To be truthful, Tricky talks a lot of sh*t. Carl Craig called Tricky out on
this in an issue of Mondo 2000. It was right on the money and
I'll post it later.
Is reciting old hip-hop lyrics (Lyrics of Fury, Black
Steel) over hipped-up backing tracks a synthesis? Hardly. He's good but he
is not Jesus. I think Massive Attack are a far better example of a similar
sound (in fact, they are the originators).
Spooky probably spends too much thinking about what he's doing but given the
current lack of depth in music, I can handle a bit of pretension. I think
his recorded output is ace. "Songs of a Dead Dreamer" was definitely a
successful attempt at a synthesis of many different forms. I was hoping
"Riddim Warfare" would use a similar "mix-tape" approach but it is still
fantastic. I especially like his live sets.
quoted 26 lines Can anyone help me out with that Tricky quote from a year or 2 ago>Can anyone help me out with that Tricky quote from a year or 2 ago
>regarding Spooky? Something to the effect of "He shouldstop talking until
>he does some tracks that just rip your head off".
> And keep an eye out for a Tricky small club tour in November. I believe
>he's coming through New Haven CT and Jacksonville Florida, but those are
>the only ones I've heard about.
> I can't decide how I like the new Spooky album. It's defintely not as
>pretentious as his earlier efforts, but the art wank remains. Sometimes
>his beats are great, but other times it seems like he's trying to do
>staight hiphop or d nb and failing, ike he jst isses the point a little
>bit. And for all his talk about combining all the music of the world, his
>real influences are pretty obviously hiphop and the NY d nb scene, with a
>little bit of avaant improv and jazz thrown in. Which is fine and
>understandable, but it doesn't justify his big talk as the grand
>synthesist. Tricky comes a lot closer than Spooky t doing that and Company
>Flow is far more abrasive and dystopian than Spooky's Atari smart bombs and
>"stock footage" voice samples. the man samples Sublime and Puff daddy
>without a hint of irony, and I think there's something wrong with that.
> But damn, Riddim Warfarre has got to be one of the best (if not the best)
>marriages of hiphop and d n b yet. And some of the other hard jungle
>tracks are amazing. But then he goes and ruins trhem with fucking
>pretentious, arrogant art talk. I don't know what to think... Any other opinions?
>
>Sam
>
>