trickykid

AND THE SHE-ASS SAW THE ANGEL...the distillation of the paranoid nightmares of CAVE, the book he worked on during the darkest years of his life (read, heroin), in the grip of obsessions, visions, deliriums...the book is a descent into hell...

ALESSIO, I read CAVE's book...a grotesque nightmare: I still can't fully assess it.

REVIEW WRITTEN VERY WELL!!!!!!! ***

MANLIO, by referring to "illiterates" in general, the HEROES of TRIPHOP did not specifically play any classical instrument from the rock triad (BASS GUITAR DRUMS). Nevertheless, they produced music with the help of machines, electronics, interludes of classical instruments (often sampled and looped like a beat), mixers, etc. They were, in other words, musicians without being so in a technical sense (it’s true that the other member of Portishead could play and is heard here and there on this album, but he dedicated himself more to the production and conceptualization of the album than to the instrument)... Here lay the great novelty, as well as the reworking and metabolization of previous music (shall we talk about the sampling of BILL COBAHAM's DRUMS that you hear in SAFE FROM ARM in BLULINE? Or the resurrecting of old soundtracks from B-MOVIE? Many of the musical interludes you hear are not played directly but extrapolated from other works...). The operation was therefore very appealing to me at the time these records were released; they revolutionized the very “way” of producing music... BETH GIBSON has a stunning voice, and if you want to appreciate it outside the TRIP-HOP context, I recommend the album with RUSTIN MAN (BETH GIBSON-RUSTIN MAN "OUT OF SEASONS").

MANLIUZZO, not to sound like an old crank, but the author here has lived the TRIPHOP experience before it became useless sound wallpaper in trendy venues. And, alright, there’s always time to understand and discover something, but believe me, it was incredible being a kid in the 90s: so much interesting stuff was coming out, new genres were being created, music was talking again to the YOUNG and not just exclusively to the MARKET... The PORTISHEAD made this album that is, along with BLU LINE by MASSIVE ATTACK and the first two albums by TRICKY (MAXINQUAYE and PRE-NILLENNIUM TENSIONS), the manifesto of TRIPHOP. You’re right to say that the music is CINEMATIC, but this is not only due to the images it refers to, but also because, IN FACT, many SAMPLES and EXCERPTS were taken by these artists from the soundtracks of low-budget films from the 70s and 80s, that is, from the cultural products with which these losers (and proletarians) had grown up, mixing it all with fragments of SOUL-RAGGAE-ELECTRONICA-HIP/HOP, etc. TRIP HOP is born, which is nothing but the construction of a genre from the atomization of other musical things, this puzzle of different musics, this synthesis of musical experiences that united, at the time, in the collective WILD BUNCH and in the club experience, those who would later become MASSIVE ATTACK and TRICKY. Basically, a sound that will characterize an era and will rapidly consume itself in just a few albums. The album deserves *** full stars. Among the characteristics of the genre, the complete musical illiteracy of the protagonists deserves mention: they hardly played, but let almost everything be done by machines, editing, mixing… it was a genre based on ideas, on musical culture, on listening to other (heterogeneous) materials... I remember the heated discussions at the time of who among us, wielding a guitar (like many at that age) was convinced that real music was only that which could truly be played live with instruments. A peculiarity of these albums and of the genre is the TECHNIQUE and NON-CONVENTIONAL INSTRUMENTATION: computers & mixers, instead of the usual bass, guitar, and drums, to baptize the first true genre of the new (technocratic) millennium. With ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES by TRICKY, we will witness something different from TRIP-HOP, because it is actually played with real instruments...

The review is commendable but errs in the final italics. This record is a one-off in the entire discography of CAVE, not just a solo debut, but a true masterpiece tout court, a solid *** without ifs or buts. While it is true that our artist will produce other memorable albums and have other genius peaks, anyone wanting to listen to the early CAVE, the one before the maturity of THE GOOD SON (that is, RIO) or LET LOVE IN, the one at the antipodes from the refined (and mystical) singer-songwriter song of THE BOATMAN CALLS and NO MORE SHALL WE PART, must ABSOLUTELY have this record, as well as TENDER PREY, which concludes the cycle of MALATTIA BLUES, ECCESSI, and EROINA (9 times in overdose!) that begins with this (claustrophobic and paranoid) album, passing through THE FIRST BORN IS DEAD, YOUR FUNERAL MY TRIAL, and the cover album KICKING AGAINST THE PRICKS. I believe there is no other CAVE album so claustrophobic that sets "the line," meaning the poetics of his future career... within this record are many themes that will be subsequently, and repeatedly, revisited by CAVE: from the (ghostly) cover of COHEN's AVALANCHE, to the literary references in certain songs, to the blues of origins, to MICK HARVEY and BLIXA who will accompany him for decades, to the love paranoias masterfully expressed in the TITLE TRACK, a mantra of romantic frustration ("If I had you/I wouldn't desire you") that will lead CAVE to include in the cover of this album, a photo of HER, like a kitschy holy card: FROM HER TO ETERNITY... As has often been written about CAVE, "the road of dissipation always leads to the palace of wisdom." The current wisdom of the now fifty-year-old CAVE can be sought in this indispensable (and very violent) album.

I don't understand the comparisons with De Gregori who, live, is terrible... while Francuzzo Battiato brings superior arrangements and a band that exceeds the national average. Even when he performs his more obvious repertoire, there are worthy live novelties. It is also true that his latest albums are pretty bad...

excellent (and innovative) review for a *** album! Among my favorites by BUKLEY père...

for the reasons stated above: a) a highly reviewed album; b) a very well-known album; c) I am not capable of providing a reading of the album in question without falling into the already mentioned, I would essentially create a useless duplicate. While I reserve the right to write a review of an album that hasn't been reviewed or has been poorly reviewed, on something where I can thoroughly express my thoughts, having delved into the subject as one should when preparing to write...(and probably the choice would lean towards something in jazz)

?!? Can you elaborate on the concept?