You said in an earlier post that Massive Attack didn't create Trip Hop but now you are saying they are the original trip Hop band? DJ Shadow followed the accepted Trip Hop sound of fusing hip Hop electronic beats with other influences to create a certain ambience. Trip Hop is not defined by it's vocals or lack of. The whole sound is about a certain ambience and melding of genres of which DJ Shadow is a major proponent with his debut.

How the hell is this NOT Trip Hop?:

Because genres evolve. And what Jackhammer said above.

I keep my electronic stuff categorized VERY simply...

Electronic - All electronic music that's not that danceable, like IDM for example. Head music.
Electronica/Dance (one of the default tags) - The more accessible, popular, and dancey stuff (includes house, breaks, DnB, etc basically anything you could dance to)
Trip-Hop - Basically everything described in this thread...from Massive Attack to DJ Shadow and Prefuse 73 (though I'm reconsidering the stuff like Prefuse...with the increased popularity of the term "glitch hop" I may have to create a new tag for that style)
Hip-Hop - Instrumental hip-hop (basically electronic beats) that doesn't quite fit under the trip-hop umbrella (I use the "Hip-Hop/Rap" tag for vocal hip-hop)

What? I said "Massive Attack, like, created trip hop." Then I said that they were the original trip hop group. How am I being inconsistent?

If anything, Endtroducing... is hip hop, it's hip hop production. It's made almost entirely out of sampling. That's what hip hop started as, that's what instrumental hip hop is. Why can't Endtroducing... be hip hop? Is it too good to be, so we have to call it something new like "trip hop"? Why do so many people need to devalue unique hip hop?

Endtroducing... wasn't intended to be categorized in a genre, though. It's a deep, deep world where genre isn't meant to exist; it's the crushing of classification.

When did Trip Hop start then? Not as a term or a genre, but the actual style of music? Obviously it's before the likes of Massive Attack and Tricky arrived on the music scene. I don't have a clue, but I'm curious. I know there were Trip Hop-style elements to songs like Manchild by Neneh Cherry - which was 1989 (and was co-written by 3D from Massive Attack) - and I know that Massive Attack started in '88 - but the style of music must've been about for a while before then I imagine.

Technically, it began as a spin-off of hip hop in England by different DJs - a fad type of thing. It was a mixture between acid jazz, dub and hip hop, mostly. The term was coined in 1993 by a music journalist for some DJ Shadow tape, because it was "trippy." Wee, how creative.

Trip hop technically manifested itself on Massive Attack's Blue Lines. It's more of a gimmick than a music genre, it's attached to so many different styles that nobody really knows what it's supposed to be.

I misread your post then as it seemed like you were asking for validation for Massive Attack being a trip hop band.

As for 'devaluing Hip Hop' I think it's more that a downtempo Hip Hop sound is not always indicative of the genre and it's easier to put it into trip Hop. Not neccessarily correct but inevitable a lot of the time. You certainly couldn't class someone such as RJD2 as Trip Hop but the sound is admittedly a lot different to Endrotucing.

As I pointed out earlier in the thread, so much music is pigeon holed into a Trip Hop label that the genre is ridiculously splintered.

I dunno, I've never really liked "trip hop" as a genre, and I still don't feel like it's really one. I understand the relation between something sounding downtempo and calling it trip hop, but (being a hip hop kid), I guess I don't like seeing something as incredible as Endtroducing... being introduced as something else, and hip hop not getting the credit it deserves.

The songs are hip hop instrumentals, just more developed; more ideas are being expressed. They are more complex than your average hip hop beat. Plus, the clashing of genres is inherently hip hop. Endtroducing... just chose to take the main focus off of soul/funk samples for vocals and gather from different genres of music.

new artist
 

i love trip hop its so deep!!

check , Dusty Speakers, burial, four tet,

<3 this thread...

Some of my favs that haven't been talked about yet:

Sunday Munich - Dent



Archive - Bastardized Ink



Elsiane - Across the Stream



Yeah, a lot of it can be classified as ambient electronica, but I think that's just because Trip Hop in general has moved in that direction. It's often very hard to differentiate the two.

That was awesome, I liked it a lot. Especially the strings towards the end.

Mmhmmm... DL their album Vinculum, it's really great. In fact, Sunday Munich is the group that spawned Saltillo, who everyone here was all over (and deservedly so) not too long ago.

These guys are great too:

Thanks dac, I found Elsiane through pandora or something the other day and then completely forgot how good it was. Any recommendation for albums?
I've found that just like with most electronica, I only like a small portion of the trip hop I've heard. Even in subgenres I really like the idea of, I can usually only find a few bands that I consider worth listening to, the rest sound boring or kind of like copies to me a lot of the time or just don't hold my interest I guess. Elsiane is one of the select few.

id also like to add glitch mob and pretty lights, pretty trip/glitch-hop in my opinion

As far as Elsiane goes, I'd say Hybrid would be my fav so far. I've only been listening to them for a month or two though, so it's liable to change many, many times.

Two Triphop acts that I like/own are:
Sepiamusic
Hungry Lucy

A well known album in trip hop circles definitely deserves a bigger audience. Dark and oppressive as well as being wildly original, there is no doubt that if it wasn't for this album then there would be no Mezzanine which is usually regarded as the ultimate Trip Hop album.

Taking it's cues from a myriad of influences, Maxinquaye is greatly enhanced by the vocal work of Tricky's then girlfriend Martina Topley Bird and Tricky's unerring brilliance of fusing musical styles. In fact Tricky is often on the peripherary vocally and instead let's his undoubted eclectism infuse the album.

His interpretation of Public Enemy's 'Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos' is one of the best cover version ever put down (despite being a loose interpretation), whilst 'Brand New Your Retro' takes the Michael Jackson track 'Bad' and tears it to pieces and assembles it like genius jigsaw.

Hip Hop, Metal, African beats and dark Electronica all vie for attention yet it it is a collage of sounds that works effortlessly and never alienates it's audience despite it's dark ambience.

Want to know what Trip Hop is all about? Get this album and love it forever.

YouTube - Tricky - Black Steel: Video

YouTube - Tricky - Hell Is Around The Corner: Video

First one I liked, second one I liked even more.
I've taken more interest in this thread the past few days/week :)

would anyone confirm/second bands like boards of canada and Gorillaz, or the other 2 i listed before, as trip hop?

Boards of Canada definitely step in and out of the trip hop genre, but I'm pretty hard pressed to call classify them as such. Gorillaz definitely not.

I wouldn't call either of those trip-hop.

explain

Boards of Canada is generally considered to be illbient if you want to get technical. It's basically ambient music, but they use effects that makes their music sound aged and warped. At times they have a bit of a hip-hop beat going, but this is very rare they are usually more just an ambient band. Gorillaz have very little in the way of electronic elements in their songs. They are more alternative kind of like Blur (of course, Damon Albarn) at times and always hip-hop. They never move into trip-hop territory.

The way you describle Boards of Canada seems accurate, and a good way to explain how they are not trip-hop. I've never heard the term illbient applied to them though. Not saying it's not accurate, I don't really know what illbient is to tell you the truth. From my experience people usually refer to Boards of Canada as IDM...which is broad in itself. They're definitely part ambient, but overall I think their vibe is too lively and interesting to be considered strictly ambient. And I suppose that's where 'illbient' comes in. Kind of like how when I first heard stuff like Prefuse 73 (IDM combined with hip-hop) I called it trip-hop. It wasn't just IDM, and it was too IDM to just be called hip-hop. So I can see it...illbient. Ambient that's cool, fun, dope etc. :D

Well... to be honest, I have no idea what it means either, that's why I just mentioned it first. I took it to mean the same thing as you, sort of dope fun ambient music that moves beyond being simple background music but doesn't really fit too well into any other genre I can think of. I don't like simply applying IDM, or EDM, to bands because they are both such broad genres, like you mentioned. I had no clue what to call them genre wise. I definitely think Prefuse 73 is much more hip hop based than BOC though.

On a side note, anyone like Sixtoo? I would definitely consider it trip hop, and if you like the rap/hip hop side note I would highly recommend it. It's also pretty dark and experimental, interesting to listen to. Psyche Intangible is a brilliant album.

anybody hear RJD2's latest EP? i listened to it on the way to work this morning. not very remarkable i'm afraid. but at least he's moving back towards instrumental stuff - i couldn't bear to listen to him singing in Third Hand :)

latest discoveries include:
Wax Tailor
Blue Sky Black Death
Crustation
Earthling
Halou
Meaty Ogre

some of it is more instrumental hip hop than trip hop, but sometimes it's hard to draw a line...

I'm a fan...447 plays in my last.fm profile. :cool: I prefer his production work but his early rap albums are fun too.

Sadly, I haven't heard anything but Psyche Intangible and Chewing on Glass & Other Miracle Cures, which has some ****ing amazing beats. He was actually my introduction to Ninja Tunes when I discovered he was on I Thought I Was Over That by Lali Puna. Now the label is my primary resource for instrumental trip hop, I think the label as a whole does it better than any other. Just in case I ever get around to it, any other albums you'd recommend by Sixtoo? I believe I've heard good things about Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man, but that's the only other one I can think of.

And speaking of Ninja Tunes, Blockhead released The Music Scene today, check it out.

OH yeah? I didn't think Blockhead's new one was out for another week or two. Thanks for the heads-up!

As for Sixtoo, Jackals... is good, but Duration is better. I'd suggest that one next. Chewing on Glass is indeed amazing.

Morcheeba's "Who Can you Trust" album is also a classic in this genre.

But to add to the discussion on what is considered trip-hop, hip-hop or downtempo and so on; I've noticed that these days, new music genre's are popping up left and right. It's actually kind of funny, a slight change in tempo could mean a track is a different genre! haha. I think for something to considered trip hop it has to have an element of hip hop in it. That doesn't mean just hip hop style drums. It could be a break (sample) or even the style of production or that is borrowed from hip hop along with elements of electronic music.

The discussion could go on for days, but at the end of the day, bands need room to try something different without it being considered a different genre from their previous work (i.e. portishead and massive attack). I just think there are too many genres to keep track of IMHO.

i miss Morcheeba!

but i've been digging Skye's solo stuff. it's floating away from the trip hop category, but there are still hints of it there.

anyway i got to see her last night - she has a fantastic stage presence. mid show she grabbed a guitar and did a few acoustic solos, including Trigger Hippie which just blew my mind.

she also did a really great cover of the Gorillaz track Feel Good Inc.

great show overall!

I haven't heard her solo stuff yet, but I'll check it out for sure. An acoustic version of Trigget Hippie! Nice, I'll scope through YouTube for that now!

The only Crustration track I have is this bloody fine tune which has been a fave for years:



Do you have an album by these at all?

Crustation has just one album called Bloom. it's easy to find on blogspot.

there's an EP full of remixes of Purple, but i've never been able to track it down...

I have a few reviews brewing and hope that a few more peeps will add some albums.

This is floating my boat ATM:

I don't know if I like her voice too much, but I really like everything else.

it's on itunes. if you want check it out

OK here's an artist I've been selfishly sitting on for the past six months or so. His name is Aydio and he's a DJ from London who recently put out two EP's this year with Kraak Records. It's a very good blend of downtempo, trip-hop, and dub. Here's one of the songs from his 2nd EP Groove Road EP.



You can also download his first EP, Deltitnu from here legally.

^^ i approve!

do you have a link for that second EP? it's proving to be rather elusive :(

I can have it uploaded for you.