IDM Mailing Archive

quoted 5 lines As for Tricky, he might make his own music, but only just. Badly looping

>As for Tricky, he might make his own music, but only just. Badly looping >a sample and throwing some other cut up bits over the top hardly ranks >as the most effort in the world, IMO, and although effort isn't >everything, his latest batch of music is the most lacklustre expression >of 'genius' I've ever heard.

DISCLAIMER: I understand very little about the procedures/mechanics of music making, and I'm generally an ignorant bastard. Graham, I think you're missing the point. Yes, Tricky uses a sampler a helluva lot. But I don't think anybody else does as much with a sampler as he does. I don't think anybody could make an Eric B cymbal hit as claustrophobic as he does on Makes me Wanna Die. Same goes for any of the other songs on his albums where I don't know the sample source—Tricky appropriates sounds, lyrics, etc. and uses them to create his own vision which IMO is completely unique. Evrything he does is a collage—he doesn't just work the sampler hard, he rips fragments of lyrics from Public Enemy and elsewhere, his albums are heavy on the cover songs. Somehow however, unlike Oasis or Puffy, he makes other people's material his own—as i said earlier, he "plays" the sampler, he doesn't just sample. And once he has his material in place, he does so much more to bring it into his world: through repetition (ever noticed that makes me wanna die is basically a 2 minute song repeated twice?), through album arrangement (just sit down and follow the arcs of his albums—every track is exactly where it belongs), through lyrics (which tread a fine line, but IMO he pulls it off every time), through vocalists (who all have amazing sounding voices if not always good technical skills). Basically, I think the man is a genius—his albums have their unlistenable flops (ghetto youth, strugglin', etc.), but I even find those conceptually interesting. And, I beg you, see the man live if humanly possible—the repetitious stuff on Pre-Millenium tension makes so much more sense live, when he's able to build each song for as long as he needs, when you can see how involved he gets, when you can hear the funk reworking of She Makes Me Wanna Die... (To head off comments in advance, I'm under the impression that he's only got his live show into shape on the PMT tour, and that he didn't know how to work with an audience previously). More on the hiphop tip-for all NYCers, kool Keith (Dr. Octagon) is playing a show at tramps with the Ultramagnetic MCs and Company Flow on thursday 2/26. Email me privately if you're thinking of going. $20 i think... Sam