Addicted To Vinyl Musical thoughts from the open road, with headphones on

My Trip Hop Days

Most of you were were probably enjoying my ATV hiatus. One of you even thought I wouldn't get out of that basement you locked me in... never! Screw you, I'm back. I'm out and proud too, but that's an entirely different matter. Speaking of basements, I've been anxiously awaiting the summer release from Basement Jaxx -- "long-awaited album," indeed -- doesn't drop until *sigh* September 21. BJ (hehe), please leak something more than "Raindrops" from this album! Really, I hear that Yoko Ono makes a guest appearance on the album. I expect nothing less than fantastic from one of my favorite musical acts.

I've been more-than bored with all the recent new releases. So, I've turned to a favorite genre of my dance music past - trip-hop. I'll save my trance update for when I really hate you all.

Google definitions tell me that Trip-hop or Trip hop (sans dash) labeling was invented a 1995 article in Mixmag about Tricky. Holy crap, I almost forgot about that dude. Tricky's "Makes Me Wanna Die" was the shit. (Sorry, I swore, Matt).

Some of my faves have been making slow comebacks. The Music Slut tells me that Massive Attack (with whom Tricky had a part in creating) will be releasing a new EP "Splitting the Atom" on October 6. Sweetness.

I have no problems seeing a resurgence of trip hop in the dance community. I mean, really, all I got right now is shitty house music formulated for an MTV crowd and mash-ups which make my skin crawl. And for as much as I love cheese, well, these genres are like cottage cheese. Shoot, bad analogy, I like cottage cheese too... be that as it may, you all get what I'm saying, right? Not surprisingly, most of the successful trip hop acts are recognized in the UK. The US just cannot get on the dance music bandwagon. Save for club rats in Vegas.

Portishead, undeniably appearing on a lot of Fan Favorite Trip Hop lists, released "Third" in 2008. I downloaded a few tracks, but never the entire album. After a few more listens to "The Rip" over this past month, I may need to see what I'm missing as the words "creepy" and "haunting" are utilized frequently in describing the album.

And then, purely by "Mel's iPod is Crazy-accident," a cover from Radiohead appeared on shuffle during my favorite part of the day: rush hour. Amazing. It was immediately followed by Happy Hour.

"Over & Over" by Moloko is at the top of my Favorites in my trip hop library. It has the string build-up, the haunting lead vocal of the one-and-only Roison Murphy and that super-extended, almost classical ending. Sadly, Mark Brydon walked away from Murphy in 2003 (they haven't spoken since). I'll hold hope that a reunion recording of some sort will occur. That's the new thing for these strained artists, right?

While it's been a couple years since Roisin's (pronounced Ro-sheen) latest solo album, a few singles leaked here-and-there the past two years. I really, really enjoyed her more under the Moloko umbrella; most of Murphy's solo stuff feels "meh." There is one exception: "Off and On" (sounding very "poppy," yet likable), written by the extremely talented Calvin Harris and (you should remember her) Cathy Dennis. "The light switch song" is rumored to have been originally written for one Miss Kylie Minogue, but will appear on Sophie Ellis-Bextor's next album.

Saul Freeman and Nicola Hitchcock created "Beautiful" (pun intended) music together with Mandalay. Talk about a haunting! Wait, Halloween is still like twelve weeks away, right? When Hitchcock sings, I get freaking chills. You can hear a quiver in her songs, which completely attaches me to her emotion. There are not a lot of artists who can do that. And blah, blah, blah, you got yourself a parting of ways with "artistic differences." Let the solo albums commence!

Yes, folks, it's a motivational speech packed into a "Beautiful" (hah, again, there I go) musical piece.

Fun Fact: did you know the song "Gorecki" by Lamb was in "Moulin Rouge"? You (if an avid Rouge fan) remember the song from the movie, but had NO idea who created it (not an avid Lamb fan, for shame). And I have no idea why the creative-minds-at-be decided not to include it on the soundtrack.

For years I downloaded Lamb songs on (ahem) KaZaa or ShaZam or whatever the eff downloading program was available in the early 00s. It was difficult to distinguish if Lamb was some sort of (gag) Christian trip hop troupe, where with songs titled "Gabriel," "God Bless" and "All In Your Hands." They brilliantly blurred the lines with their lyrics, and some could easily be interpreted as such. Well done, I haven't listened to Christian music since DC Talk in high school. Hater.

After reading that wikipedia article, I learned that Lou Rhodes left the music world briefly for a commune. Coincidence? Music affecting life or life affecting music here?

Olive - I'm fairly certain every song on "Extra Virgin" is the Bible of Bisexuality, which obviously makes it an essential in my CD library.

Seriously, this is the album's song list:

1. "Miracle"
2. "This Time"
3. "Safer Hands"
4. "Killing"
5. "You're Not Alone"
6. "Falling"
7. "Outlaw"
8. "Blood Red Tears"
9. "Curious"
10. "You Are Nothing"
11. "Muted"
12. "I Don't Think So"
13. "You're Not Alone"

For a raving hard-on like me back in the day, I was just exploding with sexual tension after that album release. Seriously, somebody find me a hot, red-headed lesbian. {Voice in the background: Found one!}

Be that as it may, you'll all remember this one:

For S&G, let's play "Temper, Temper" to round out your TGIF (that's "Tits Go In Front" for all you Saturday people):

And I'm tripped-out.

image courtesy of Simfonik