Tricky

Tricky – ununiform (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 18, 2023 · Comments off

On Skilled Mechanics which came out in 2016, Adrian Thaws (a.k.a. Tricky) never emerged from the darkness. The same is true for Ununiform, his thirteenth album that he published a year later. Disc after disc, the British artists reminds us that he is without a doubt the most gifted painter/singer in terms of exploring the darkness of the human soul. He is familiar with the obscure side of the force, having been made an orphan at a young age and convicted not much later… A few months shy of 50 years of age, Tricky (who’s lived in Berlin since 2015) offers a new beautiful and disturbing collage of his various phobias, passions and nightmares. Incidentally, the German capital has made an impact on this work. Just like the Russian capital. “I like Berlin because I don’t know anyone. I eat well, I go on walks, I have a bike… I try to take care of myself. I don’t drink here. Some people might find this boring, but I wake up at 9 in the morning and I’m in bed by 11 at night. I take care of myself… As for Moscow, that’s my favorite city in the whole world! I never want to celebrate Christmas at home, so in December 2016 I spent 3 weeks there, recording while eating Russian food.” As a result, Tricky invited several Russian rappers onto the tracks to join his descent into hell. Among them we find Scriptonite, MC on Blood Of My Blood and Same As It Ever Was, as well as Vasily Vakulenko, one of the most popular rappers in the country who composed the beat for The Only Way. The rapper Smoky Mo makes an appearance on Bang Boogie, a track composed by Gazgolder, the owner of one of the biggest Russian rap labels. Tricky clearly doesn’t speak russian. “I don’t need to understand what they rap. I feel it. They live each day like it’s their last, and I like that.” All this hardly stops the ex-member of Massive Attack from bringing back some past collaborators, from Francesca Belamonte to Asia Argento and even his ex Martina Topley-Bird… Between dark new wave, subdued trip-hop, avant-garde rap and numbed rock, Ununiform is an MRI scan into the complex brain of a musician who’s never stuck for ideas.

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Tricky – Fall To Pieces (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 18, 2023 · Comments off

Tricky releases his 14th studio album, Fall To Pieces, on his own label False Idols. Fall To Pieces was recorded in Tricky’s Berlin studio in late 2019. Tricky is keen to point out that the tracks on the record can be deceptive; often short, ending abruptly and moving on to the next without warning. Although instrumentation varies from bursts of tense synths, distorted dial tones, and samples, the song’s lyrics can be dark and dense. Tricky’s music has always enlisted female vocalists to carry his ideas: the majority of tracks on Fall To Pieces, including Fall Please rely on Marta Złakowska, the singer he discovered during a european tour when he was left without a vocalist on the opening night. She saved the tour from disaster. “I can tell when someone is humble and down to earth,” says Tricky. “Marta doesn’t care about being famous, she just wants to sing.”

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Tricky – Adrian Thaws (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 18, 2023 · Comments off

Calling it Adrian Thaws is saying you don’t really know me, says Tricky, explaining the title of his 11th album. So many times people have tried to put a finger on me and every album I go to a different place. It’s typical of one of music s most unpredictable characters that the first album to bear his birth name is one of his least introspective. Adrian Thaws is a vivid, attention-grabbing set of songs which roam from hip hop to house, jazz to blues, rock to reggae. It was recorded in Tricky’s home studio in London, where he’s living again after almost two decades in New York, Los Angeles and Paris, and features an international crew of collaborators: Francesca Belmonte, Nneka, Mykki Blanco, Bella Gotti, Tirzah, Blue Daisy and Oh Land. It’s designed to be played loud!

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Tricky – Mixed Race (2010) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 18, 2023 · Comments off

When Tricky returned from his five-year recording hiatus with the autobiographical Knowle West Boy in 2008, he proffered a hard-hitting set of songs and soundscapes comprised of originals and covers that roared with confrontational brownpunk energy. Two years on, Mixed Race is as direct as its predecessor, but sparser, more spacious, mostly low-key, and very brief (under half an hour). While its sound is still in-your-face, it’s remarkable how little murk there is — despite the layers of backing tracks. Lyrically it’s autobiographical, but it’s also a gangster album. The sound of guns being cocked and loaded is almost ubiquitous. The signpost is the single, a revisioned take on Echo Minott’s ’90s dancehall hit “Murder Weapon.” The lyric (delivered by Tricky’s brother Marlon Thaws), full of references to guns and shoot-em-up street battles, is juxtaposed with Henry Mancini’s “Peter Gunn Theme” and a sampled blues harmonica riff. Its sound looks to the past for inspiration while looking only at itself as a map reference. “Bristol to London” rips on the old-school styles of Brit-hop with a furious synth up front and three staggered rhythms. The wiry funk in “UK Jamaican,” with singer Terry Lynn, defines the plight of immigrants who think (or are forced to think) with “Kingston logic.” “Ghetto Stars,” one of numerous tracks to feature Tricky’s excellent touring vocalist Franky Riley, comments on the reality of gangster life in public housing projects with dramatic string samples, slow, menacing loping beats, and metallic guitars. She also shines on the spooky, sinister, drone-blues opener, “Every Day.” “Hakim” uses a North African motif, handclaps, and both vocal and lute from Hakim Hamadouche (Rachid Taha), along with a shuffling rhythm track. “Early Bird,” with its slow chunky guitars, shimmering cymbals, muted trumpet, and a knotty little single-string blues guitar riff, is dark and imposing. “Come to Me” is a (literally) finger-popping jump jazz love song, slowed down to cough syrup flow. “Time to Dance,” the closest Tricky claims he will “ever get to disco,” is synthed-out minimalism, dry and deadpan. “Really Real,” a collaboration with Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, is a spaced-out, aimless dronescape, with guitars and rhythm tracks crisscrossing in a repetitive mantra-like manner. Ultimately, Mixed Race, with its simmering tension, is a worthy follow-up to Knowle West Boy, and a fine entry in Tricky’s catalog overall. ~ Thom Jurek

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