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One of the music world's last provocateurs returns. Tricky, one of the
few remaining trip-hop powerhouses making music since the '90s, offers up
Mixed Race, his ninth studio album, and second following a five year
hiatus between 2003 and 2008. It has the Knowle West native embracing
a number of musical styles, which has become his trademark
over the years, and as always has his suave, sexual, and occasionally
aggravating demeanor coats the music thickly.
The most immediately striking thing about Mixed Race is just how
short it is, completing its 10 song run in under a half hour. There's
still an absence of immediacy to his music, for Tricky primarily relies on
abstract, deeply textured songwriting - squalling synth and
fuzz-flecked guitars both find homes here, but it's just a much
shorter ride than usual. It feels truncated, but the record does get
its ideas out on an elemental level.
Mixed Race's deeper cuts prove
that the now 40 year old artist has a lot left in the tank. As the
title implies, Mixed Race has Tricky pulling sounds out of a broad
number of cultures. It adds up a bouncy bhangra in Hakim, a sparse,
creaky blues jangle in Every Day, a future-funk, Daft Punk referencing
banger in Kingston Logic, and his own anglo-rules trip-hop throughout.
So it's a surprise to how seamless the album turned out - despite
their clashing personalities the collection keeps a downtempo grace
pulsing near its heart, shaving down what would've otherwise been a
rather schizophrenic listen.
Unfortunately there's not a lot of reward to Mixed Race, with
30 minutes and a whole pocketbook full of ideas he could've
pulled out a big centralized anthem to hang the album's legacy
on. Instead we get lead single Murder Weapon, a tinny, lifeless song
that makes the listener reconsider all the
goodwill they've been attributing to the artist. Why Tricky, in a
midst of an album of hooky left-field oddballs, would pick one of the
dullest songs he's ever penned to release to radio is beyond.
Why he would make such a safe and
easily criticized career choice is
mind-boggling; it's not like he doesn't have a reputation to uphold,
and no diehard fan is listening to Tricky for watered down electro -
not when you have slinky acid-jazz (Early Bird) or inter-lapping
string samples (Ghetto Stars) in your arsenal.
But Mixed Race isn't frustrating as an album - for half an hour
it's a surprisingly kaleidoscopic work which shows you glimpses of
musicology the westernized world has pushed out of view. Yes its
weighed down by some empty dancefloor tat, but it's probably the
strongest record work Tricky has put out this decade; definitely much
more of a comeback than Knowle West Boy was.
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