All posts tagged tricky
All posts tagged tricky
A list of the albums I listened to today while studying french, followed by a link to my favourite track (if it’s on youtube), or the only track that’s on youtube. And probably a spiel.
Exile in Guyville Liz Phair
My partner loves this album (he says it’s probably his all-time-favourite) and, though I liked parts of it, I never really got into it. But then I ordered it, and when it arrived I put it on and it just… clicked. Such a brilliant album.
The Dreaming Kate Bush
Her best, without a doubt. A truly passionate album, it’s unfortunate that no one seemed to get it.
Neptune City Nicole Atkins
There’s so much amazing about this album: her voice, the songs, the orchestrations, the feelings, the album as a whole… Neptune City is a really beautiful album, nostalgic in sound and in feeling.
Maybe Tonight (my favourite is actually “Together We Are Both Alone”, but it’s not on youtube. yet.)
Maxinquaye Tricky
I don’t think I’ve ever listened to this all the way through. A ground-breaking album, Maxinquaye is split between songs that still sound fresh and those that have become extremely stale. It’s still his masterpiece: though his later work held moments of promise, even brilliance, it never reached this level again (though some say, and I may agree, that Knowle West Boy is almost, if not as, good, a kind of modern-day Maxinquaye. Then again, after Vulnerable anything would’ve been amazing).
Moderat Moderat
This album is very tied to about a year and a bit ago when I really got into Modeselektor, Apparat and, as a consequence, Moderat. I still love this album, but it’s like my taste has moved in a different direction to how it seemed to be moving then. On the other hand, this is another album that took me a while to get into before I was able to realise how brilliant it is.
The Milk-Eyed Mender Joanna Newsom
Of all the artists I listen to, Joanna Newsom is probably the one who most obviously matures through her work: her early EPs show promise, but are… immature, for want of another word. The Milk-Eyed Mender is good, but it has never held the same appeal as Ys, though it is more digestible (except if you can’t stand her voice), and there are some excellent songs on it.
Sprout and the Bean | Peach Plum Pear (amazing live version here)
Pink Moon Nick Drake
If you’re going to die, I guess make sure you do it after your best work: though Kate Bush has had to live through “The Red Shoes”, Nick Drake released Pink Moon then signed off. A stunning beautiful album that proves that the guitar isn’t the instrument everyone thinks it is and is in fact remarkably versatile. With so much beauty, it’s sad that it’s such a short-ride, clocking at just over 28 minutes, though perhaps if it were any longer it wouldn’t be so perfect.
And that’s a wrap. For today, at least.
This will likely mess with your head, or bore you to tears. But I find it interesting that they all connect up. Even a group like Crystal Castles, which, at the start, didn’t seem to fit in anywhere, is actually related.
I might actually make this into a chart at some point. It is, afterall, uni holidays.
HOOVERPHONIC opened for FIONA APPLE in her 1997 tour of the US, and also toured Europe with MASSIVE ATTACK. MASSIVE ATTACK originally included TRICKY, who also contributed to their second album. TRICKY’S first few albums featured MARTINA TOPLEY-BIRD, who later worked with MASSIVE ATTACK. TRICKY’s first album also included a song featuring the vocals of Alison GOLDFRAPP, and another that sampled ISAAC HAYES’ “Ike’s Rap II”: this song also sampled by PORTISHEAD for their first album. Another song from PORTISHEAD’s first album was later sampled for TRICKY’s 2008 album. TRICKY has collaborated with BJÖRK.
HOOVERPHONIC, TRICKY, MASSIVE ATTACK, and PORTISHEAD have all sampled ISAAC HAYES (cited as an influence by many artists). HOOVERPHONIC has also sampled HENRI MANCINI.
Will Gregory of GOLDFRAPP recently collaborated with Adrian Utley of PORTISHEAD to write a new soundtrack for a silent film. Gregory also contributed to PORTISHEAD’s third album.
PORTISHEAD are of the Island Records label, along with FLORENCE + THE MACHINE and LADYHAWKE. LADYHAWKE is released locally by Modular Records, who also sign THE PRESETS and THE AVALANCHES. Grace Jones, a former artist of the Island Records label, is now signed to Wall Of Sound: RÖYKSOPP, Mogwai, and Tiga are also signed to the label. Tiga has worked with Jake Shears of SCISSOR SISTERS, and remixed one of their singles. RÖYKSOPP has featured vocals of ROBYN and KARIN DREIJER ANDERSSON of THE KNIFE and FEVER RAY, and wrote a song for ANNIE’s debut album. FEVER RAY’s debut album was produced by Christoffer Berg, Van Rivers, and The Subliminal Kid, all of whom contributed remixes to MASSIVE ATTACK’s EP “Splitting The Atom”. A song by RÖYKSOPP and featuring KARIN DREIJER ANDERSSON was remixed by TRENTEMØLLER. Another song featuring ANDERSSON was remixed by APPARAT, who is part of collaborative project MODERAT with MODESELEKTOR: APPARAT, MODERAT, and MODESELEKTOR are all signed to BPitch Control.
BJÖRK’s first album was produced by Nellee Hooper, who also produced MASSIVE ATTACK’s second album and has worked with SNEAKER PIMPS.
BJÖRK has worked with Mark Bell of LFO, an artist of the Warp record label. Also signed to this label are BOARDS OF CANADA, BIBIO, FLYING LOTUS, and GONJASUFI. GONJASUFI was discovered by FLYING LOTUS and contributed vocals to a track on his first album.
BJÖRK is Icelandic, along with JONSI of SIGUR ROS and EMILIANA TORRINI. JONSI’s first solo album was released by XL Recordings. SIGUR ROS is signed to the XL Recordings label, along with GOTAN PROJECT, BASEMENT JAXX, M.I.A., and PEACHES. M.I.A. and SANTIGOLD have both worked with Diplo and Switch. ROBYN has also worked with Diplo. Switch has also remixed for SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO, BASEMENT JAXX, and BJÖRK.
PEACHES has worked with SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO and Soulwax, the latter of whom has also worked with Tiga, and has remixed BASEMENT JAXX and LADYHAWKE. James Ford of SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO also produced FLORENCE + THE MACHINE’s debut album.
Soulwax worked with Crookers on their first album, which also had two songs featuring the vocals of ROISIN MURPHY. ROISIN MURPHY’s second album featured collaborations with Andy Cato of GRoovE ARMadA and Richard X, who has also worked with ANNIE and M.I.A. Her first album was produced and co-written by MATTHEW HERBERT (also known as HERBERT), whom she met when he remixed a song for MOLOKO, of which she was originally a part. HERBERT is friends with Matmos and challenged one of the members to produced a house record: the result of this challenge is The Soft Pink Truth. Matmos and MATTHEW HERBERT have both worked with BJÖRK, and HERBERT has also remixed songs by THE AVALANCHES.
MATTHEW HERBERT later met DANI SICILIANO, who contributed vocals to several of his albums, then went on to make two albums of her own (which MATTHEW HERBERT helped produce). HERBERT and DANI SICILIANO are both signed to Studio !K7: also signed is Erlend Øye, of Whitest Boy Alive. Erlend Øye also contributed vocals to RÖRKSOPP’s first album and a song by DNTEL.
CRYSTAL CASTLES’ second album features a song that samples vocals from a song by SIGUR ROS. The album was also produced by Jacknife Lee, who has worked with Howie B (BJÖRK/TRICKY collaborator), has remixed for BJÖRK, Radiohead, and BASEMENT JAXX, and has released an album on One Little Indian Records under the name Jack Planck. Also signed to One Little Indian Records are BJÖRK, SIGUR ROS, SNEAKER PIMPS and EMILIANA TORRINI.
And that is that :)
(I’ve probably mised out a few links, but I think that’s pretty darn good)
