Can someone define trip hop?

majestic · Post by **majestic** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 4:48 am

futureproof wrote:their first CD "blue lines" came out 8 years earlier in 1991. Be sure to check out the tracks 'safe from harm" and "unfinished sympathy".

Yeah, "unfinished sympathy" actually came out as a single in early 1990. I'd just moved to central London at the time, it was playing everywhere I went (that and "little fluffy clouds").

Rahlo, of all the trip hop CDs, Tricky's "maxinquaye" is absolutely not to be missed!!!

Rahlo · Post by **Rahlo** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:22 am

majestic wrote: Rahlo, of all the trip hop CDs, Tricky's "maxinquaye" is absolutely not to be missed!!!

I've been checking out the snippets on itunes music store. I think I'll grab that one. thanks for the heads up!

tell me, what about that album, in your opinion, makes it one to get?

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:49 am

I once heard someone say that Triphop is hiphop made by white people. But then the man who said that was a proper cunt...

Mezzanine is one of my favourite CDs ever. Some of Tricky's (who used to be in Massive Attack) later stuff is a bit dodgy though.

-Paws

pix · Post by **pix** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:53 am

AdamJay wrote:i'd say a good analogy is how techno relates to house almost (and differentiates as well). they are similar in "sound" but definitely create different headspaces and move the body and mind in different ways.

that's what I meant. Good analogy.

Lowride · Post by **Lowride** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 8:56 am

Yeah, Trip Hop is a UK genre.

The album which probably best summarises this genre album is probably Portishead Dummy, though bands uncluded in this trip hop pigeon hole also include as stated, Massive Attack, Tricky, and early Morcheeba.

Dummy is laced with loads of quality numbers - a must have for everyone's collection - ( I say that even though I don't have it - I was sickened of it hearing it all the time from juke boxes in student unions in 94/95...)

Massive Attack don't stick exclusively to the slowed down Hip Hop back drop, but also adopt a lot of other influences especially dub. Interestingly, Tricky was actually a member of Massive Attack around the time of the 1st album Blue Lines, as was succesful producer Nelle Hooper. Now I think there's only Mushroom and Daddy G from the original line up.

Personally I think Massive's 2nd album - Protection is probably their best album (with the omission of The Door's light my fire cover version at the end, which imho is pants...). That said though, the production on all their tracks is always second to none - especially from Protection onwards. Although they stick to the same kind of low tempo formula, you never quite know what to expect from Massive Attack - every album sounds different from the last...

Morcheeba on the other hand, for me are the more throwaway of the 3 outfits mentioned here - First album is a must have for a few tracks - esp Trigger Hippy. Unlike the follow up albums which follow the "trip hop" formula less and less the first album is a rough diamond. A good sprinkling of quality tracks, however, the production isn't that brilliant imho. It looks like from the proceeds of the 1st album, they had a higher budget for the 2nd album (which was on a major label if I remember) and in this case the albums sounds like a highly polished turd. Although well produced, the follow up (and the couple of albums to follow) don't seem to match up to the song writing on the 1st. Nowadays Morcheeba seem to sound very mainstream...

Lowride

futureproof · Post by **futureproof** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 9:08 am

Lowride wrote:Yeah, Trip Hop is a UK genre.

dj shadow - US
thievery corp - US
Dj Krush - Japan
tosca/kruder and Dorfmeister - Austria (?)

not saying I disagree with you....just pointing it out.

telekom · Post by **telekom** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 9:45 am

What I remember (not much !) from the appearance of trip hop was that it was a relief to hear hip hop beats, dusty samples and a chilled vibe without there being lots of shouting about glocks and offing pigs etc. When there was a vocal part it tended to be laid back and dark - Tricky, Beth Gibbons, Massive Attack etc. Not a lot of shouting but a lot of daaaarrrrkkness... I also remember trip hop being used as post club chillout material precisely because it had some of the vibe and sound of hiphop but no heavy gory sexist content to upset your late night bubble.

I also was thinking about some Funki Porcini and Nightmares On Wax as well as other Ninja Tunes stuff, which all blends into my understanding of trip hop and other subsequent developments...

Earlier posts about the UK origins of triphop - yeh, it is interesting that it often seems to have been a UK thing but that many artists are actually from other places. This is just further proof that it's very difficult to specify a geographical origin to 'dance music' styles now - everything is distributed on such a widespread level so quickly that what was specific to one street in Bristol is pretty international in no time...

Good thread folks.

Lowride · Post by **Lowride** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 10:02 am

Telekom, I'm not saying that the US haven't had any Trip Hop artists, but the fact of the matter is that about 90% of what is/was recgonised as being part of the initial "Trip Hop" scene was UK based. These early albums from Portishead, Massive, Morcheeba all have a distinct common thread - the "Bristol" sound, which more or less defined the Trip Hop movement.

Other guys that came along like DJ Shadow, though tagged with this "Trip Hop" label, are quite obviously dissimilar in flavour...

Lowride

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 11:08 am

Triphop = Bristol... at least how I see it. To me, triphop is all about laidback hiphop with an actual tune and vocal to it... it's more complex than hiphop, especially regarding arrangement and structure.

telekom · Post by **telekom** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 11:51 am

Lowride wrote:Telekom, I'm not saying that the US haven't had any Trip Hop artists, but the fact of the matter is that about 90% of what is/was recgonised as being part of the initial "Trip Hop" scene was UK based. These early albums from Portishead, Massive, Morcheeba all have a distinct common thread - the "Bristol" sound, which more or less defined the Trip Hop movement.

Other guys that came along like DJ Shadow, though tagged with this "Trip Hop" label, are quite obviously dissimilar in flavour...

Lowride

yep to all this Lowride and paws. I agree "Bristol" was the sound and the definition before people started calling it trip hop. This was a time when it seemed a music journalist's only job each day was to think up a new name for a vaguely familiar style... remember "intelligent techno" and "intelligent drum n bass"... I think that although the Bristol effect is well documented it did spread fast - and so did disillusion with the definitions. My point was more about the fact that whether a sound or style starts off in one place it very quickly spreads and mutates. And that's good. Especially since we're not talking about indigenous styles of music (I agree it would be pretty daft to claim South African hi-life is natural to Siberia) but invented styles within shared subcultures. And dat's global... If it wasn't for Detroit...

I think the UK was also keen to be seen as current in hiphop at that time too... so having something unique that could be attached to hiphop culture was a good thing. I'm sure triphop also helped to kick off the big beat stuff too.

I'd like to know what the old lady looking at the Live box on the education page has to say about all this...

Rahlo · Post by **Rahlo** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 1:02 pm

what's the 'bristol' sound? educate me dudes--I'm totally ignorant to most of this info that you cats have posted, and am in sponge mode right now.

btw, that portishead 'dummy' album is nice--at least what i've heard so far!

Fingers · Post by **Fingers** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 2:15 pm

rahlo wrote:what's the 'bristol' sound? educate me dudes--I'm totally ignorant to most of this info that you cats have posted, and am in sponge mode right now.

btw, that portishead 'dummy' album is nice--at least what i've heard so far!

http://www.inkblotmagazine.com/We_Love_Bristol.htm

That's a pretty fair summary of the 'Bristol' sound. As it happens, Portishead are named after a town near Bristol (or is it an area of Bristol, I'm not really sure). The Bristol sound is just a convenient shorthand, same way as Detroit is.

Anyway, Dummy's a classic that has withstood the test of time, and the test of every frikkin British TV producer in the mid-90s using it as background music for just about every promo slot and twentysomething drama they put out.

You should try to pick up Portishead live at Roseland NYC, I think there's a video too, great live album. I've always wondered if they'd ever get it back together and start touring again.

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 2:57 pm

Zero 7 always impressed me, I reckon some of that is classed as trip-hop.
I know a lot of people would rate it as not particulary 'underground' and therefore not too cool, but I find it exceptionally well written.

Sales Dude McBoob · Post by **Sales Dude McBoob** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:10 pm

which imho is pants

Is pants good or bad?

It's kinda sad, but when trip hop first appeared, everyone thought it was going to be the NEXT BIG THING (like so many musical styles seemed in the 90s). And, as far as Portishead is concerned, it sort of was the next big thing, but then trip hop became something else...

Trip Hop became restaurant backround music. 90% of the restaurants in New York play trip hop, and that's the only time you hear it, when you're munching on some mussels.

Brand new cafes and restaurants play trip hop especially loudly, almost like a manifestation of their insecurity, it's a pleading for hipness, for edginess. But in the end the restaurnts just steal the thunder from the musical style, and the musical style just makes the restaurant more bland.

glenclayton · Post by **glenclayton** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:13 pm

LOL I was in the health food shop yesterday and Portisheads 'Glory Box' came on and both me and a girl next to me where singing along quietly but happily!

Hadn't heard that song for ages but it had a great sunny vibe on a (rare) sunny day.

Can someone define trip hop?

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