Solid Doctor - How About Some Ether / Collected Works 93-95 (Double CD)

"And so the funky break of the trip hop groove enters the surgery of another qualified practitioner. An anaesthetic of Nepalese buckshot is administered by drip, a liquid balm of snowdrop strings and the entire works of Nino Rota (Fellini's favourite composer) are gently daubed on and small swabs of obscure dialogue and drifting radio wave samples make a patchwork poultice. As it leaves, tripping out, dazed and woozy, the deliciously contented break is told to join the same counselling session which has done so much for Howie B, DJ Food and 8UP. Yup, it's another of those lie-back-and-think-of-lying-back-some-more dope beat affairs. At times, The Solid Doctor's "How About Some Ether?" takes a cue from Ludovic Navarre, plundering the blues on "Holy Roller", sucking in 1987 house for "Armed To The Teeth" and detouring via Detroit jazzy techno on "Ether" itself. Every bit as daringly eclectic as Cool Breeze's "Assimilation", this is instrumental experimentalism par excellence.

Classy without unnecessary showiness, chilled out without faking the funk, it spreads its tapestry over two CDs, but your eyelids won't droop once. More therapeutic than a lifetime's supply of Prozac and Freudian analysis. Prescribe now." - Calvin Bush Mixmag

Originally released on Pork Recordings (PORK 025)