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Underground > Radio & Music >

Tricky - the slow-burning appreciation of, and hopefully a discussion of similar "slow-burning" artists.

09:55 / 08.10.05

I like Tricky. He as a musician is one of those people that falls into a catagory headed 'I like him, not sure why, but I do'. However, whenever I have bought one of his albums I have found myself having one quick listen and then putting it to one side, not returning to it for a few years, and then finding that I think that it is brilliant. Does this make him 'before his time' forward thinking and challenging as a musician, or does it just mean that I am fullfilling some collector/consumerist established pattern?

Take for example his last album, Vunerable (released 2003). It's an amazingly beautiful album, in particular the track Hollow, a wonderfully sad song, seemingly, like so many of his songs, about consuming and damaging love, it is fast becoming one of my favourite songs of the year, and yet, it was released two years ago.

So, firstly, does anyone else like Tricky? Does anyone else experience a similar attitude to his work? Is there anyone that you find yourself following, but letting their work simmer away ready to be listened to and appreciated at a later date?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

12:27 / 08.10.05

With the exception of Maxinquaye (and with the qulaifier that I've missed some) I get this from Tricky, too. I've often wondered how much of an annoyance that must be, commercially- some of my favourite albums have been real slow-burners, and had I been reviewing them I obviously wouldn't know this because it wouldn't have happened yet. Therefore I wonder how often influential critics look back at their stuff and go "oh shit, I really underrated that one. THAT's why nobody bought it and the artist's now living in a Wotsits box under Waterloo Bridge. It's a fucking great album, though".

In a similar musical sphere, the second Portishead album took a while. I always like it, but it seemed a bit unengaging. Now it sounds ace.

Keith, like a scientist

17:00 / 08.10.05

Tremendous fan of Maxinquaye. A practically perfect album (with perhaps the exception of 'Strugglin').

Nearly God is also a huge favorite of mine. 'Black Coffee,' 'I Be The Prophet,' and especially 'Poems' seem to be the purest representation of Tricky as a songwriter. Dark, desperate and intimate.

Other Tricky efforts have not quite reached that high for me. I adore parts of Millennium Tension, but don't consider it a favorite album.

Everything after that has left me a little ambivalent, I have to admit. I still own Angels With Dirty Faces because I remember liking it a lot.

Massive Attack...have fallen off a bit. I still cannot get a handle on either the Danny The Dog soundtrack nor the 100th Window album. It's too bad, too, because I loved the direction they were headed with Mezzanine.

And then there is Portishead - Dummy being a life changing event in how I viewed music for sure. Nothing slow burning about them for me, that's for sure.

I'm trying to think of any artists that were slow-burning to me and I'm finding that isn't usually my experience with music. It's usually either immediate love or ambivalence.

Certainly an interesting discussion point, though.

00:43 / 09.10.05

I believe I have these old recordings buried somewhere in my archives.

Rollo Kim, on location

16:14 / 09.10.05

Tricky is almost 'effortlessly cool' in my book. Haven't really listened to the more recent stuff but Max and the first Portishead album were the perfect soundtrack to my final months as a student... around about ten flippin years ago!

And I love the way that Massive have become a kind of monochrome, hollowed-out and muted version of PiL...