Mr Scruff was the debut album by Mr. Scruff

Mr. Scruff

Mr. Scruff is the recording name of Andy Carthy , a British DJ and artist. He lives in Stockport, Greater Manchester, and studied fine art at the Psalter Lane campus of Sheffield Hallam University...

, originally released on Pleasure Music on 12 May 1997.
It was repackaged and re-released in 2005 under the title Mrs Cruff

Mrs Cruff

Mrs Cruff is a 2005 re-release of Mr. Scruff's earliest material. Originally released on EPs on the record label Rob’s Records, and in 1997 the songs were released together as an album entitled Mr. Scruff on Pleasure Records...

.

The album saw the emergence of one of Scruff's obsessions - sea-life

Marine biology

Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...

. The opening track, "Sea Mammal", was the first of several to use cut up

Cut-up technique

The cut-up technique is an aleatory literary technique in which a text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text. Most commonly, cut-ups are used to offer a non-linear alternative to traditional reading and writing....

 recordings of voiceovers

Voice-over

Voice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations...

 from children's stories and nature documentaries

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 to create surreal and silly stories. The track is a tribute to Boogie Down Productions

Boogie Down Productions

Boogie Down Productions was a hip hop group that was originally composed of KRS-One, D-Nice, and DJ Scott La Rock. DJ Scott La Rock was murdered on August 27, 1987, months after the release of BDP's debut album, Criminal Minded. The name of the group, Boogie Down, derives from a nickname for the...

' track "My Philosophy", and was originally released as the b-side to Scruff's debut release, the single Hocus Pocus (1995). The album also contains another track that references sea creatures - the album's closer ,"Wail" (being a homophone for "Whale").

Track listing

1. "Sea Mammal" – 8:19
2. "Tubby Mechanical Friend" – 6:01
3. "Bass Baby" – 5:56
4. "Bonce" - 4:59
5. "Chicken in a Box" – 8:26
6. "Night Time" – 6:00
7. "After Time" - 2:32
8. "Limbic Funk" – 5:29
9. "Bobby's Jazz Pony" – 5:03
10. "Jazz Potato" – 6:05
11. "Crisps" – 6:27
12. "Wail" – 3:46