might run this later
Albums Classic Trip-Hop Album: Tricky - MaxinQuaye
- Thread starter KingsOfKings
- Start date
1. Overcome
The album opener and third single features lyrics previously rapped by Tricky on the Massive Attack song “Karmacoma” off of Blue Lines, now sung by Martina Topley-Bird. The musician himself claimed that while he gave the verse to them, it was still his verse, therefore he could give it to Martina as well.
Backed by an unchanged eerie-sounding loop of Shakespears Sister’s “Moonchild” with drums unwaveringly marching on through the track, vague flute and keyboard passages weaving in and out, Martina paints a picture of a moment in time, happening in two places at once: it’s a couple walking together while a war is raging in Kuwait. It’s surreal, impressionistic, blurry, but incredibly vivid.
2. Ponderosa
The album’s second pre-release single contains percussion off of an Indian singer Jagjit Singh’s song “O Maa Tujhe Salaam”, as well as a drum break from Manzel’s “Midnight Theme”. What sounds like another slow, but rhythmic jam with Martina’s voice going from a whisper at the start into her normal singing voice goes mad with discordant notes played on a keyboard towards the end.
For the first time on the album Tricky can be heard not even rapping, but what sounds like ranting seemingly behind Martina’s voice. This will not only be a recurring stylistic device on this record, but also in Tricky’s music as a whole. Putting the spotlight on his female counterpart, he feels brave enough to reinforce his words coming out of her mouth with his own voice.
The lyrics are again a stream of consciousness, enveloping the listener with the confusing, unfiltered thoughts in Tricky’s mind.
3. Black Steel
Yes, this is a cover of Public Enemy’s “Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos” off It Takes A Nation…. Tricky was very appreciative of the American hip-hop of the 80s, Rakim and Chuck D being the rappers he mentions most. This cover was a way for him to pay homage and maybe bring their music to a new audience in Britain. It was the first of many covers Tricky did over the course of his career. The decision to cover this exact song might have been in response to the Gulf War of 1990/91.
The original is, of course, a 4-verse story of a Black man who goes to prison for refusing to do his military service. The Tricky version is much more disjointed, repeating the first verse throughout the whole song to a guitar-driven accompaniment of the band FTV. What was initially supposed to be a very sparse instrumental with only a percussive loop taken off an almost random Indian cassette suddenly turned into a fiery banger when Tricky invited the techno-rock band he heard at a concert to perform on his album. He didn’t remember what they sounded like after the night out, so he was skeptical when they finally arrived at the studio. Nevertheless, Mark Saunders had a vision of what they could do and with almost no direction the band went all out. The guitar you hear on the song is actually a Korg M1 keyboard. The drummer was told something in the style of Sex Pistols.
Tricky still wasn’t enthusiastic, but after Mark compiled the parts he liked with Martina’s vocals, he was on board, only adding a short phrase in the middle of the track himself. Martina Topley-Bird is in the eye of this storm, singing from the original perspective of a man, expressing disappointment in a system that’s failing him. This is also the only song on the album written from an explicitly male standpoint.
4. Hell Is Round The Corner
This is the big one. A song that still causes controversy between trip-hop fans on whether Tricky ripped off Portishead or it was the other way round. Whatever the case may be, both of these stone-cold classics of trip-hop sample the beautiful, timeless groove of Isaac Hayes’ "Ike’s Rap II". Portishead went the love-making anthem route, while Tricky put his own, slightly creepy spin on it. The story goes that that was the rare track where Tricky definitively knew what he wanted to do. Some add to that story that he heard the Portishead demo given to him by his manager the previous night and completely forgot that part.
Tricky finally takes center stage on this song, employing his soon-to-be signature whispered rapping, while Martina sometimes joins him from the background. The lyrics are heady, hard to make sense of. As was the case with “Overcome”, some of them could be previously heard on Massive Attack’s “Euro Child”. The song title comes from a conversation Tricky had with an acquaintance. “Hell? Hell is ‘round the corner, mate!” he spoke of the Bristol ghettos.
5. Pumpkin
This track is a relative change of pace, featuring the first of two guest vocalists on this album, Alison Goldfrapp. A much bolder singer, she is in full eclipse on the first verse which is loud and expressive compared to the subtle and subdued performance of Martina Topley-Bird. Tricky joins in murmuring later on over the beat sampling the drums and at several points the guitar melody from The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Suffer”. The title of the songs seems to have no relation.
6. Aftermath
Martina returns on the song that started it all. An almost 8-minute-long soundscape, it puts her haunting voice on full display, once again complimented by Tricky’s muttering. As well as being the longest song on the album, it is also the containing the most samples and interpolations. A pitched down Marvin Gaye melody, a slowed down LL Cool J drum, a line of dialogue from “Blade Runner” to allude to Tricky’s mother, and a couple of lyrics taken from The Young Rascals and Japan and rapped in a silky, tortured voice.
7. Abbaon Fat Tracks
This drugged out slow burner with an Arabic motif doesn’t have any listed samples (although the main melody probably is one) except a piece of movie dialogue, what it does have are easily discernible lyrics about a steamy night. Once again leaning into his feminine side Tricky describes sex in excruciating detail, almost like under a lens, using Martina as a ventriloquist’s doll. He also concedes that he doesn’t only resort to weed anymore, something he was strictly against before all the attention.
Personally, I don’t see how it sounds like ABBA on fat tracks, but that’s where the title apparently comes from.
8. Brand New You’re Retro
This song was conceived when Tricky suddenly realized everything he heard on the radio was just recycled ideas of the past. Britpop sounded like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones; other people were charting with straight up soul music. That’s what Tricky’s manifest is – he’s brand new, everyone else is retro.
To get his idea across he uses an immediately recognizable bass line from Michael Jackson’s “Bad”, as well as coming back to It Takes A Nation…, this time to borrow a fuzzy sound effect from “Mind Terrorist” and a lyric from “Prophets of Rage”. Another banger on the album, it’s no wonder what connects it to the other one is Public Enemy.
9. Suffocated Love
On this track, Tricky and Martina tell a story of a relationship where both parties get what they want – he is in a more submissive position, simply enjoying the sex, while she is the dominatrix who’s just in it for his money. All of this set to a Gladys Knight & the Pips sample with a repurposed and barely recognizable violin from a Chantels song.
10. You Don’t
This lush and distorted beat was created in collaboration with Howie B, and the track features Ragga, another guest vocalist. Like Alison Goldfrapp earlier, she gets to show off the full range of her talent while going back and forth with Tricky who just repeats the refrain here, as if defending from her onslaught.
The album opener and third single features lyrics previously rapped by Tricky on the Massive Attack song “Karmacoma” off of Blue Lines, now sung by Martina Topley-Bird. The musician himself claimed that while he gave the verse to them, it was still his verse, therefore he could give it to Martina as well.
Backed by an unchanged eerie-sounding loop of Shakespears Sister’s “Moonchild” with drums unwaveringly marching on through the track, vague flute and keyboard passages weaving in and out, Martina paints a picture of a moment in time, happening in two places at once: it’s a couple walking together while a war is raging in Kuwait. It’s surreal, impressionistic, blurry, but incredibly vivid.
2. Ponderosa
The album’s second pre-release single contains percussion off of an Indian singer Jagjit Singh’s song “O Maa Tujhe Salaam”, as well as a drum break from Manzel’s “Midnight Theme”. What sounds like another slow, but rhythmic jam with Martina’s voice going from a whisper at the start into her normal singing voice goes mad with discordant notes played on a keyboard towards the end.
For the first time on the album Tricky can be heard not even rapping, but what sounds like ranting seemingly behind Martina’s voice. This will not only be a recurring stylistic device on this record, but also in Tricky’s music as a whole. Putting the spotlight on his female counterpart, he feels brave enough to reinforce his words coming out of her mouth with his own voice.
The lyrics are again a stream of consciousness, enveloping the listener with the confusing, unfiltered thoughts in Tricky’s mind.
3. Black Steel
Yes, this is a cover of Public Enemy’s “Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos” off It Takes A Nation…. Tricky was very appreciative of the American hip-hop of the 80s, Rakim and Chuck D being the rappers he mentions most. This cover was a way for him to pay homage and maybe bring their music to a new audience in Britain. It was the first of many covers Tricky did over the course of his career. The decision to cover this exact song might have been in response to the Gulf War of 1990/91.
The original is, of course, a 4-verse story of a Black man who goes to prison for refusing to do his military service. The Tricky version is much more disjointed, repeating the first verse throughout the whole song to a guitar-driven accompaniment of the band FTV. What was initially supposed to be a very sparse instrumental with only a percussive loop taken off an almost random Indian cassette suddenly turned into a fiery banger when Tricky invited the techno-rock band he heard at a concert to perform on his album. He didn’t remember what they sounded like after the night out, so he was skeptical when they finally arrived at the studio. Nevertheless, Mark Saunders had a vision of what they could do and with almost no direction the band went all out. The guitar you hear on the song is actually a Korg M1 keyboard. The drummer was told something in the style of Sex Pistols.
Tricky still wasn’t enthusiastic, but after Mark compiled the parts he liked with Martina’s vocals, he was on board, only adding a short phrase in the middle of the track himself. Martina Topley-Bird is in the eye of this storm, singing from the original perspective of a man, expressing disappointment in a system that’s failing him. This is also the only song on the album written from an explicitly male standpoint.
4. Hell Is Round The Corner
This is the big one. A song that still causes controversy between trip-hop fans on whether Tricky ripped off Portishead or it was the other way round. Whatever the case may be, both of these stone-cold classics of trip-hop sample the beautiful, timeless groove of Isaac Hayes’ "Ike’s Rap II". Portishead went the love-making anthem route, while Tricky put his own, slightly creepy spin on it. The story goes that that was the rare track where Tricky definitively knew what he wanted to do. Some add to that story that he heard the Portishead demo given to him by his manager the previous night and completely forgot that part.
Tricky finally takes center stage on this song, employing his soon-to-be signature whispered rapping, while Martina sometimes joins him from the background. The lyrics are heady, hard to make sense of. As was the case with “Overcome”, some of them could be previously heard on Massive Attack’s “Euro Child”. The song title comes from a conversation Tricky had with an acquaintance. “Hell? Hell is ‘round the corner, mate!” he spoke of the Bristol ghettos.
5. Pumpkin
This track is a relative change of pace, featuring the first of two guest vocalists on this album, Alison Goldfrapp. A much bolder singer, she is in full eclipse on the first verse which is loud and expressive compared to the subtle and subdued performance of Martina Topley-Bird. Tricky joins in murmuring later on over the beat sampling the drums and at several points the guitar melody from The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Suffer”. The title of the songs seems to have no relation.
6. Aftermath
Martina returns on the song that started it all. An almost 8-minute-long soundscape, it puts her haunting voice on full display, once again complimented by Tricky’s muttering. As well as being the longest song on the album, it is also the containing the most samples and interpolations. A pitched down Marvin Gaye melody, a slowed down LL Cool J drum, a line of dialogue from “Blade Runner” to allude to Tricky’s mother, and a couple of lyrics taken from The Young Rascals and Japan and rapped in a silky, tortured voice.
7. Abbaon Fat Tracks
This drugged out slow burner with an Arabic motif doesn’t have any listed samples (although the main melody probably is one) except a piece of movie dialogue, what it does have are easily discernible lyrics about a steamy night. Once again leaning into his feminine side Tricky describes sex in excruciating detail, almost like under a lens, using Martina as a ventriloquist’s doll. He also concedes that he doesn’t only resort to weed anymore, something he was strictly against before all the attention.
Personally, I don’t see how it sounds like ABBA on fat tracks, but that’s where the title apparently comes from.
8. Brand New You’re Retro
This song was conceived when Tricky suddenly realized everything he heard on the radio was just recycled ideas of the past. Britpop sounded like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones; other people were charting with straight up soul music. That’s what Tricky’s manifest is – he’s brand new, everyone else is retro.
To get his idea across he uses an immediately recognizable bass line from Michael Jackson’s “Bad”, as well as coming back to It Takes A Nation…, this time to borrow a fuzzy sound effect from “Mind Terrorist” and a lyric from “Prophets of Rage”. Another banger on the album, it’s no wonder what connects it to the other one is Public Enemy.
9. Suffocated Love
On this track, Tricky and Martina tell a story of a relationship where both parties get what they want – he is in a more submissive position, simply enjoying the sex, while she is the dominatrix who’s just in it for his money. All of this set to a Gladys Knight & the Pips sample with a repurposed and barely recognizable violin from a Chantels song.
10. You Don’t
This lush and distorted beat was created in collaboration with Howie B, and the track features Ragga, another guest vocalist. Like Alison Goldfrapp earlier, she gets to show off the full range of her talent while going back and forth with Tricky who just repeats the refrain here, as if defending from her onslaught.
11. Strugglin’
Easily the most disturbing and uncomfortable song on the album, that was the catch Tricky left on the back end for the unsuspecting listener. It feels like Tricky is alone inside his mind here, even though Martina sings throughout, it feels like it’s coming from another place. Tricky is scrambling for words, mumbling, talking to himself, manically giggling and coughing at a point. You can hear the pain in both of their voices.
The song is rich with sound effects: at various points you can hear water drops, a Polaroid going off (or a cocked trigger and a creaking door) and a ticking clock.
Legend has it that when one of the label representatives heard this song for the first time, he came out of the studio red as a beetroot. That’s when Tricky realized that his music was affecting people.
12. Feed Me
The album closer once again gives Martina the opportunity to send the pair off in their signature style. She’s singing about an existential struggle, he’s low in the mix, talking to himself again. A short KRS-One sample comes in in the middle, then elements of the song fade away one by one until the listener is left alone to contemplate.
Hell Is Round The Corner
In line with the label’s desire to break the boundaries, Tricky was marketed as an alternative and ambiguous figure. He was at the forefront of British black music, but he didn’t really represent that due to his upbringing. He was a rapper, which is an inherently masculine image, but for the promotional photoshoot he posed in a wedding dress with Martina as the groom. While sequencing the album together with his manager, Tricky frontloaded the singles to then catch the listener off guard with the edgier, more eclectic sounding tracks on Side B. Tricky only cared about his music: fine, he would release an album, but he’d never sell out, never go mainstream. It would be the music that no one was making and no one has heard before.
Then, on February 20th, 1995 the album came out and blew up magnificently. For weeks after it was all everybody talked about in Britain. The critics loved it, the indie scene loved it, but nobody predicted that the general public would fall in love with it. This twisted, tortured, intimate record was talked about at middle-class dinner parties. David Bowie became a fan, wrote a fictional, very Bowie-esque piece for the Q magazine, wrote a letter to Tricky and went to his concert. It was pandemonium. Tricky absolutely hated it.
“If I supposedly invented it, why not call it Tricky-hop?”
The first thing Tricky couldn’t cope with was the sudden spotlight on him. He was recognized wherever he went, and his time was not his anymore. Secondly, his music was promptly christened by the press as trip-hop, a term he absolutely loathed. That, as well as “the Bristol Sound” made no sense to him, since everybody described by that term was doing different things in different places. And of course, people wanted him to tour.
After a miserable experience touring with Massive Attack for their first album Tricky decided he would not play a concert again. He didn’t like being on stage in front of the crowd, he didn’t like the vast amount of space there was with just the turntables and he didn’t like the DJ just playing the album. However, his manager convinced him to get a band, put it together herself, and it started slowly working out. Tricky also decided to perform in complete darkness, which wasn’t an artistic choice, but rather a way to cope with the stage fright. The public once again swallowed it up, calling him a genius.
“Who likes trip-hop? Well, fukk off home then!”
After a short while, the industry caught on and the novel, groundbreaking sound of Maxinquaye wasn’t the sound of Maxinquaye anymore, it was the sound of the moment. Of course, Tricky was disgusted.
His musical alliance with Martina Topley-Bird was also a romantic one at the time of recording of Maxinquaye, and they had a daughter a month after the release. It was, however, too much too soon, and the couple didn’t last. Their professional relationship existed a little longer, but she wasn’t his only muse and his main voice anymore.
For his next album, Tricky challenged the audiences to try and follow him, as he recorded a new album in the span of a month. It would be bolder, less accessible, nothing like the now trendy Maxinquaye, a big “fukk you” to the people who thought Tricky could be put in a box. It would feature more collaborators, a Björk on the rise to superstardom among them. It would be his transformation, a first of many to come. It would be called Nearly God.
Easily the most disturbing and uncomfortable song on the album, that was the catch Tricky left on the back end for the unsuspecting listener. It feels like Tricky is alone inside his mind here, even though Martina sings throughout, it feels like it’s coming from another place. Tricky is scrambling for words, mumbling, talking to himself, manically giggling and coughing at a point. You can hear the pain in both of their voices.
The song is rich with sound effects: at various points you can hear water drops, a Polaroid going off (or a cocked trigger and a creaking door) and a ticking clock.
Legend has it that when one of the label representatives heard this song for the first time, he came out of the studio red as a beetroot. That’s when Tricky realized that his music was affecting people.
12. Feed Me
The album closer once again gives Martina the opportunity to send the pair off in their signature style. She’s singing about an existential struggle, he’s low in the mix, talking to himself again. A short KRS-One sample comes in in the middle, then elements of the song fade away one by one until the listener is left alone to contemplate.
Hell Is Round The Corner
In line with the label’s desire to break the boundaries, Tricky was marketed as an alternative and ambiguous figure. He was at the forefront of British black music, but he didn’t really represent that due to his upbringing. He was a rapper, which is an inherently masculine image, but for the promotional photoshoot he posed in a wedding dress with Martina as the groom. While sequencing the album together with his manager, Tricky frontloaded the singles to then catch the listener off guard with the edgier, more eclectic sounding tracks on Side B. Tricky only cared about his music: fine, he would release an album, but he’d never sell out, never go mainstream. It would be the music that no one was making and no one has heard before.
Then, on February 20th, 1995 the album came out and blew up magnificently. For weeks after it was all everybody talked about in Britain. The critics loved it, the indie scene loved it, but nobody predicted that the general public would fall in love with it. This twisted, tortured, intimate record was talked about at middle-class dinner parties. David Bowie became a fan, wrote a fictional, very Bowie-esque piece for the Q magazine, wrote a letter to Tricky and went to his concert. It was pandemonium. Tricky absolutely hated it.
“If I supposedly invented it, why not call it Tricky-hop?”
The first thing Tricky couldn’t cope with was the sudden spotlight on him. He was recognized wherever he went, and his time was not his anymore. Secondly, his music was promptly christened by the press as trip-hop, a term he absolutely loathed. That, as well as “the Bristol Sound” made no sense to him, since everybody described by that term was doing different things in different places. And of course, people wanted him to tour.
After a miserable experience touring with Massive Attack for their first album Tricky decided he would not play a concert again. He didn’t like being on stage in front of the crowd, he didn’t like the vast amount of space there was with just the turntables and he didn’t like the DJ just playing the album. However, his manager convinced him to get a band, put it together herself, and it started slowly working out. Tricky also decided to perform in complete darkness, which wasn’t an artistic choice, but rather a way to cope with the stage fright. The public once again swallowed it up, calling him a genius.
“Who likes trip-hop? Well, fukk off home then!”
After a short while, the industry caught on and the novel, groundbreaking sound of Maxinquaye wasn’t the sound of Maxinquaye anymore, it was the sound of the moment. Of course, Tricky was disgusted.
His musical alliance with Martina Topley-Bird was also a romantic one at the time of recording of Maxinquaye, and they had a daughter a month after the release. It was, however, too much too soon, and the couple didn’t last. Their professional relationship existed a little longer, but she wasn’t his only muse and his main voice anymore.
For his next album, Tricky challenged the audiences to try and follow him, as he recorded a new album in the span of a month. It would be bolder, less accessible, nothing like the now trendy Maxinquaye, a big “fukk you” to the people who thought Tricky could be put in a box. It would feature more collaborators, a Björk on the rise to superstardom among them. It would be his transformation, a first of many to come. It would be called Nearly God.
@IronFist you should formally review music. You explained this album so well and with such passion.
Also, I love Tricky’s music. Maxinquaye is an undisputed classic. So unsettling, beautiful and it still sounds as intense as it did when it came out.
Personally, Nearly God and Pre-Millenium Tension are my favorite Tricky projects. Brilliant masterpieces to me.
I really also enjoy Angels with Dirty Faces, False Idols and his Juxtapose project he did with DJ Muggs. His recent work is okay- a bit hit or miss. However, Fall To Pieces was a powerful listen and a rich exercise in processing grief and trauma. RIP Mina. As someone with mental illness her story and unfortunate end, broke my heart. Hope her parents are doing well.
Great thread.
Also, I love Tricky’s music. Maxinquaye is an undisputed classic. So unsettling, beautiful and it still sounds as intense as it did when it came out.
Personally, Nearly God and Pre-Millenium Tension are my favorite Tricky projects. Brilliant masterpieces to me.
I really also enjoy Angels with Dirty Faces, False Idols and his Juxtapose project he did with DJ Muggs. His recent work is okay- a bit hit or miss. However, Fall To Pieces was a powerful listen and a rich exercise in processing grief and trauma. RIP Mina. As someone with mental illness her story and unfortunate end, broke my heart. Hope her parents are doing well.
Great thread.
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
Man I miss this era 
my crew I used to run with in college put me onto trip hop. I ran overcome so much man. Me and my homeboy used that instrument for our show open for our show that ran on the college tv station. Good times
my crew I used to run with in college put me onto trip hop. I ran overcome so much man. Me and my homeboy used that instrument for our show open for our show that ran on the college tv station. Good times
