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poniedziałek, 9 grudnia 2013

What is Trip-hop?


What is Trip-hop? In order to understand it, we have to transfer ourselves to England, to be more precise to Bristol.
It is the 1980s, the DJ’s play to the overenthusiastic crowds in the clubs. LSD and ecstasy are easier to be bought than alcohol. Drugs are at the peak of their popularity, club music is still under way. DJs, graffiti painters, b-boys, namely the whole hip-hop community, are beginning to create the artistic-music formations. The fathers of trip-hop made up the line-up of The Wild Bunch, which was one of them. They were Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowels (the three founders of Massive Attack), Nellee Hooper (composer and producer) as well as Adrian Thaws (also known as Tricky). They combined rap with electronic music and some time later they diminished the beat pace.


In this way they managed to create an ideal kind of music to trip for the Bristol society of the time, which not without reason was called Acid-rap. The present name of trip-hop can be attributed to a British journalist of The Mixmag magazine, Andy Pemberton; In 1994 he used the term to define the music produced by the Wo'Wax label as well as DJ Shadow’s 'In/Flux' single.


The first success of the new style is associated with "Blue Lines", the debut album of the Massive Attack group with the famous hit "Unfinished Sympathy" which for a long time was in the group of the best ten hits in the British charts.



As the time passed by, it became customary to use the term of hip-hop not only as a reference to the combination of electronic music and rap, but also as the mixture with different genres of music, such as jazz, soul or reggae. The best example of acid-jazz is the group Portishead the orgins of which are also in Bristol.



These days, it is difficult to define what the music in question is. It needs to be approached very intuitively as relatively slow (80-120 BMP), gloomy and melancholic electronic music which is combined practically with any existing style.


Reggae style:




Indie style:



Classical music style:


czwartek, 31 października 2013

James Blake - BBC's Sound of 2011




Unusual sensitivity combined with meticulousness and a beautiful jazzy voice. His first LP can be described very quickly. A twenty five year old Brit made his debut In 2011 with the album “James Blake”, the gloomy dubstep sound of which stormed British charts. The success of the first album took nobody by surprise as Bake had gained the recognition of the music milieu over a year before when he issued the EPs. The reviewers called his music – music for soul, and thanks to the experiments with his voice he was often compared to Thom Yorke and Justin Vernon.

James Blake is a representative of the new generation of the British musicians, well-educated and fascinated with electronic music. He graduated from the faculty of popular music at the London University. His cover of Feist’s song ‘Limit to your love’ was as early as in 2010 awarded with the title ‘Hottest Record in the World’ by Zane Lowe, the DJ of the first programme of BBC radio.

It was merely a coincidence that it was Blake’s first that I had ever heard. It has been since that moment that my fascination began. It was caused by the perfection with which this student who made his songs in the bedroom, could expressed his emotions in the minimalist form of electronics. He creates an inexplicable bond between the artist and the listener. Having listened to the whole album and the EP’s, which I cordially recommend, I was enchanted with the slightly sad, expressionist atmosphere of his compositions. His output has filled the whole yet uncultivated space od electronic music.










'Overgrown'


The second od Blake’s albums was released in July. A bit more pop-like ‘Overgrown’ is kept in melancholic and romantic mood. Apart from the typical Blake-like pieces, just like the title composition , ‘Overgrown’, ‘I’m sold’ , ‘DLM’ or ‘Our love comes back’, on the latest record of the young producer there can be heard a lot of crossover experiments. The new album was greatly influenced by the tour through the USA, during which Blake met many others, RZA and Kanye West. The former can be heard in the rap ‘Take a fall from me’. Recorded together with Brian Eno ‘Digital Lion’ also confirms Blake’s  musical courage. Most of the pieces were written in the love vein, which is not surprising as the post-dubstep scene prince in one of the latest interviews admitted being in loved. Judging by the mood of the new album, we can suppose that it is fortunately so.  Blake is associated with Theresa Wayman, the lead vocalist of the band Warpaint.




I expected something different of such a long awaited album. I have admit that I needed to listen to it several times to appreciate it fully. The rhythmic beat does not suit James Blake’s musical concept. I was saddened by the fact that he drifted away from his characteristic, minimalist and experimental form. Is it Miss Theresa Wayman to be blame for the new popular sound?




Mr. Blake, although I’m not fully disappointed, I must admit that it is sadness becomes you.