Tricky

Tricky opened new doors for music in the '90s with fellow Bristol musicians Portishead and Massive Attack, creating a genre built upon straight soulful vocals, chill rapping and altered jazz samples. Though the sounds of trip-hop were sounding less experimental by the end of that decade, Tricky's tunes remained brave, representing blues, jazz, gritty rock and folk. These influences are still present, as are spy movie-inspired guitar riffs ("Murder Weapon") and banging, bassed-up club styles ("Bristol to London"). Songs on this LP (such as "UK Jamaican," with Terry Lynn on vocals) look at crime and injustice ("Dream it, plan it, chance it, risk it, bring your guns, machete ratchet"). The theme is evocative of 1995, when Tricky remade Public Enemy's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" with Marina Topley-Bird. Getting solid female vocalists singing from a male perspective has been another cool theme with Tricky and he revisits it on Mixed Race with "Early Bird," with vocals by Franky Riley. Tricky's skills and motivation remain strong; Mixed Race pushes musical and conceptual boundaries.