Rumour has it that while commissioning 'Sweet and Sour' from Phil Asher, Versatile's head honcho, DJ Gilb'r, gave the West London nu jazz head strict instructions.
In short these were, firstly, to keep things minimal, rather than sinking everything under a tidal wave of broken beats, and secondly to, under no circumstances, drown things in drawn out saxophone solos.
In a sense this makes you wonder why the French label asked him in the first place, but Asher is said to have enjoyed the discipline.
And naturally the restless soul wasn't going to allow too many restrictions, so the opening track, the storming 'Bamba', is a two-fingered salute across the channel in the form of an epic slice West London business.
Other influences remain as well, with Kaidi Tatham providing the African vocals for the MAW inspired rhythms of 'Wha Blo'.
But elsewhere we get surprises that delve back into Ashers' musical roots.
'Having Your Fun' is a bouncing piece of two-step soul circa D-Influence, as opposed to Soul II Soul, while 'Never Give In' is pure swinging sweet soul that borders on the saccharin.
'Marvin Is One' drops like an unhindered deep house sound track swirling on Mood II Swing keyboard swells before implicit vocals begin to again give it that MAW edge and 'Bassual' is a Chicago bass-lead groove.
Examples of finely executed bass squelches abound on the album, but it's on tracks such as the outstanding 'Journey to Jupiter', the Kruder-esque, playful title track, 'Sweet and Sour', 'Spaceship Rocket' and the rolling nu-breaks of the outtake -like 'China Bumps', that we begin to feel Asher's grasp of future funk.
Apparently he's also good with U-bends.
