Red Snapper

Formed in London in 1993 around Ali Friend, Richard Thair and David Ayers, Red Snapper developed an instrumental language at the crossroads of trip hop, acid jazz, dub, breakbeat and an urban jazz deeply rooted in live performance. First noticed with several EPs released on Flaw Recordings, the group then joined Warp and laid the foundations of its identity with Prince Blimey in 1996, followed by Making Bones in 1998 and Our Aim Is to Satisfy in 2000. Red Snapper then distinguished itself with a formula blending double bass, drums, guitar and electronic textures in a format more organic than many British electronic projects of the same period, with appearances on rock, club and festival stages, notably alongside The Prodigy at the end of the 1990s. After a split in 2002, Red Snapper resumed activity in 2007; saxophonist Tom Challenger then joined the ensemble on a lasting basis. This new period yielded the albums Pale Blue Dot in 2008, Key in 2011, Hyena in 2014, derived from work around the Touki Bouki film, then Everybody Is Somebody in 2022. Between slow grooves, broken rhythms, pronounced basslines and restrained improvisation, Red Snapper has maintained since its beginnings an approach located between concert and sound-system culture.