Animals On Wheels

"Drill'n'bass" outfit Animals on Wheels was the first signing to U.K. beatfreak label Ninja Tune from the Bovinyl imprint, run by Cambridge-based Andy Coleman. Coleman is also the principle behind AOW, whose humorous brand of jazzy, hyperdriven breakbeat fracture is comparable to that of Aphex Twin, Plug, and Squarepusher, among others. (The curious name derives, reportedly, from a friend of Coleman's who claims the largest collection of the likenamed tchotchkes.) Coleman issued a trio of twelves on his own label, as well as a handful of compilation tracks, before releasing his debut for Ninja Tune, the full-length Designs and Mistakes, in 1997. A trendy blend of dimestore jazz samples, mile-a-minute breaks, and fizzy downtempo weirdness, the album probably missed the cheeky jungle curve by about six months, although it earned Coleman a wider audience for his music than the comparatively short reach of Bovinyl allowed. Nuvo I Cadira followed in 1999.