After a brief stint away to contemplate life and the existence of X Factor, this typically patchy feature returns to guide you towards music you might not know.

Whilst away in foreign shores, we found the lack of music amazing. Each night we were treated to tribute acts that varied from laughable to ghastly. A personal highlight included the P Diddy and Usher rappers who kept on forgetting the words. Never a good start.

But getting away from all things, er, gangster we thought we’d direct you towards the funktastic Mr Scruff.

Coming from Manchester, you’d probably expect him to be one of those guitar types. You know – stupidly make your debut album the best of your career and then try to make the follow ups really piss poor in comparison.

Mr Scruff might play the guitar, we don’t know. If he does, it’s buried somewhere between his jazzed-up beats and toe-tapping rhythms. To us, there are two types of jazz. The old crusty stuff that sounds a bit dated that old people listen to in smoky clubs. Alternatively, there is the more modern nu-jazz sound which makes everything sound a bit crisper with powerful vocals and more traditional instruments.

The distinctive sounds created by Mr Scruff – aka Andy Carthy – sounds more old-school jazz than contemporary. Many opt to go all modern and hope that Giles Peterson will pick up their record for a brief fifteen minutes and make them the next big thing.

However, blending the old with the new works amazingly well for Mr Scruff. Poorer producers out there could maybe get the sounds to become a modern take-off an old song – but not in this case. Yes the trumpets and pianos may sound a bit creaky, but the over-polished and slick use of these instruments really would sound a bit gash.

Go listen and enjoy to some warm-sounding music. We can’t promise that the various tunes – taken from album Ninja Tune, will defrost your frozen bollocks from standing at the bus stop, but give it a try at least.

For more:

Mr Scruff MySpace