THE last time we caught up with Tricky he was set adrift on memory bliss and bemoaning the fact that he had to put out his "second" album under the Nearly God name because his record company feared saturation of the market or some such nonsense. His real second album, Pre Millennium Tension, has just been released - and just to confuse matters a bit more, the name "Tricky" actually refers to the grouping of Tricky and Martina, as on Maxinquaye and as on this new one. For someone who's been involved with two of the greatest albums of the decade, Blue Lines (with Massive Attack) and Maxinquaye (the overwhelming choice for album of the year last year) Tricky does a very good impression of someone who's trying to drive his career down a cult Tricksy: Tricky shaped cul de sac.
Earlier this year he released the wonderfully un commercial, Nearly God - a collaborative effort that featured Terry Hall and Neneh Cherry among others - and now he's put out a similarly defiant effort that will separate the real fans from the style magazine victims who are looking for the de rigueur aural accompanient to their fondue gatherings (the dreaded Portishead syndrome).
The album was recorded in Jamaica and was initially going to be less processed. "It was just me and Martina and some live musicians," says Tricky, "I was going to do a live album but I just didn't like the sound the live instruments made, so we resampled them and made it second generation - I don't like natural sounds very much".
Opening up with Vent, a sort of industrial grind affair, the album skips through ruminations on religion, as on Ckristiansands; Tricky dealing with his old and new self on Tricky Kid with Martina throwing in some spooky vocals on Makes Me Wanna Die. The question is, as always, is it hip hop, trip hop, Tricky hop or what?
"I'm more hip hop than trip hop," he says, "but the media don't want to support hip hop, the assumption being that you can't be doing well and come from hip hop, you have to be a bad boy or something. It's like, some people have been trying to get over for years, like Tribe Called Quest and they do get over to a certain extent but not where they should be really, they should be selling 12 million records with the music they make - but hip hop's not supposed to do that. I've read things like Tricky is years ahead of his hip hop comrades; but if it wasn't for people like Public Enemy and DJ Premier, I wouldn't even be here".
Three footnotes: 1. Despite his pre eminent status, Tricky is the least played contemporary act on all radio stations. 2. The person who plays violin and piano on this album and credited as Pat McManus" is rumoured to be Elvis Costello. 3. Tricky's bass player is ex Boomtown Rat, Pete Briquette.
THANKS to some "gosh, that's good" ravings from the British press and counting John Peel as one of their fans (he used one of their songs in some telly documentary he was doing) Mexican Pets are close to the big breakthrough they've always been threatening to make. The new album, Hum bucker is out early next year and there's a gig in Whelans tomorrow night (8 p.m.) ... Good stuff at The Olympia all weekend: Guitar pop done the right way, courtesy of Revelino is available tonight while tomorrow, Paul Woodfull puts his new post modern creation on display. They're called Abbaesque and we heartily recommend them... Coming up:
Skunk Anansie at the SFX tomorrow night, Dodgy at the same venue on December 7th and you really want to book soon for Shane McGowan at the Olympia on December 20th and 21st...
Coming up next week: Whatever happened to The Sundays?
