The OFFICIAL Trip Hop Thread
 

I did a search and couldn't find anything similar but if there is you know what to do!


The aim of the thread is to get some of the more unknown bands up in here along with vids and recommendations to one of my favourite genres. I will also do a brief history of the genre along with an intro compilation.

Welcome back Lee :D

I've kinda drifted away from trip-hop ever since I started getting into breakbeat and progressive house of late, so I could do with some recs. So, basically, I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

Nice one :D i've gotten into Tricky and Massive Attack lately so this thread should be useful.

What ever you do, regardless of your goals in life, make time and take time to search out this album:

DJ Wally - The Stoned Ranger Rydes Again

It's mostly trip-hop, late 90's back when it was going strong.
DJ Wally has since changed his name to DJ Wally Pish Posh and produces mostly underground hiphop now, so the Ranger album really is one of a kind for him.

It's going to be hard to find on a download service. Generally you're lucky if you find a new unopened copy being sold anywhere. Anyway, that was last time I checked. If you get the album DL'd from somewhere, please up it for me. Someone stole that CD from me in 99' and it has been pretty much irreplaceable so far.

Never heard of this and a search provided nothing :(

This is awesome! I only know a few very 'mainstream' trip-hop artists (like Portishead etc) but it's a genre I would really love to learn more about. Look forward to the intro comp and the rest of this thread!

It's about time,

I like this. However my idea of trip-hop is different from what many consider to be trip-hop. So I'll let you guys roll with it. Maybe I can finally check out some of this trip-hop. :beer:

I'm kinda' the same way, my definition spills over into dub-step and other random places as well.

do you want to stick to proper 'trip hop' or are you cool with branching out into the greater 'downbeat' style that grew from it?

either way i'm looking forward to this compilation :thumb:

Definitely looking forward to checking out this thread some more. I only know a little trip-hop, but what I've heard I love!

Trip Hop is a hugely expansive genre and I'm definitely one for branching out so expect a few curveballs!

As for dubstep. It is definitely an offshoot from Trip hop and has it's roots in Bristol (apart an hour away from me) and the Wild Bunch collective.

nice, in that case i'm really hoping on some emperor penguin hehehe

Looking forward to it.

Well, I'm not very clear on my electronica subgenres at all... would, for example, Dirty Elegance's Finding Beauty In The Wretched fit in here at all, or ninja tunes stuff as instrumental trip hop? This is a genre I've always really wanted to learn more about but never have; I like hip hop, I like electronica, but the fusion of the two seems like it would be ungodly... Like hip hop and jazz for me. The problem is, Mezzanine's not bad but Massive Attack, Tricky and Portishead I'm pretty much indifferent to. I don't like the addition of rock influences very much for some reason. The sound just doesn't interest me.

Personally I think dubstep's pretty separate...and already has a thread, right?

Others have mentioned downbeat and Ninja Tunes stuff...I consider some of that to be along the lines of what I consider trip-hop. Basically I'm thinking Prefuse 73 (who I really think was a big inspiration for the recently created "glitch-hop" genre), DJ Shadow, Odd Nosdam, Sixtoo, etc.

Here's his release info on discogs:
DJ Wally Discography at Discogs

As far as where to get some of his music for free...well I only managed to get two of his tracks on soulseek. But it just so happened that it was two of my favorites. If you'd like, I can up them for you. They're exceptional.

I have him as a friend on Myspace and have back/forth'd with him a little, and I'm pretty sure if I pressed him I could find out whether he's got any CD stock, or knows where to get it from, from 99' era, particularly Stoned Ranger. I've been wanting to get it back anyway, so I may do that. If that comes through, I'll up it for sure.

trip hop is terribly hard to define, but however you choose to define it, this should be good. been looking through your music collection, and i like what i see.

might check out Blue Foundation - Eyes On Fire on youtube. good stuff.

i have never heard of triphop before, im interested, very interested :D.

The only trip hop that I know of is Morcheeba and Portishead. I'm also looking forward to this compilation once it's put together.

Trip Hop

Trip Hop is a genre usually attributed to the city of Bristol U.K when artist's and DJ's began to fuse American Hip hop beats with laid back beats which took nods from Dub, Reggae and the Acid Jazz of the late 80's early 90's. However many of the emerging bands such as Massive Attack and Portishead abhorred the term Trip Hop as the music took influence from many different sources and often rarely used traditional Hip Hop rhythms. Indeed a similar sound was making waves in the U.S at the same time with DJ Shadow beginning to produce a down tempo vocally stripped form of hip hop and NY's Bowery Electric stripping the sound even further and although Massive Attacks Blue Lines album (1991) is usually classed as the first Trip hop album, the scene began gathering serious momentum from 1994 onwards with the sound already splintering and taking on many more elements.

Music as diverse as Down Tempo, Nu Jazz, Breakbeat and instrumental Hip hop all being labelled with a Trip Hop sound. With this in mind a whole hosts of artists can be included under the umbrella of Trip hop including Amon Tobin, Prefuse 73, Nightmares On Wax, Bonobo etc despite them only having elements of the original sounds.

Usually todays definition of Trip Hop is melancholic Electronic music with a lot of hip hop elements virtually gone which is neither a good or bad description as Trip hop is a label attributed to most if not all non commercial and densely atmospheric Dance music.

Compilation Taster

For this opening compilation have eschewed the usual names (Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky etc) to give you more of a taste of the diversity of what is termed as Trip hop. You may have noticed I have included a cover of Portishead's 'Wandering Star' by the beatbox artist 'Kid Beyond'. I have included this as it's an example of embracing an old school hip hop technique to put a spin on a tune that itself is influenced by hip Hop and it's as if the sound has come full circle. Such a shame that this fantastic artist (who ONLY uses his voice and no instruments apart from delay pedals etc) doesn't get more notices.

I have it but its missing the last track. I have the last track queued so i'll see if i can get that too.

Oh and thanks for this JH. I'll probably give it a go tomorrow. It looks good.

Downloading right now. I've listened to a few trip hop artists, mostly Massive Attack, DJ Shadow (both of them I discovered thanks to Satchmo's Jive Essence thread) and Flying Lotus. Looking forward to this thread as a good way of exploring the genre more.

i just checked out your mix. you do indeed have an expansive definition of the genre! i knew most of these already, but a few were new. Terranova especially impressed me, i'll have to track them down later :)

now that you've thrown together that eschewed the usual, perhaps you could list what you consider to be the usual? you mention Massive attack, Portishead, Tricky. those are definitely the big three. but who else?

i've never liked putting DJ Shadow in there, his stuff is more ambient breaks than trip hop. that UNKLE track you chose is good here, but most of theirs is not.

what about something like Hooverphonic? some of their tracks definitely fit (like 2Wicky), but others are very much upbeat and cheerful. what about Everything But the Girl (there last 2 at least)? Morcheeba?

wikipedia even lists Bjork and Gorillaz as trip hop!

this is definitely the genre that gives me the biggest headache when i'm tagging new music...

This is an interesting take. I think "melancholic electronic" is a big part of my personal definition of the genre, but definitely still with hip hop elements. If that element is removed then there's nothing trip-hop about it, IMO. So if the term is applied to most non commercial and densely atmospheric dance music...with no trace of hip hop...I'm feeling that's incorrect (and I know you're not stating that as your personal definition of the genre). Much of it probably depends on our own environments, countries always have varying views on genres and stuff. But if a piece of electronic music has no element of hip hop I'm not gonna call it trip hop, that's for sure. There is plenty of dense and atmospheric electronic that has no trace of hip hop or at least not enough to classify it as trip hop, and to me that's usually what I'd call IDM or downtempo or simply electronic. You did mention Down Tempo, Nu Jazz, and Breakbeat being included or also labeled as trip-hop, and that's true as long as there are traces of hip hop. I mean that has to be the one common element is what I'm saying. I think I am rambling and need to go to bed. :p:

I agree with what you are saying and it's what I was trying to say in a roundabout sort of way! what's labelled as Trip hop sometimes is simply atmospheric dance but it's an easily applied term to that particular sound.

I just recently got some Portishead, hoping to start easing myself into this genre. I'm sure that comp will help.

I think the key component of Trip Hop is the Hip Hop influenced beats. Hence why Portishead's third album is more of a Downtempo Electronic album than a Trip Hop one. I always see Massive Attack as the quintessential Trip Hop act.

^ Hmm... that's strange.
I view it quite the opposite.

I listened to Massive Attack's Mezzanine for the first time yesterday. Pretty good stuff overall, though I didn't hear a hip-hop influence on every track. Not that that would disqualify it or anything, just saying I was kind of looking for it and it wasn't always there.

Yea if anything, Massive Attack can be broadly categorized as Downtempo, and only Triphop in certain scenarios. Portishead sticks more to a specified formula in regards to remaining under a Triphop umbrella, and they do it well.

Contributions are welcomed in this thread-album reviews etc. Reviews from myself coming soon.

Both great. I love Massive Attack. "Angel" is one of my favorites.

Portishead is a personal triphop pick of mine as well.

We need another one soon Jackhammer, mid-terms are coming up and I needs some new writing music. The stuff last.fm has been recommending me has been complete and utter ****e too I'm afraid.

I was kinda hoping members would put their own reco's up but I will add a couple of albums very soon.

But guys, DJ Shadow isn't trip hop.

Massive Attack, like, created trip hop. What?

Endtroducing is generally classed as a Trip Hop staple even if I'm not a massive fan of it and Massive Attack are generally regarded as one of the frontrunners in the Trip hop scene along with the Wild Bunch collective in Bristol U.K but you cannot attribute any one band to the creation of a genre on the whole.

The term Trip Hop is not liked by a lot of the early bands.

I went through my itunes yesterday and simplified my genre classification system by taking all electronic music that isn't hip hop and labeling it "BEATS". The genre snobbery is really giving me a migraine.

Hehe! I organised my music a month or so back and tried to keep it as simple as possible but even with electronica I couldn't resist having these sub folders:

Ambient and Electronica
Breaks and Beats
Dance/House Music
Drum and Bass
Dubstep
EBM
Glitch/IDM
Techno
Trip Hop

and then you have bands such as Thievery corporation who went into a World Fusion folder!

Okay, why should DJ Shadow be labeled trip hop?

Massive Attack is the original trip hop group like My Bloody Valentine is the original shoegaze group. Sure, the idea and elements existed before, but Massive Attack is THE trip hop group, and My Bloody Valentine is THE shoegaze group.