It all started when I bought a cheap ukulele for a wild camping trip - I fell in love with it and was amazed at how well it records and how expressive it can be. I think of the ukulele as an underdog because it's sometimes ridiculed and underused, particularly in jazz. After trying out uke based pieces in several jazz idioms I thought of the album "Guitar forms" by Kenny Burrell and had the idea of attempting something similar on ukulele. This is the first of three EPs exploring that idea, featuring acoustic and electric ukuleles and also lots of ukulele percussion.

"Plucking the underdog" features interplay between tenor ukulele and banjo. The tune is inspired by Charles Mingus and Thelonious Monk.

"One thing" is based on a roadtrip across Africa by my friend and ace photographer Paul Close; along the way he took portraits of people he met and asked each of them "What is the one thing that would make your life better?"The lyrics are based on their responses. Orchestra Baobab are a favourite of mine and this music owes a lot to them. You can hear the contrast between the Kala soprano uke in the left channel and the Flight tenor uke on the right.

"West Pennine Winter" was written for Paul Mansell's "The ukulele sessions". Everything is played on a Flight tenor ukulele, including electronic sounds and percussion.

"Piglets" is a crazy fusion of Gypsy jazz and electropop, written as a celebration of "pannage", the Autumn tradition where piglets are set free in the New Forest to eat acorns.

"Uke-o-tronics" explores the electronic ukulele with 18 different electronic treatments, one riff, one ukulele and a Zoom MS-100BT multi FX pedal.