Tricky
Knowle West Boy

THE BOY FROM THE GHETTO

Time does not exist, time is an invention, romantic, the road is not marked, nostalgia is the master, the soul is free, it floats, demands, and in the end, conquers what is most akin to it, poetry.

"Knowle west boy" was recorded more than a year ago in London, but it had to travel, return, to Los Angeles to be completely rewritten, until the boy from the ghetto was satisfied.

Knowle West is the place where he was born (Bristol - England), Knowle West is the ghetto, the place where Tricky knew racism, being of mixed race, unable to see the colors of the skin, raised poor, but more like a white boy than a boy of color.

The 2008 marks the year of return, the '90s are back, Trip-Hop returns, and Tricky returns too, with a song form, less claustrophobic than in the past, looking towards his idols, the Specials and Blondie whom he loved as a boy, after 5 years since his last album, the prodigy boy returns.

K.W.B. is his childhood dream, it is the channeled rage blended with the satisfaction gained from his successes, K.W.B. is his Jamaican origin that merges with his desire to be a true singer, and it is above all a child who sees a huge mountain from the depths of his poverty yet manages to look up high.

K.W.B. is a splendid album, that reflects light and emotions, digs to the bottom, finds the roots and reconnects them with all personal experiences, an autobiographical album where thoughts become powerful music at the center of various cultures, certainly on par with his best, the debut of "Maxinquaye" of '95.

Each track has its own personal identity, The glamour-rock of "C'mon baby", the languid blues of the opening "Puppy toy", the dark ballad of "Past mistake", black as pitch, wonderful as a night of love, erotic, the exotic visionary "Cross to bear", the lascivious guitars of "Slow", the storytelling from personal experience, a girl pregnant at just 16 years "School gates", dark atmospheres and Tricky takes on the guise of Johnny Cash who takes the Clannad by the hand.

Tricky is back, the Portishead are back, we await Massive Attack, I don't know if Trip-Hop has returned, the '90s are a step away, we can touch them or maybe they never left, the Bristol sound is more alive than ever, and K.W.B. will give this summer a different color as if it were a Basquiat painting.

"I am sure this album would not have been so exciting if I hadn't lived those anonymous years, waiting in line to get into a club like everyone else" Tricky

A hope