Oliver Horton, 4 April 1981, Middlesbrough, Cleveland, England; synthesiser/percussion/vocals) and A Physician (b. Steve Dawson, 16 February 1979, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England; synthesiser/percussion/vocals) were part of an underground, Oxfordshire-based, DIY electro pop community that blossomed on the Internet in the early part of the twenty-first century. Between 2000 and 2005 they completed six limited edition, download-only seasonal mixtape compilations as the ASAP Crew. With titles such as The All Content No Meaning Christmas Album and The Best General Midi Album In The World Ever, Horton and Dawson set out their stall with an evident playfulness, inviting many likeminded friends such as Lunar Resistance, Nervous Testpilot and Binster to contribute tracks. Also featured on these releases was Trademark, a Truck Records signed band that Horton had formed with his cousin Stuart Meads in 1995, and A Technician (b. Ash Verjee, 1 May 1979, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England; electronics/vocals) who would often join A Scholar And A Physician live on stage during this period. Horton occasionally contributed brooding and sublime, experimental solo compositions that would take the edge off the wackiness that usually dominated these collections. For instance, 2002’s ‘Physician’s Xmas’ and 2004’s ‘It Never Got Made’ recalled the mature, about-turn made by Blur on their 1999 release 13.

Horton and Dawson’s first live appearance was at the Truck Festival in 2003. Under the ASAP Crew moniker, the duo operated an Apple Mac laptop each and was joined by seven keyboard players in order to replicate their cut-and-paste studio sound. Often inspired by 80s computer generated music, their sound had the necessary retro kitsch to attract kooky singer songwriters such as Piney Gir and Anat Ben-David who respectively recruited the duo to produce 2004’s Peakahokahoo and 2006’s Will 2 Power.