Our Aim Is To Satisfy Red Snapper

The Red Snapper crew have always been a respectable force from a distance, turning out tracks that have fallen into the open arms of tastemakers like Massive Attack and Björk, amongst others. And yet they have no stand-out album, no handy benchmark – a Blue Lines or Homogenicto to call their own, just a series of flawed singles and long-players, amounting to little of any real cohesive worth. Until now, of course

Our Aim Is To Satisfy is a document of a band utterly confident in their ability to engage the dancefloor and the intellect at the same time. It’s a mongrel of x-rated lyrics, downbeat longing, sub-tectonic dub and deep-fried funk, and all the time possessed of an unshakeable assurance of what’ll lock feet to floors. And if that involves sampling vintage David Essex, as in the electro-kinetic ‘Some Kind Of Kink’, then so be it – it’s less a cynical kitsch manoeuvre than a capture of unlikely potential for higher purposes. The sheer breadth of scope on offer here calls to mind David Holmes’ more recent efforts, Our Aim running the gamut from noir-ish Ipcress Files soundtrackery (‘Don’t Go Nowhere’) thru urgent peans to cunnilingus with brickbat breakbeat accompaniment (‘The Rough And The Quick’). But the Snapper are at their best when they let bruised world-weariness creep onto their palette, as on ‘Alaska St.’, the post-club comedown sound of optimism crushed, or ‘They’re Hanging Me Tonight’, a beautiful mutant frenzy of strings and percussive fuzz to bookend the album.

Our Aim is one of the most organic, unacademic records you’ll hear from the Warp stable this year, but will hold it’s head high against the likes of Mr. Twin and Messrs. Autechre in terms of ambition and depth. So go buy it, if only because 10% of the proceeds will go towards buying Aphex Twin masks for underfunded inner-city schoolchildren.