Mr Scruff (real name Andy Carthy) is a Mancunian DJ who gained attention in the '90s for his epic mixes, which he set to projections of his own animations featuring Mr Scruff, a Mr Potato Head-style character. He joined Ninja Tune, the label on which he released ‘Keep It Unreal’ and ‘Trouser Jazz’. On these tracks he blended trip-hop, nu-jazz, nu-soul and downtempo – not to mention samples from nature documentaries – into a sound that was very trendy at the time. In 1999 he released ‘Get A Move On’, a cover of a Moondog homage to Charlier Parker entitled ‘Bird’s Lament’; for a while, the track was seemingly everywhere, including on ads for Volvo and France Télécom. Mr Scruff’s star has gradually risen since then, through a series of interesting remixes and collaborations with the likes of Jazzanova. He’ll be playing an all-night set at Zig Zag this Saturday – keep an eye out for the fair-trade tea stand that he sets up everywhere he plays.
