Red Snapper is a London combo that draws from Massive Attack and the school of trip-hop. Their music is jazz and funk enhanced by avantgarde disc-jockey tricks, encapsulated into dub-derived ambience and drenched in moody atmospheres reminiscent of Barry Adamson's imaginary noir soundtracks. The core is made of drummer Richard Thair, bassist Ali Friend and guitarist David Ayers, with occasional guests (mostly vocalists). Saxophonist Ollie Moore was the most prominent guest on the early EPs, later collected on Reeled & Skinned (Warp, 1995), and on the debut album, Prince Blimey (Warp, 1996). The album definitely promoted them among the most daring fusionists of their era, incorporating jazz, rhythm and blues, drum'n'bass, hip hop and dub in a complex, arcane and recombinant harmonic structures. Get Some Sleep Tiger, Moonbuggy, The Paranoid, Digging Doctor What What, Gridlock are sophisticated mini-chamber concerts.

The EP Loopascoopa (Warp, 1997) contains remixes.

Down to a trio (Thair, Friend and Ayers), Red Snapper continued their investigation of post-hiphop dance music with the single Bogeyman and the album Making Bones (Warp, 1998). The new direction is both harder (the drum'n'bass eruptions of The Sleepless and Like A Moving Truck) and more atmospheric (the flamenco guitar of 4 Dead Monks, Image Of You and, generally speaking, Byron Wallen's cornet).

Red Snapper sold their stylistic innovations to a broader audience with Our Aim Is To Satisfy (Warp, 2000). The dance tracks (The Rake, The Rough And The Quick, Some Kind Of Kink) are among the most forceful of their career, a veil of psychedelic dub envelops Bussing and Belladonna, and funky rhythms are packaged in baroque formats (Ghost Town, Shellback).