Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons in the early 90s Photo: Mark McNulty/Retna
The start of the 1990s were defined by an explosion of distorted guitars, but just four years later, musicians innovating in other areas started to come to the fore.
It was 1994 when the term “trip hop” became widely used, having first been coined by MixMag’s Andy Pemberton to describe a DJ Shadow track. According to the writer, the psychedelic elements of the song gave it the feeling of going on a trip.
In Bristol, the Wild Bunch sound system, who would go on to become Massive Attack, had pioneered what became known as “the Bristol Sound” in their sets, and in 1991 released Blue Lines, a landmark album.
That same year, Portishead formed, and just three years later delivered their equally definitive debut, Dummy.
Beth Gibbons and Geoff Barrow had met during an Enterprise Allowance course, (a UK govt initiative for unemployed people wanting to start a business), and pretty soon recorded their first song. Shortly after that they met Adrian Utley, who introduced them to instruments like the theremin, and its inherently cinematic sound.
For Dummy, they sampled existing tracks, like Isaac Hayes' "Ike's Rap II", on ‘Glory Box’, but also created their own samples, and pressed them to vinyl for Barrow to scratch.
Listening back to Dummy, it remains a perfect album, synthesizing its creators’ influences into something piercingly unique. Wisely, they only tried the same trick again once, on an equally good self-titled album, then ripped up the rule book for a third outing ten years later.
Every song is flawless, but my pick of the crop is ‘Roads’, achingly sad, but still sporting a crisp backbeat.
Portishead recorded their first ideas in Neneh Cherry’s kitchen (Geoff Barrow had been collaborating with her husband), and it was Cherry who encouraged Massive Attack to record their debut Blue Lines, after working with Robert Del Naja, also known as 3D.
He, along with other members Daddy G, and Mushroom, issued their follow up in 1994, called Protection.
On Protection, Massive Attack reteamed with Nellee Hooper, who they knew from their Wild Bunch days, as producer. Results were more synth-focused, and less sample-based, with the same mix of torch song pop and UK rap. It would end up becoming more commercially successful than their debut.
Tracy Thorn (from Everything But the Girl) and Nicolette Suwoton stepped in for a departed Shara Nelson, and were joined by a returning Horace Andy, who lends his vocal to the sublime dub workout ‘Spying Glass’.
Tricky was no longer a permanent member of Massive Attack, but he did appear on a few tracks, including ‘Karmacoma’. He would go on to release his own monumental trip hop album Maxinquaye the following year.
Protection probably shouldn’t include its final track, a live cover of The Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’ which feels like it’s just there to bump up the run time. The album isn’t as substantial as Blue Lines, or its gloomy, guitar-coloured follow up Mezzanine, which would become their best-selling album. But it’s still easily one of 1994’s best albums, with some of the group’s greatest songs.
