“Was the recording and production of “You’ve Come Along Way, Baby” influenced by Norman Cook’s past musical influences and workings or the current UK music culture at the time?”
In a way yes to both. Love Island feels like a more up-to-date version of his stuff, when he was in Pizzaman and Mighty Dub Katz (Happy, Jolly House Stuff), and tracks such as Acid 8000 are tributes to the Acid House genre. I also read somewhere that Gangster Tripping was influenced by Malcom McClaren’s (Sex Pistol’s manager) “Duck Rock” album. Rockerfeller Skank was influenced by “Rock The Funky Beats” by Natural Born Chillers. And also, this was when the first wave of Big Beat (1994-2001) was at it’s peak, so in many ways this album represents the genre, as it’s quintessential record.