Designer Beatnik is the only album by English electronic act Dr Calculus, a duo of Stephen Duffy and former Pigbag trombonist Roger Freeman.

Dr Calculus were inspired the emergent ecstasy culture in London and, in January 1985, released the single "Programme 7", leading to the record's production.

[3] In a later interview with Anthony Reynolds, Duffy said that Freeman had been frequenting a nightclub that played "this crazy electronic music" where all the clubbers were taking drugs, believing this to be the start of ecstasy culture in London.

[4] A well-received dance single,[5] "Programme 7" combined obscure French references with uplifting trombone work and modern production that used editing techniques in a manner comparable to Art of Noise.

"[5] Dr Calculus performed "Honey I'm Home", "Programme 7" and "Killed by Poetry" in a Radio 1 session for John Peel, which was broadcast on 28 January 1985.

[4] Duffy's brother Nick, who contributed violin, design and photography to the record, commented that project was a reaction to the prevalence of yuppies in the 1980s and how they were undermining the work of "the folk devils of the previous three decades"; he considered the joy in employing then-nascent music technology in the production to stem from "how things could be torn up and re-scattered in spontaneous bricolage", describing it as the reprisal of musique concrète and cut-up poetry which, for Dr Calculus, resulted in a "mélange of synthetic and found sounds, words and trombones.

[17] Emden calls it an album of "dance rhythms blown apart in all directions by apparently random snippets of television and soundtracks from Walkman recording holidays in the Far East",[14] while according to reviewer Di Cross, it is a "musical rag bag of eccentric sounds and commentary", spliced together into electro-styled tracks with predominant beats and 'battered' brass.

[18] Reynolds refers to it as an experimental tribute to the then-nascent ecstasy culture, elaborating that it combines "cartoon dialogue, drum machines, mournful brass, funky bass and reversed strings", and noting that each track segues into the next, "forming a non-stop 40-minute piece, at times sounding like Madness – the group and the mental state – hijacking a Chicago 808 House party.

[19] The title track was constructed by Freeman performing his "Westminster clock chimes impression" on the trombone over a simple drum machine beat, while Lee played a complex chord sequence on trumpet.

"[4] Featuring vocals from Jenny Innocent,[11] "Perfume from Spain" explores an arty electronic style comparable to Art of Noise[20] and incorporates Sleng Teng rhythms.

[21] Contemporary reviewers described it as a "stop-start" mix of rap, special effects and humorous lyrics,[22] a "mish-mash" of many genres, including elements of punk and disco,[23] and an inventive "hotch potch" track which draws on reggae, Eastern and Western musical styles.

[14] As "Programme 7" had been a dance hit in the United States, Duffy wished to sell imported copies of "Perfume from Spain" in the country, jokingly referring to Designer Beatnik as "the perfect college LP – the yuppie Sgt Pepper.

[14] In his contemporary review for Music Week, Emden described Designer Beatnik as a "curious multi-layered splash of colour" and believed it deserved a better commercial fate than the "Perfume from Spain" single, writing: "Occasionally danceable with sleng teng and jazzy moments, always fun to listen to – with more humour in the editing than a whole month's worth of most releases.

"[25] Tim Pedley of Newcastle's Evening Chronicle praised it for being an "exploratory rock" album which "refreshingly veers off the straight and narrow to produce an original sound, sometimes brilliant sometimes silly, but never dull.

She named the two singles and "Killed by Poetry" as highlights, but cautioned that parts of the record which may initially intrigue listeners would not necessarily become "something you're going to want to give continuous rotation to".

[18] A reviewer for Middleton Guardian called it "a witty, varied and entertaining debut" that draws on a plethora of musical styles and sounds, and described the lyrics as "total nonsense, and not just because some of them are in French."

"[17] John Lee of Huddersfield Daily Examiner calls Dr Calculus an "unlikely" collaboration between Duffy and the former Pigbag horn section, resulting in "a rather unusual album of minority listening."

[28] Robin Denselow of The Guardian recommended the album to those seeking "something a little more quirky and different", but disliked it himself, considering it to be "a collection of unexceptional, half-hearted, light-hearted funk with a few reasonable horn selections thrown in," mixed with found noises, voiceovers and "a few drifting patches from what sounds like mood music from a dull art film."

[2] In 2022, he reflected that the album was "an amazing thing to do" and that the recording process continued to inform his work, but noted that following its original release, he no longer felt the need to "experiment" and returned to more conventional idioms.

"[2] In a 2014 interview with Classic Pop, Freeman argued that the album inspired The KLF's Chill Out (1990), both musically and in terms of the duo's "floppy-eared Elma Fudd trapper hat and dark glasses look".

[31] The magazine noted that the KLF's use of strings, sounds and emergent technology on Chill Out to create a continuous mix bore "uncanny" stylistic and structural similarities to Designer Beatnik.