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Close your eyes. Imagine running your finger over the globe, pointing to a destination, and in that very moment finding yourself sucked into the place. Feel the climate, see the colors, the streets, the streams, hear the sound of nature, notice the smell of the stuffy air, the invincible challenge of continental frost. Imagine the world watching you, at least as much as you watch it where you've landed almost by chance; that someone follows your steps, anticipates them with thought, studies the paths, reads inside you. With slow and deep strides and with a soft step, the air penetrates you and sees what you are made of, becomes one with you, and goes to seek what cannot be spoken, that has no word but only invisible substance, a viscous liquid that you cannot show in the light of day, that erupts at night, when it is incredibly complicated to look at each other, extremely simple for complex and obscured personality traits to emerge. It is a voice that speaks, an ancient voice that belongs to the whole world, which returns dignity to that substance in the form of sound. It slowly conquers you, grabs you by the hips, and possesses you in an embrace that lasts all night, for an entire era.
All this has become music, sound, tribal and enveloping rhythms, suspended and intense harmonic solutions, a mix of new york hip hop, ambient, electronic music, dub, reggae, psychedelic music, jazz, funk, and soul. In a single word Trip hop, a genre that brings together hip hop with the idea of a mental journey, waves that mesh with an indefatigable groove, environments that recognize and meld into an unexplored universe, an assemblage of diverse genres, all shaped into a sound flow that is ever gentle and aggressive, overwhelming, fascinating and sharp, violent in its voluptuous delicacy. It is in Bristol that this incredible genre is born, it is in the Nineties that it establishes itself with Massive Attack in 1987, who along with Tricky, Portishead, and Morcheeba represent the story of this genre, going back to retrieve retro and lo-fi sounds also in an orchestral key.
In the album, there are tracks that are history and set a standard for the entire world of electronica and beyond. The journey begins with Angel, a puma with an incredible voice named Horace Andy, who advances slowly toward his prey, imploding in an expansive beat enriched with a distorted guitar but then follows its steps again, turns its back, and closes up, as if nothing ever happened; a prelude to the white lights of Risingson, a true masterpiece that opens the dance to the ethereal Teardrop, a rare pearl of electronic music interpreted by the angelic voice of Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins) that breaks the dark atmosphere of the record. But this sweetness is just a patina that obscures the gaze, which is freed with the arrival of Inertia Creeps, a tale of an ancient mystery never revealed, a journey into the darkness of a faraway land that echoes tribal rhythms and dub carpets; it seems that at the end of the tunnel rest can be found in Exchange, the light point of the record, a plucked bass that underlies harmonies suspended between alternating fade outs and fade ins, compressors and filters with an analog and retro flavor, an stretching more than deserved. Sara Jay brings it all back with Dissolved girl and Robert "3D" Del Naja, Grant "Daddy G" Marshall and Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles continue the journey with Man next door again with Horace Andy, with Mezzanine that gives the album its title, while Fraser's sweet voice returns on Black Milk and Group Four.
The introspective, multicultural, powerful journey is resolved with the brilliant return to shore of (Exchange) whose ivory coasts glimmered in the distance, and shone in contrast with the pitch-black sand retracing the footprints left along the path of Mezzanine, a tale of the eternity enjoyed by electronic music of a certain level, of a certain depth and thickness unmatched to this day.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Angel (06:19)
You are my angel
Come from the above
To bring me life
Her eyes... she's on the dark side
Future life (every man inside)
Every man inside....
You love you love you love you love
You love you love you love you love
You love you love you love you love...
You.. are my angel (my angel)
Come from the above...
You love you love you love you love
You love you love you love you love
You love you love you love you love...
02 Risingson (04:58)
3d
I seen you go down to a cold mirror
It was never clearer in my era so
You lick a shine upon your forehead or
Check it by the signs in the corridor
You light my ways through the club maze
We would struggle through the dub daze
I see myself in there upon my lover
It's how you go down to the men's room sink
Sad we talk of how madmen think
I see myself in there upon my lover
I don't know her from another miss
I don't know you from another
See me run now you're gone...dream on
Daddy G
Why you want to take me to this party and breathe
I'm dying to leave
Every time we grind we know we severed lines
Where have all those flowers gone
Long time passing
Why you keep me testing, keep me tasking
You keep on asking
3d
Toy-like people make me boy-like
Toy-like people make me boy-like
They're invisible, when the trip it flips
They get physical, way below my lips
And everything you got hoi-poloi like
Now you're lost and you're lethal
And now's about the time you gotta leave all
These good people...dream on
Nicer than the bird up in the tree top
Cheaper than the chip inside my lap top
All the variations you could do with me
Nicer than the girl up in your mind you're free
Daddy G
Automatic crystal remote control,
They come to move your soul
3d
You're gonna fade into the background
Like a better smoke'll bring you back round
Like a man slide inside you my dear
Your cheap beer's filled with crocodile tears
See 'em run now you're gone...dream on
Toy-like people make me boy-like
Toy-like people make me boy-like
I found a reason
I found a reason
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
03 Teardrop (05:30)
Love, love is a verb
Love is a doing word
Feathers on my breath
Gentle impulsion
Shakes me, makes me lighter
Feathers on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Feathers on my breath
Nine, night of matter
Black flowers blossom
Feathers on my breath
Black flowers blossom
Feathers on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Feathers on my breath
Water is my eye
Most faithful mirror
Feathers on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Of a confession
Feathers on my breath
Most faithful mirror
Feathers on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Feathers on my breath
You're stumbling in the dark
You're stumbling in the dark
04 Inertia Creeps (05:57)
Recollect me darling, raise me to your lips
Two undernourished egos, four rotating hips
Hold onto me tightly, I'm a sliding scale
Can't endure, then you can inhale
Clearly
Out of body experience interferes
And dreams of flying I fit nearly
Surrounds me though I get lonely
Slowly
Moving up slowly
Inertia keeps
She's moving up slowly
Slowly
Moving up slowly
Inertia creeps
Moving up slowly
She comes
In my home no chrome as clear as
See me now with my nearest dearest
Been there when I'm over careering
Room shifting is endearing
Between us is our kitchen
Would you found my irritant's itching
Been here before
Been here forever
Moving up slowly
Inertia keeps
Moving up slowly
Inertia creeps
Moving up slowly
Inertia keeps
Moving up slowly
She comes
Moving up slowly
Moving up slowly
She comes moving up slowly
Inertia creeps moving up slowly
She comes
There be no sound in my eiderdown
Awake I lie in a morning's blue
Room is still, my antenna in you
Nylon burns the bedspread with two
Gravity's zero, see me stall
I bounce off walls, lose my footing and fall
It can be sweet though, incomplete though
And the frames will freeze
See me on all four's
It's been a long time
She comes
She comes
I want to x you
She comes
I want to x you
She comes
I caught your radio waves
I caught your radio waves
Will you take a string
Say you string me along
Say you string me along
Say inertia creeps
Inertia creeps and she comes
Say she comes
06 Dissolved Girl (06:06)
Shame, such a shame
I think I kind of lost myself again
Day, yesterday
Really should be leaving but I stay
Say, say my name
I need a little love to ease the pain
I need a little love to ease the pain
It's easy to remember when it came
'Cause it feels like I've been
I've been here before
You are not my savior
But I still don't go
Feels like something
That I've done before
I could fake it
But I still want more
Fade, made to fade
Passion's overrated anyway
Say, say my name
I need a little love to ease the pain
I need a little love to ease the pain
It's easy to remember when it came
'Cause it feels like I've been
I've been here before
You are not my savior
But I still don't go, oh
I feel live something
That I've done before
I could fake it
But I still want more, oh.
07 Man Next Door (05:56)
There is a man that live next door
In my neighborhood
In my neighborhood
And he gets me down...
He gets in so late at night
Always a fuss and fight
Always a fuss and fight
All through the night
I've got to get away from here
This is not a place for me to stay
I've got to take my family
We'll find a quiet place
Hear the pots and pans they fall
Bang against my wall
Bang against my wall
No rest at all
He gets in so late at night
Always a fuss and fight
Always a fuss and fight
All through the night
I've got to get away from here
This is not a place for me to stay
I've got to take my family
We'll find a quiet place
There is a man that live next door
In my neighborhood
In my neighborhood
And he gets me down...
He gets in so late at night
Always a fuss and fight
Always a fuss and fight
All through the night
got to get away
08 Black Milk (06:21)
You're not my eater
I'm not your food
Love you for God
Love you for the Mother
Eat me
In the space
Within my heart
Love you for God
Love you for the Mother
Mother fountain
Or live or not at all
The most level
Sunken chapel
Love you for God
Love you for the Mother
All's there to love
Only love
09 Mezzanine (05:56)
I'm a little curious of you in crowded scenes
And how serene your friends and fiends
We flew and strolled as two eliminated gently
Why don't you close your eyes and reinvent me
You knew you had a heart made of stone
You should have let me know
You could have let me know
We'll go 'till morning comes
And traffic grows
And windows hum
Spending all week with your friends
Give me evenings and weekends
Evenings and weekends
I could be yours
We can unwind
All these other flaws (x2)
You'd agree it's a typical high
You fly as you watch your name go by
And once the name goes by
Not thicker than water nor thicker than mud
And the eight k thuds it does
Sunset so quickly
Let's make it quiet and quickly
Don't frown
Taste better on the way back down
I could be yours
We can unwind
All these other flaws (x3)
Will lead to mine
We can unwind
All these other flaws (x2)
Will see to
All these other flaws
Will lead to mine
We can unwind all our flaws (x2)
10 Group Four (08:12)
A flask I drink of sober tea
While relay cameras monitor me
And the buzz surrounds it does
Buzz surrounds
Buzz surrounds
Closed eyed sky wide open
Unlimited girl unlimited sigh
Elsewhere
Indefinitely
Far away
Magnifies and deepens
Ready to sing
My sixth sense peacefully placed on my breath
And listening
Keeps me from my hurt
My ears know that my eyes are closed
Perish thoughs like contraband
I train myself in martial arts
As advertised
I reinforce my softened parts
As advertised
See through me little glazed lane
A world in myself
Ready to sing
My sixth sense peacefully placed on my breath
Flickering I roam
And listening
My ears know that my eyes are closed
Ready to sing
My sixth sense peacefully placed on my breath
Flickering I roam
And listening
My ears know that my eyes are closed
I see to bolts
Put keys to locks
No boat are rocked
I'm free to roam
On dummy screens
And magazines
Closed eyed sky wide open
Unlimited girl unlimited sigh
To think that I lay next to you
Wasting time when I could do
A simple job in strip lights
A flask I drink a sober tea
'Till daylight sends me home
Flickering I roam
Daydreaming admiring being
Quietly, open the world
I hear the time of the starry sky
Turning over at midnight
Seen through me little glazed lane
A world in myself
Daydreaming admiring being
Quietly, open the world
I hear the time of the starry sky
Turning over at midnight
11 (Exchange) (04:12)
(Vowles, Del naja, Marshall, Hinds, Hilliard, Garson)
Horace Andy
Yeah yeah yeah ah
You see a man's face
But you don't see his heart
You see a man's face
But you will never know his thoughts
Everywhere you go
There's a man to say love
Never neither never neither
Take it to heart
For your heart is your heart
And your thoughts is your thoughts
Never mix love with hatred
You see a man's face
You will never see his heart
You see a man's face
But you will never know his thoughts
You see a man's face
You will never know his thoughts
You see a man's face
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Other reviews
By Cleo
"Elisabeth Fraser, who brings brilliance to this album, one of the queens of '80s Dream-Pop."
"It’s to be listened to (after having hit repeat) from beginning to end, in the dim light, before slipping into sleep."
By Gemma
These sounds were absorbed, slowly but inexorably, becoming part of the deepest fibers of the soul.
Every single song on the album is a little gem to discover.
By DeLiam
The first electronic love is never forgotten.
‘Mezzanine’ is one of the darkest songs ever, the perfect title track for this album.
