He seems to have been largely forgotten now, but UK producer Howie B was heavily involved with the trip-hop/downtempo scene. It's been a long time since I listened to it, but I remember enjoying his Pussyfoot label's Best Foot Forward comp a lot when it came out in 1995.
Sort of, some of the Wild Bunch went on to become members of Massive Attack, others; Claude, Milo and Nellee didn't and Nellee in particular had a rather successful career of his own, Geoff wasn't an engineer, he was a tape op at Coach House, as I mentioned earlier he teamed up with Tricky on "The Hard Sell", which also features the late Sean Oliver who was a member of Rip Rig and Panic and New Age Steppers alongside Neneh Cherry and Bruce Smith, Neneh and Cameron McVey also mentored Geoff/Portishead, plus Mushroom contributed to Neneh's debut album. When it comes to the Bristol music scene, at least in the eighties and nineties, just imagine Bristol as a village and everybody knew each other, lived around the corner from each over and often socialised together, so if you went to the right party, pub or record shop chances were you'd bump into members of one local band or another. If anyone ever attempted a Bristol music family tree, (I think the Japanese Disc Shop Zero did in the nineties), it would be covered in lines because pretty much everybody is connected to everybody else.
it was an interesting scene, it seemed all the art school musicians would slum it in St Paul’s, all the sound system guys would go upmarket in Clifton, and just about everyone would end up at a place called The Dug out (now gone) Most Sound System/ Reggae was and still is St Paul’s, its dwindling though. There was a recording studio in the area that tricky was caught helping himself to whatever wasn’t nailed down (he was called Tricky for a reason)everyone was pretty chill in general. A music family Tree would be a massive undertaking, you could trace a lot of it back to Bands like The Pop Group (you hit on their offshoots)on one side and Bands like Black roots on the other side, eventually crossing over. Bristol is a big city though and changing rapidly, good old gentrification and generic upmarket mall’s. Every time I go back something else has been paved over.
Don't get me started on gentrification and things changing, there's an online film about the current Bristol music scene and I don't think it features a single Bristolian, I guess that should be the people who moved to Bristol music scene. Pretty sure Black Roots didn't have any crossover/cross fertilisation with what might be termed the Bristol scene, other than alongside Talisman being the leading local Reggae bands, Black Roots did have St Pauls Carnival sewn up and let The Wild Bunch play, but the only Reggae band crossover, as opposed to the broader Reggae music/sound system crossover comes from Restriction with Rob Smith and Dave McDonald, then there is the Adrian Sherwood/On-U Sound connection; Mark Stewart, Neneh Cherry, Tony Wrafter, Gary Clail, Rat, etc., the Clifton set were much more tied in with Sherwood than Black Roots who were quite insular. However big Bristol is, the eighties/nineties scene was pretty confined to a few areas, Tricky and Fresh 4 were both outliers being from south of the river, a lot of people were based in Cotham, Kingsdown, Redland, Montpelier and St Pauls which are all connected by Stokes Croft/Cheltenham Road, everyone was only 15-20 minutes walk from each other.
No idea but thanks, I like the sparse mellow with the isolated vox, neat sound. As far as trip hop, I know less about it now than when I started the thread. People seem very hot on what it isn't, but not forthcoming on what it is. As long as interesting sounds keep getting posted it doesn't really matter what trip hop is.
I do not agree with appropriating the word "Electronica" to describe a specific genre, although I agree that such an appropriation did happen. So let's say I stand corrected Trap is a genre, while EDM is an umbrella term invented by American promoters to sell tickets to Electric Daisy Carnival, it is not a genre. No DJ will say they plays EDM. No rave-goer will say they go to an EDM party. On another hand, I don't really have a bone to pick here, so maybe I should accept EDM as an umbrella uber-genre after all? Tiesto said that he wished we could have just stuck with EDM, Still, not happy with Tiesto leaving trance and veering into house or even worse, trap. But this has nothing to do with whether to accept EDM as legitimate uber-genre.
What an album this is, such an underrated gem. The remix album is pretty good too. Every home should own Blue Lines, imho my go to entry in the greatest debut album of all time debate…
Off: Appreciate the capitulation & identifying the source too!! So many artists deny identifying w/any genre; let alone a specific genre. Artists can mistakingly identify a genre as well!! Wish there wasn't so many genres; have said since the last Century, been missing out on a lot of great music not knowing about a genre, therefore not the artist, let alone a song. Enjoy.
Here is a list of 200 track trip-hop-influenced music released before 2006 (on YouTube). I haven't heard everything on this list, but the usual suspects are there. It is down to 198 songs now, 2 songs have been deleted, probably by YouTube. Cannot trust streaming, need to make a local copy if want to ensure guaranteed access.
You actually inspired me to have a poke around The Bristol Music Archives, there’s a written piece on there by Pete Webb that expands on a lot more of some of the things I remember. It’s worth checking out.
Maybe not exactly trip-hop, but somewhat close: Afterlife - This Earth We got some nuclear plans On these chemical sands Black water, poisonous land On this Earth we all stand up
I’ve always contended that this genre has aged amazingly well. Does not sound dated at all. Mezzanine is flawless.
One of the most beautifully morose songs I have ever heard. The wonderful Tracy Thorn also elevates this great track by Massive Attack
For me, it's all about Portishead. They made four fantastic albums, which have stood the test of time and still sound brilliant today. Timeless. Massive Attack and Tricky were okay, I guess. They made a few interesting tracks here and there, but never sustained that quality for a whole album. They're patchy to me.
For me, trip-hop was more about the compilations than single artists. In the mid to late 90s I used to go to Europe a lot and visit record stores and just flip through the electronic music CD section looking for independent label compilations in the trip hop genre, and there were a LOT of great comps. “The Cream Of Trip-Hop” and “Dope On Plastic” were both great series - Anybody else have a favorite trip-hop compilation CD series?
Whoa. Tricky’s Nearly God project, Maxinquaye, and Pre-Millennium Tension are all just about perfect. Some of his later projects are patchy, but he can still deliver the goods. His autobiography is a great read Massive Attack have never made a less than stellar album. Interesting to note that Tricky is now an official member
