Big Up the Bristol Massive

Meaningless musical labels generally irk me somewhat, and the label "trip-hop" is one which has always irritated me more than most. Beginning in the early 1990's the label purports to summarise the British take on US hip-hop, characterised by down-tempo beats, and including elements of dance and electronica, dub and breakbeats, and associated most heavily with the Mo'Wax stable. Godfathers of trip-hop are generally regarded to be Massive Attack, the Bristol DJ and soundsystem collective whose seminal 1991 album Blue Lines is often seen as the year zero for the genre it spawned. But to reduce the album to such an irksome label is to do it a massive injustice, for Blue Lines is simply one of the greatest albums of all time. It is hip-hop pure and simple, not trip-hop, and hip-hop simply done in an original and fresh way, but with a distinct UK twist.

The most famous track is of course the immense Unfinished Sympathy, but start to finish it is just a great piece of work and influential beyond recognition. Certainly it reaches far beyond other well regarded so-called trip-hoppers such as Portishead, one-time member Tricky, DJ Shadow and Coldcut. It regularly features in the higher reaches of critical lists of the greatest UK albums of all time, and is a must for all music fans, not least of all as a reintroduction point to the sweet-voiced genius of reggae legend Horace Andy and a reminder of how good Tricky might have been had he not succumbed to the more paranoid and dark elements of his musical output.Always a joy to hear, if you don't know it yet, let me tell you, you are sleeping on a classic.