Trip-Hop: The Return?..It's Too Good Not To + Phaeleh Mashup by Yours Truly

Over the past decade, we've seen a huge merging of musical genres with the help of technology. Coldplay working with Jay-Z. John Mayer with Kanye West. David Guetta with Akon. But one bridge I feel that hasn't really been built is the one between hip-hop and electronica. In college I'd try to mix these two at parties but it would be really tough and usually only sound decent for a short while. Their speeds and simply the attitudes each genre bring seem so polar.

Enter trip-hop.

Recently I've been taking full advantage of my $10/month Spotify subscription and exploring through the ocean of great artists trying to spread their work. Side note: It's amazing how many bands and individual acts are out there, and so many of them sound really great - definitely something worth doing if you're into finding new music. But eventually I came across Portishead, one of the premier acts of the trip-hop movement back in the 90's.

Trip-hop according to Wikipedia is:

…a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music. It began in the mid-1990s, growing out of England’s hip hop and house scenes, including that of the Bristol underground. It has been described as “Europe’s alternative choice in the second half of the ’90s”, and a fusion “of Hip-Hop and Electronica until neither genre is recognizable.”...

I hadn't heard Portishead before, but I started using them to find related/recommended artists (especially after reading that Kanye West said Portishead had a massive influence on his sound...I'm an avid Kanye fan :D). Most of you have probably already heard another huge trip-hop band from the 90's, Massive Attack...whose track 'Teardrop' is used as the theme song to the show House M.D. The band Zero 7 also had a hit song 'In the Waiting Line' on the Garden State soundtrack.

Massive Attack

Although the trip-hop movement of the 90's didn't last long, I quickly realized that its sound is going to be revived bigger and better in the near future as I went from one related artist to the next . It's simply too good not to be, and the possibilities are so vast especially with today's music production softwares. Trip-hop beats are really bent on being as creative as possible and exploring...while today's Hip-hop beats I feel are coming to some sort of relative maxima in terms of structure and sound. There aren't many people pushing the limits of hip-hop sound (which is why I like Kanye because he pushes its bounds with utilizing orchestras, opera singers, soul samples, etc.). A few sub-genres such as Trap have emerged, but I don't think many of them will last long.

One of the names I came across was Phaeleh (pronounced 'fella'), an artist from Bristol, UK (where trip-hop originated hah) who started in 2006. Another side note: I tweeted at him saying I dig his sound, and he tweeted back! His music is chill and trance-y but has really unique/creative beats. Like while listening to a lot of the other related artists I came across, I couldn't stop thinking of what amazing things would happen if artists like him and hip-hop super producers 9th wonder or D.J. Toomp were put in the same studio together for a week, and also how close his sound is to being able to be used by guys like Drake.

To sort of showcase this point, I took one of Phaeleh's tracks 'The Cold in You,' chopped/sped it up, and chopped/layered acapellas from Jay-Z's 'Song Cry' and Notorious B.I.G.'s 'Suicidal Thoughts,' which you can listen to below. I apologize in advance for the quality not being ideal - the beat has a lot of bass (most trip-hop beats I've noticed tend to) and when I sped it up some of the bass clashed at a few points. I wanted to use a Drake acapella because he does a lot of more mellow stuff which would be appropriate for this beat, but finding acapellas isn't easy.


Phaeleh - The Cold in You vs. Jay-Z and B.I.G. [Mashup] by Ayes Music

Hook (kinda hard to understand):
I've, got it all worked out...and
I've, got it figured out...and
I've got it all worked out...and
I've got it down, got it down

^The point of that was just to show a peek at the potential of these two genres coming together btw lol. Other trip-hop/close to trip-hop acts besides Portishead, Massive Attack, Zero 7, and Phaeleh include Sneaker Pimps, Hooverphonic, Thievery Corporation, Everything But The Girl, and more recently Berry Weight, Submotion Orchestra, and Paper Tiger. I'm sure there will be more emerging soon...pretty exciting sound to look forward to.

Paul Epworth: Man Behind Adele and Florence + The Machine

Adele's Skyfall, the track to accompany the upcoming release of the new James Bond movie Skyfall, was released a couple days ago and has received a lot of positive reviews - including from me :). When I think of James Bond songs though, I think of how epic tunes like Goldfinger and Diamonds are Forever have stood the test of time...and how this Skyfall track really lives up to that caliber and expectation. I then realized that Adele's whole 21 album sort of has that sound that could cross many generations to come...

Last year at the Grammys, the Producer of the Year was Paul Epworth, Britain's highly sought after super producer. I remember watching the Grammys when he won and not really knowing who he was...especially since most producer nominees aren't as well known as someone like Dr. Dre. But he won four Grammys last year for his work with Adele...four! Thursday night I read up on the Skyfall track and saw that he co-wrote the song with Adele and produced it. 

Paul Epworth and Adele

In this recent interview he talked about how every song he works on, the song transcends all else and he tries to go for sounds that will stay for many years to come. Keep in mind that this is the main guy - the director - with the grand vision of what the final product of these artists' songs will sound like. Along with Adele, he worked heavily on Florence + The Machine's 1st album Lungs, and is the sole producer and co-writer with Florence Welch on their most recent album Ceremonials (e.g. Shake it Out).

Other acts he's worked with include Foster the People, Plan B, and Bloc Party. If you're into the sound these artists put out, you might dig the other smaller acts he's worked with. His Wikipedia page includes all of them, and I'm sure they're all on Spotify/iTunes.