Red Snapper

Red Snapper established their reputation through an innovative, shifting integration of acoustic and electronic textures rooted in avant-garde jazz, funk, dub, post-punk, and hip-hop. Guitarist David Ayers, double bassist Ali Friend, and drummer Richard Thair launched the London-based group in 1994, issuing their opening pair of EPs that same year; both featured Beth Orton, the first in a series of vocal collaborators. Once a third EP appeared, Warp licensed the early releases and assembled them as the 1995 compilation Reeled & Skinned. The imprint then served as home for the proper studio albums Prince Blimey (1996), Making Bones (1998), and Our Aim Is to Satisfy Red Snapper (2000), during which span the trio also built a strong live following through support slots for Björk and Massive Attack, among other artists. After the members turned to separate projects, they resurfaced on Lo Recordings with Red Snapper (2003), an archive of unreleased and concert material, and Redone (also 2003), a set of remixes. Performances and side activities continued through subsequent years while studio output slowed, yielding A Pale Blue Dot (Lo, 2008) and Key (V2, 2011). The band later toured alongside a reissued print of the 1970s Senegalese road movie Touki Bouki, an endeavor that prompted deeper immersion in Afrobeat, one of their longstanding influences, and supplied the foundation for Hyena (Lo, 2014). Later touring included complete performances of Prince Blimey.