Friday, October 30, 2020

Day 0789 - Maxinquaye

Tricky "Maxinquaye" (1995)


Tricky had achieved some notoriety appearing on Massive Attack's first album "Blue Lines".   He had brought that group a song he'd put together with teenaged singer Martina Topley-Bird but they rejected it.   Tricky released it himself and started working on music for his first solo album, including some more tracks with Martina.  The title of the album is a sort of portmanteau of Tricky's mother's first and last names: Maxine Quaye.

Tricky produced with the album with Mark Saunders, bringing in a number of vinyl samples which other producers might have rejected due to their excessive hisses and crackles.  Tricky mixed these together with some low-tempo beats, and deep muddy bass to create interesting but sometimes uncomfortable soundscapes onto which he layered lyrics fuelled by paranoia, angst and depression.

Tricky brings a lot of fresh references, sampling "Glorybox" by Portishead on "Hell is around the Corner" and the Smashing Pumpkins' "Suffer" to brilliant effect on his track titled... er "Pumpkin".

This is a solid and interesting trip-hop album that I'd place on a par with the first two Massive Attack albums.   I'm interested to investigate some of  Tricky's other solo releases, though I've read that he never topped this one.

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