Trip hop

Trip-Hop is an electronic style of music that is characterized by slow, hip-hop- like rhythms (usually between 80 and 100 BPM ). The pieces often contain samples or vocals. Trip-Hop originated in the region around the English city of Bristol in the early 1990s and was therefore also called Bristol Sound .

Sound and description

Trip-hop is often perceived as introverted or melancholy due to its slow tempos and atmospheric soundscapes . Often with low-fidelity -Effekten as the crackle of vinyl records worked. Instrumental trip-hop pieces are no longer referred to by many as trip-hop, but as downbeat to make a clear distinction . Elsewhere, however , the term downbeat serves as a superordinate category or collective term for various styles, including trip-hop.

Name and origin

Trip-hop has its roots in hip-hop and dub , although characteristics such as rap are usually dispensed with in trip-hop. Often there are harmonic and melodic elements, similar to pop music .

Music journalist Andy Pemberton first used the term "trip hop" in 1994 in the June issue of MIXMAG magazine. The name arose from the hip-hop elements that flowed into the music and the slow sounds that were perceived as a trip . The artist collective “The Wild Bunch”, to which Massive Attack and Tricky also belonged , formed in the multicultural scene of Bristol in the late 1980s . In the opinion of many listeners, Massive Attack laid the foundation for trip-hop with their first album Blue Lines , but for the most part it was still very much based on funk and soul . Portishead (named after the town of the same name in England, near Bristol) was the first band to present the new style in such a way that music journalists saw the need for a new genre name. The alternative term Bristol Sound is controversial today, even in Bristol, because many local musicians who do not produce trip-hop feel excluded.

Well-known artists

Well-known trip-hop artists are Massive Attack , Björk , Portishead , Crustation , Tricky , Smith & Mighty , DJ Krush , Lamb , Red Snapper , Morcheeba , Waldeck , Mandalay , Nightmares on Wax , Faithless , Hooverphonic , Moloko , Smoke City , Earthling , Kid Cudi and Kruder & Dorfmeister . The English labels Mo 'Wax and Ninja Tune are often associated with the term trip-hop . Your artists ( e.g. UNKLE , DJ Shadow , Amon Tobin , Kid Koala , Mr. Scruff , The Herbaliser ) use a lot of elements similar to trip-hop, but are more influenced by hip-hop. Both labels see themselves more as abstract hip-hop labels.

If you take the area a little further, you come across experimental projects like Coldcut or very independent bands like Air , but this music no longer corresponds to the popular definition of trip-hop. Since the advent of trip-hop and its influence on a wide variety of musicians, typical elements can also be found in other genres.

Web links

http://www.out-of-space.ch/ ( Memento from January 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (Swiss music magazine on the subject)
Overview and reviews of albums from almost all artists of the genre (French)

literature

Thomas Götz: City and Sound. The Bristol example . Lit-Verlag, Münster / Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9700-1
Phil Johnson: Straight outa Bristol. Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky and the Roots of Trip Hop . Hodder & Stoughton, London 1996, ISBN 0-340-67481-4