Up, Bustle and Out

Up, Bustle and Out

Up, Bustle and Out are a Bristol-based electronic music duo made up of producers Rupert Mould and D. “Ein” Fell, also credited as Clandestine Ein and Ruperto del Monte Azul. Formed in the early 1990s, they work across trip-hop, downtempo, jazz, hip-hop and funk, with a strong focus on rhythms and recordings drawn from outside the UK. Their music often uses material associated with South America, Cuba, the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey and other international sources.

Early work and Ninja Tune

The duo first release the single “Une Amitie Africaine” on their own Forever Groove label in 1991. After a period of other activity, they reform in 1993 and send material to Coldcut’s Ninja Tune label. Ninja Tune releases their debut album, The Breeze Was Mellow (As the Guns Cooled in the Cellar), in 1994. The record brings them attention from American hip-hop DJs as well as listeners in the British underground.

Albums and international field recordings

The following years are shaped by travel and collection of source recordings. One Colour Just Reflects Another uses field recordings gathered in Mexico, Central America, the Middle East and the Andalusian mountains, combined with studio percussion, hip-hop beats, instrumental passages, and vocal and spoken fragments. The group follows it with Light ’Em Up, Blow ’Em Out in 1997, continuing the same broad approach to arrangement and sampling.

They later work with Cuban flutist Richard Egües on Rebel Radio: Master Sessions, Vol. 1 in 2000, which also includes an accompanying book. Master Sessions, Vol. 2 appears the following year. Their later releases continue to draw on specific places and styles, including Jamaica, Mexico and Turkey, with titles such as Urban Evacuation, City Breakers: 18 Frames Per Second, Mexican Sessions and Istanbul’s Secrets.

Label work and stylistic range

Up, Bustle and Out release five albums on Ninja Tune before making two further reggae-hip-hop crossover albums on smaller European labels. Their work is described as part of the experimental breakbeat landscape, but it also reaches listeners interested in Latin jazz and world music. The duo’s broader activity includes solo and parallel projects: Mould performs with a traditional Andean flute group, while Ein works as a studio producer and engineer and records club tracks under different names.

Collaborations

The group’s later collaborations include Turkish film actress and singer Sevval Sam, Colombian singer Andrea Echeverri, Benjamin Escoriza of Radio Tarifa, double bassist Jim Barr of Portishead, and Portuguese poet Kalaf.