OndaRock’s ranking of the best downtempo and trip-hop albums of all time is at the center of the new episode of Rock on Airthe program hosted by Claudio Fabretti on the digital frequencies of Radio Città Aperta.
Discover with us the best low-bar works, from Bristol to the rest of the world, chosen by the OndaRock editorial staff through the 25 songs selected in this in-depth analysis, which traces the history of these two crucial rock genres, from the pioneers and historical exponents up to to the most recent protagonists.
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OndaRock ranking of the best dontempo and trip-hop albums
Bristol, two hours by train from London. Cold and humid land of Albion under which, however, the flame of creativity burns. In the beginning it was Mark Stewart’s Pop Group, an outpost of every contamination between the white music par excellence (punk) and afrori black (funk, reggae, dub, free jazz). And in the mid-eighties “The Wild Bunch” also took shape. A melting pot of rapper, djdancers, writer and producers who gather to play in the cellars of the city’s suburbs.
Then, some of them take flight. Like the three Massive Attack who created an “open” collective in 1990, releasing their debut album “Blue Lines” a year later. Inside there is everything, from hip-hop to soul, but also funk, reggae, electronica, soundtrack musicacid jazz.
They will call him Bristol sound or more simply trip-hop. A sort of “equal and opposite” reaction to the frenzy techno which spread in those years. Atmospheric, travel music (the “trip”), which slows down the hip-hop and house beats to obtain a more relaxed and dreamlike effect. Cerebral music, yet deeply physical, with those dub bass that enter the stomach. Bristol quickly became the most fertile musical laboratory in England. There is no shortage of alchemy with a bang – from Tricky’s “Maxinquaye” to the “Blue Lines”-“Protection”-“Mezzanine” triptych by Massive Attack – but among the prophets of Bristol there will also be the “cousins” of a tiny neighboring hamlet, overlooking the ocean. A place called Portishead, which, from an unknown cross on the map of England, will become synonymous with the global epic of trip-hop. The key idea of Barrow and his companions is the reworking of old film noir and spy motifs, mixed with jazzy-lounge cues and slowed down hip-hop rhythms, and immersed in desolately romantic atmospheres. All combined with typical elements of much trip-hop to come: massive use of samples and scratches (the sounds obtained by rubbing the needle on the vinyl of old 33 rpm or mix records), guitar licks borrowed from 60s spaghetti westerns , large string sections, dark bass, “moog” synthesizers and a hammond organ to add a further “vintage” touch. And Beth Gibbons’s mournful and ghostly song stands out above this mixture of sounds.
But trip-hop and downtempo aren’t just synonymous with Bristol’s sacred triad. Over the course of the 90s this style infiltrated many different genres, constantly evolving. Now officially named trip-hop, in the second half of the 90’s the Bristol sound it infiltrates every context, especially television and cinema; sometimes it tastes like rock electronizedsometimes instead of pop from dance hallbut most of the time he remains faithful to the inspiration black and in sauce electro highlights notes of R&B, funk and free-jazz, moving towards the breakbeats, D&B. Trip-hop is everywhere now, but no one knows it.
Furthermore, during the 90’s there were many vocalists coming from other musical environments who, making use of collaborations with producer-musicians who grew up around the Bristol scene, lent their voices to sounds infatuated with trip-hop: this is the case of the glacial Bjork , by Neneh Cherry, ante-litteram godmother of the movement when she was free from Rip Rig & Panic, not to mention a future, splendid Emiliana Torrini in “Love In Time Of Science” (1999) and also at the court of Thievery Corporation. A similar argument is exercised by Bowery Electric, who starting from the drones of noise and shoegaze become infatuated with the Bristol style and hybridize it with their own style, to the point of becoming totally trip-hop with “Lushlife” (2000) and the Londoners Archive by Darius Keeler and Danny Griffiths, perhaps the most important “non-Bristol” exponents of the first wave, a multifaceted formation, always committed to blending and mixing the most diverse genres between pop, electronic and rock with a “Floydian” approach.
A genre in which female voices have often shone, such as those of Alison Goldfrapp, Skye Edwards ( Morcheeba), Lou Rhodes (Lamb), Betch Hirsch (at the Court of Versailles of Air), Elizabeth Fraser and Shara Nelson (recruited by Massive Attack) and Martina Topley-Bird, Tricky’s unforgettable muse.
But in our roundup, which combines trip-hop and downtempo, let’s not forget more “exotic” phenomena, from the Japanese pop of Cibo Matto to the electro-bossanova of Smoke City, from the revenge of tango signed by Gotan Project to the Argentine variant of Gustavo Cerati , from the glacial synth-funk of Royksopp to the Serbian-flavored downtempo of Darkwood Dub.
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Tags: Rock Onda Downtempo triphop charts
