"some slave of sensation..." -same.
You know what's sometimes more sublime than an orgasm or good food? Discovering a great band. Yeah, I know, I'm slinking back into the subject of music again, but for me, it's not outside talking about any OTHER area of interest. Be thankful, readers, that I don't jizz over bricklaying or technical diagrams of the internal composition of car engines. DID YOU SEE THE 56.3 CYLINDER ON THAT v45? THAT WAS AMAZING!
Portishead is a trip-hop (wank genre name, I know) band that has been around for quite some time. THeir first CD, Dummy, came out in 1994 and it's what I'm listening to right now. Sexy vocals, downtempo rhythms that remind me of abandoned fire escapes in london, rain falling on various parts o' the world, smoked-out lounges and closed diaries. A woman's hands flecked with ink blots, maybe, from writing love notes that she burns.
The animosity in this is subdued - the anger sometimes lies in just the emotion going into something whispered. I haven't even listened to their second self-titled album which is also sitting on the desk.
Trip-hop is an interesting thing. Optimism has a hard time existing in it, heh. I mean, a certain strain of sexuality can exist, but even then, it's less of the frantic happy sexuality of "LET'S MAKE OUT IN A BATHROOM STALL!" and instead a slow-burning sensuality. Let's take a few trip-hop bands and rate their optimism!
Massive Attack: Argueably one of the leaders of trip-hop, with Tricky involved in the group at the time, they've released some incredible music. Pioneering the slow beat with a deep underbelly of sensuality in other portions, they've had some incredible stuff. Elizabth Frasier of The Cocteau Twins guests in one of their songs called "Teardrop", creating a completely beautiful thing, while Tricky's raspy vocals made other songs more brooding. Their third album, Mezzanine, has yet to see a follow-up after years and years, but remains a great soundtrack to do things to that might involve removing someone else's clothing. Optimism: 5 with the joyful choruses of songs like "Hymn of the Big Wheel" and general happy-to-be-sad vibe.
Tricky: After he stemmed away from Massive Attack, he proved to be slightly insane, sometimes missing the amrk completely, but more than not putting out some great music. His first album, "Maxinquaye", rivals some of Massive Attack's best work. Listen to Tricky's take of Massive Attack's "Karmacoma" with his track "Overcome". He re-does the song much better than MA could ever have tried to do. In other parts, Tricky's vocals give the trip hop an edge, and a more darker stance. He had the ability to mix the sensuality of trip hop with dirty sexuality, as well as with more desperation, anger, and frustration. His later albums had huge highlights ("Christiansands", for one, maybe his best) but steadily declined into both a rather interestingly increasingly stranger sound, and also crap. His latest album, Blowback, has many guest appearances and no good songs because he, as far as I'm concerned, sucks now. Tricky, if you're reading this, I'm sorry. I'm sorry your last album sucked.
Optimism Rating: At first, oh, a 4 at times. Now, god, give him negative points since he's obviously so sad that he's trying to destroy his goddamned career.
Portishead: I know I'm not expert, but this stuff is much sadder than others. 2 on the optimism scale.
Goldfrapp: She actually guests with Tricky on a great track called "Pumpkin" back when Tricky's guests didn't include bullshit like Ed from Live or Anthony Kiedis (?!) from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. She injects a bit more soulful jazz and heartache into the genre, giving her about a 3. There's some love songs, folks!
Zero 7 - Take trip-hop, give it suaveness and sexyness. Not so much interested in sadness as much as the oppertunity to lounge with a martini. Nets a 4.
Lamb - GREAT band, and the female's vocals are good, if not a tiny bit grating sometimes. But the beats are much more scattered and interesting, taking a bit of a departure from a slow, slow beat of most trip-hop songs. Great stuff. Optimistic? Sure! 5!
Sneaker Pimps - Another early player in the game and bringer of such supersexy tracks like "6 Underground", I refuse to grade earlier seeing as their last 2 other albums have not included the female vocals at all. That's like having a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich but then taking away the peanut-butter and jelly, and instead placing DIRT IN THE SANDWICH. And then deep-frying it. Jerks.
I hope you've enjoyed this rundown of one of my favorite genres. I found it tedious and boring to type, myself. But I did it all for you. All for you.
trippity-hop,
Jared