Oui' 3

Oui 3 were a much underrated British Hip-Hop/ Acid Jazz trio who scored several hits in the nineties, most notably 'Break from the Old Routine' and an adaptation of Buffalo Springfield's 'For What it's Worth.' In actual fact, only one third of the trio was British. American singer, songwriter and arranger Blair Booth had surfaced as the songwriting partner of Terry Hall in 'Terry Blair and Anouchka', at the end of the eighties. She went on to work with a number of other notable figures in the British music industry such as, Billy MacKenzie (The Associates), Nick Heyward and Marc Almond. Meanwhile, Swiss programmer Philipp Erb had spent most of the eighties as an engineer and programmer for a whole host of artists, including a no doubt traumatic period with Genesis P. Orridge's Psychic TV. Teaming up with South London rapper Trevor Miles, the trio signed to MCA in 1992 and proceeded to have six hit singles over the following three years. Oui 3 showed remarkable creativity for a genre often wrongly dismissed by critics as not significantly moving forward. This was due to a notable sixties influence in the music, intellectually stimulating lyrics, plus the acknowledgement of Trevor Miles as the first major rapper to rap in his own London accent. The trio released one excellent album ('Oui Love You') in 1993, whilst a second album sadly remains unreleased. Blair Booth has continued to write and record her own material, but little has been heard musically from Erb or Miles of late. Perhaps, the fact that Faithless have cited Oui 3 as an influence will help earn the trio a long overdue reappraisal.