Mr Scruff - Big Chill Classics
[Big Chill Recordings]

Even better for sunday mornings than the Velvet Underground, Mr Scruff pulls out his favourite come down tunes for this Big Chill compilation. Mix tapes are a dubious category, often not really worth the cash, but this one features the best in soulful chilled out jazz and funk from the likes of people most of us have never heard of.

Featured on disc 1 is Paul Hunter's 'Peaceful Morning', which welcomes in damp mornings with gently swaying double bass and looped piano, a gentle wake up call if ever there were one. The slow reggae grind of The In Crowd's 'Back A Yard' sits perfectly between Treva Whateva's modern classic 'Music's Made of Memories'.

Disc 2 carries on in much the same vein of delicious soul past and present, but is perhaps infused with a little more sunshine funk than disc 1. The tracks swoon around the twighlight zone, opening with the laid back funk of D'Angelo's 'Everybody Loves the Sunshine' and continuing effortlessly with Rick James' fabulous 'Gettin It ON (In The Sunshine)'

The art of the compilation is a difficult one, and Mr Scruff is the daddy, with this Big Chill compilation settling even the most fetid of hangovers. Two discs means you get double the loveliness and surprisingly, doesnt overdo it either, with a digestible fourteen tracks per disc, and not a let down track to be seen.