AMG Review of Trouser Jazz

Kingsley Marshall
All Music Guide

The third album from Andy Carthy continues from where 1999's Keep It Unreal left off, with playful grooves and a smorgasbord of daft titles that include "Come on Granddad" and the self-explanatory subsonic rumblings of "Shelf Wobbler." As the down-tempo movement becomes increasingly mature, however, so this irreverence becomes increasingly irrelevant, with Scruff at his best when he keeps his finicky sense of fun in check. Highlights of this work include "Beyond," where Homelife's "Seaming To" soars above breakbeat shuffling, and the impeccable flute-flecked "Valley of the Sausages." "Champion Nibble" steals the show, however, with an emotive funk offering where the samples are gently layered together before lighting the touch paper of an inevitable big beat jam.