Professor Elemental and His Amazing Friends

Released: 1st December 2016
Length: 36 minutes
Available from: Professor Elemental's website

I first came across Professor Elemental somehow on YouTube six years ago as my Facebook's "On This Day" tells me.

I have no idea how I came across it, but The Prof's track "Fighting Trousers" was my (and I suspect many others') introduction to the world of Chap-Hop; hip-hop in the style of an old-fashioned English gent, and Elemental as one of it's more eccentric and best known proponents.

Steampunk doesn't have a specific musical style, but I can think of few artists more fitting to steampunk than live staple, Professor Elemental.​

In his pith-helmet and khaki explorer gear, Elemental's persona veers hilariously between experienced, knowledgeable guide to the strange world of his albums, and dangerously clueless halfwit.

There's a sense in his albums that science and adventuring is being done "properly" by others beyond the music, but that The Prof. didn't have the patience for all that nonsense (and they didn't want him in their club), so he grabbed a spanner, nicked some old broken parts and cobbled together his own airship.

​I was a fan immediately and several years, several live gigs, a few albums, a drawing or two and even once performing on-stage, dressed as a gentleman chimpanzee, with the man himself and here I am reviewing his latest album.