alison David. Talking to Yellow Peril about the new album and the apparent change in direction towards vocal collaborations, Ali Friend explains;

"This summer we’ve done about twenty-five festivals all over Europe and all the time we’ve been writing [Making Bones] and doing remixes for people . . . things change so fast these days and there is a move towards more organic sounds, deeper-rooted sounds in especially dance music . . . I’ve always tried to get that energy level of a live performance onto record and to a certain extent it works because so much of the music comes out a live situation with the three of us jamming. Now with our two vocalists MC Det and Alison coming out live with us it gives the gigs a real focus allowing us to play our new tunes as well as adding a lot of improvised bits over older instrumentals . . . when we heard MC Det’s album on S.O.U.R. we immediately picked up on the [sound] space he left and the depth to his voice, and the same with Alison – we heard her voice when we did a remix for [Alison’s band] Life’s Addiction and it was stunning although none us like the music in her band. It worked out so well that we’ve now got five vocal tracks on the album and that wanted to go out live with us".

A lot of electronic acts are beginning to use vocalists and Ali agrees that this is part of electronic music becoming more accepted into the mainstream and questions some of the motives for such collaborations; "I don’t like bands or artists creating instrumental tracks and then inviting well-known vocalists to sing on it for no reason other than that they well-known and liked. Its an easy way to success – rarely does [the end product] sound like it has any sort of feel and its seems as if its done purely as a marketing thing . . . There’s a sense of music crossing over now and that’s good if its done the right way but if you’re working with other people there has to be a reason to it. The biggest example of this at the moment must be the album by UNKLE. Some of the beats are brilliant but for me I can’t quite work out what the vocalists are doing there . . . and I think that its part of trying to link dance music in with a more mainstream pop market maybe because [record labels] are worried that indie or rock music has run its course and make it all acceptable and accessible".

Red Snapper promise to try to make it to Australia this summer having been tentatively listed for Vibes last year and their new album Making Bones, back catalogue and recent single with MC Det Sleepless are available locally though MDS.

 

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