1. Music & Society
Trip Hop Bristol Sound 1990s
Chris Baker
www.musicstudentinfo.com
2. Location Bristol
• City
• West coast U.K.
• Key slave port
• Weather rainy
• Large long established African & Caribbean population
• Cheap housing attracts bohemians, students and
immigrant population
• Fertile environment for blending music styles
3. Genre Trip Hop
Background
•Bristol sound
•1990s
•Down tempo electronic music
•Sample Heavy & Moody
•Bands Massive Attack, Moloko, Portishead, Tricky, Björk &
Amon Tobin
•DJ Shadow, Gorillaz, Unkle, Howie B
•Morcheeba from Kent
4. Trip Hop History
• 1990s Bristol, England when American hip hop was taking over
• British DJ’s put a local spin on the international phenomenon
• Added a laid-back beat
• Emphasis on slow and heavy drum beats and a sound drawing
on Jamaican dub music and electronica
5. Trip Hop History cont.
• Massive Attack's first album Blue Lines in 1991, first of
the "Bristol hip hop movement"
• 1994 and '95 peak & rise of Portishead and Tricky
• Portishead's - Beth Gibbons' sullen voice, samples
from the '60s and '70s, sound effects from LP’s giving
distinctive style
• Tricky's style murmuring and low-pitched singing
6. Post Trip Hop
• Divided into sub categories Big Beat and Electro
• Integrated trip hop with Ambient, R&B, Breakbeat, Drum 'n'
Bass, Acid Jazz, New Age, etc
• Vocals expanded beyond melancholy female voices
• No longer limited to the "deep, dark style" eliminating the
original impression of trip hop as "dark and gloomy"
7. Trip Hop Aesthetic
• Jazz samples, from old vinyl records
• Rhodes pianos, saxophones, trumpets & flutes
• Trip Hop differs from hip hop in theme and overall tone, Trip
Hop offers a more aural atmospherics
• Regarded as a nineties update of fusion, trip hop transcends
the hardcore rap styles and lyrics with atmospheric overtones
to create a more mellow tempo
8. Trip Hop Aesthetic cont.
• Production - lo-fi, analogue recording equipment and
instrumentation for ambience
• Portishead record to old tape from real instruments & sample
their recordings, rather than recording their instruments
directly to a track
• Drums through compression
• Later artists take inspiration from world and orchestral
influences, as well as, film scores
• Film soundtracks
9. Trip Hop Summary
• Origins: Hip hop, Dub, Down tempo, House, Breakbeat, Acid
jazz, Reggae, Rock & Psychadelia
• Cultural origins:1990s Bristol, United Kingdom
• Typical instruments: Fender Rhodes, turntables, samplers,
brass, flutes, strings
• Mainstream popularity: High in the underground levels, mainly
Western Europe and North America
• Drug of choice: Cannabis
10. Trip Hop Summary
• Origins: Hip hop, Dub, Down tempo, House, Breakbeat, Acid
jazz, Reggae, Rock & Psychadelia
• Cultural origins:1990s Bristol, United Kingdom
• Typical instruments: Fender Rhodes, turntables, samplers,
brass, flutes, strings
• Mainstream popularity: High in the underground levels, mainly
Western Europe and North America
• Drug of choice: Cannabis
