Tricky

TRICKY – Trip-Hop Wizard Released His Startling Debut Album ‘MAXINQUAYE’ 30 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

Back in time

20 February 2025

Tired of his limited role for Massive Attack, trip-hop wizard TRICKY wanted
do his own thing. It all happened when he met wonderful singer Martina
Topley-Bird whose magnetizing vocals fitted Tricky‘s musical vision perfectly.

The startling debut album MAXINQUAYE came
out 30 years ago today, on 20 February 1995.

Q (British music monthly) said: “A highly inventive and intoxicating collection.
With this debut, Tricky proves himself to be more challenging and eclectic than
his peers”.

SINGLE

ALBUM


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Instagram – All Albums

BIG BLASTS FROM THE PAST – 10 Classic Albums Turning 30 In 2025

Posted on by JL

28 December 2024

Band: OASIS

Album: (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
Their 2nd one. The best-selling
album of the 90s in the UK.

Rolling Stone said: “What’s the Story is more than a natural progression, it’s
a bold leap forward that displays significant musical and personal growth.”

PLAY


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Instagram
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Band: RADIOHEAD

Album: The Bends
Their second LP. It peaked at
#7 in the UK and #88 in the US.

NME wrote: “Radiohead clearly resolved to make an album
so stunning it would make people forget their own name,
never mind ‘Creep’.”

PLAY


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Instagram
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Artist: PJ HARVEY

Album: To Bring You My Love
Her 3rd one. #12 in the UK.

The Independent (British newspaper): “Harvey’s performance makes the record stand out from its peers. A threatening, nightmarish creature. Imagine Siouxsie and the Bad Seeds”

PLAY


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Instagram
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Band: BLACK GRAPE
Featuring 2 Happy Mondays.
Bez and Shaun Ryder.

Album: It’s Great When You’re Straight…
Their debut longplayer. No. 1 in the UK.

VOX (British music monthly): “Black Grape buzz with the
life-affirming, innovative, fuck-you spirit of true rock’n’roll”.

PLAY


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Instagram
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Artist: TRICKY

Album: Maxinquaye
The debut of former
Massive Attack member.

Q (British music monthly): “A highly inventive and intoxicating collection.
With this debut, Tricky proves himself to be more challenging and eclectic
than his peers”.

PlAY


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Instagram
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Band: PULP

Album: Different Class
The 5th one of the Sheffield, led by Jarvis Cocker.
No. 1 in the UK, No. 44 in the USA.

Melody Maker (former British weekly): “Bloody essential. The album’s title
alone announces that Cocker’s broadened his scope, has another axe to grind:
social
antagonism.”

PLAY


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Linktree
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Band: LEFTFIELD

Album: LEFTISM
London-based duo’s
debut LP.

NME said: “There’s a scope and spirit, an energy and a madness to ‘Leftism’ which’ll
make it one of the few dance derived that’ll stay up there, bouncing around in the great
echo chamber of futurity for years.

PLAY


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Instagram
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Band: GARBAGE

Album: Garbage
The Scottish/American team’s 1st one.
No. 1 in the UK, No. 20 in the US.

AllMusic: “Garbage’s self-titled debut has all the trappings of alternative rock, off-kilter arrangements, occasional bursts of noise, a female singer with a thin, airy voice but it
comes off as pop, thanks to the glossy production courtesy of drummer Butch Vig.”

PLAY


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Instagram
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Band: THE SMASHING PUMKINGS

Album: Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness
3rd longplayer, a double one. No. 1 in the US, and the UK.

Time USA said: “The group’s most ambitious and accomplished work yet. One gets the feeling that the band charged ahead on gut instincts; the sheer scope of the album (28 songs) didn’t allow for second-guessing or contrivance.”

PLAY


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Linktree
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Band: THE CHARLATANS

Album: THE CHARLATANS
Their 4th LP. #1 in the UK.

NME wrote: “It feels unequivocally like a statement of intent. With the various
influences, the band was capable of absorbing the sensibility wholesale, while
leaving the incriminating specifics alone.”

PLAY


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Linktree

TRICKY – British Trip-Hop Legend Released An Extensive REINCARNATED Version Of His 1995 Magnum Opus ‘MAXINQUAYE’

Posted on by JL

24 October 2023

British trip-hop artist TRICKY (born Adrian Nicholas Matthews 55 years ago in Bristol) started his solo journey, after a stint with Massive Attack with his 1995 magnum opus MAXINQUAYE.

He just released a re-issue of it featuring multiple remixes. It contains 49 pieces.

Order here.

Press info: ‘Maxinquaye (Reincarnated)’ contains rarities and brand new versions of tracks many of which have not been officially released before. The single-LP contains the original album remastered at Abbey Road Studio. The super deluxe triple-LP set contains six new “Reincarnated” versions of tracks recorded by Tricky in 2022, previously unreleased BBC session tracks recorded with a full live band in the autumn of 1995 as well ‘Black Steel’ performed live at Glastonbury that same year and it concludes with some rough monitor mixes.

Tricky in an interview with NME about the original songs: “I wanted to take them
somewhere else. I’ve had so much love over the years that I have to put some effort into
it, the people deserve that. I’m very grateful for the support I’ve had all these years.”

Single ‘Overcome’
Original version

The album was named after Tricky’s mother, Maxine Quaye. She suffered from epilepsy
and was placed in hospital when Tricky was just 12 months old. His grandmother took
him into her care.


Maxine Quaye
Courtesy of Tricky

Tricky decided to name the reissue an reincarnation. Around the same time
he received a call from a cousin in Tipperary, saying he knew of a box containing
the only known photograph of him and his mother together. That box was found
with their great-grandmother, who lived with family in Colorado. That photo is now
on the cover of ‘Maxinquaye (Reincarnated)’. “It was meant to be”, Tricky said.

REINCARNATED

ORIGINAL


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TRICKY: Instagram – All Albums

SUMMER PARTY PLAYLIST Part 5 – 15 Top Thrills – New & Old

Posted on by JL

21 July 2023

Turn up the heat and feel your heart beat.

It’s PART 5 of Turn Up The Volume‘s yearly hot summer playlists.
A mix of new and old tunes. A mix of adrenalin-infused punk/rock
anthems, dance fireworks, and some moony musings to end the
party when the sun comes up.

TRACK BY TRACK

1. ‘Look Like A Man’ by DECIUS (2022)


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2. ‘Paradox’ 52018 by SEXTILE (2018)


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3. ‘Video Babe’ by ALAN VEGA (1983)


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4. ‘Rage Of Angels’ by MARK STEWART and FRONT 242 (2022)


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5. ‘Murder Weapon’ by TRICKY (2010)


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6. ‘Twitchin’ In The Kitchen’ by WARMDUSCHER


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7. ‘Basta’ by GHOST CAR 52023°
Remixed by Dreamwife

8. ‘Wherever It Takes Us’ by JAMES (2021)
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9. ‘Magic Medicine’ by DEAP VALLY (2021)


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10. ‘Up The Mountain’ by REGINA SPEKTOR (2022)


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11. ‘Therapy Couch’ by FLIGHT ATTENDANT (2023)


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12. ‘bleed’ by ferna (2023)


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13. ‘Vampire Empire’ by BIG THIEF
 (2023)


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14. Goodbye Tonight by SOCIAL STATION


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15. ‘Witness’ by BENJAMIN BOOKER (2017)


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ALL TOGETHER


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See you next week

TUTV: Blog – Facebook – Instagram

TRICKY – Second Album ‘PRE-MILLENIUM TENSION’ Released 25 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Back in time

11 November 2021

Artist: TRICKY (UK)
Born: Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws, 53 years ago

Who: Former Massive Attack member with
a wayward and intriguing vision on trip-hop
Active: Since 1985 / 14 solo LPs so far

Anniversary Album: PRE-MILLENIUM TENSION
Released: 11 November 1996 – 25 years ago today

AllMusic said: “Maxinquaye was an unexpected hit in England, launching a wave
of similar-sounding artists, who incorporated Tricky’s innovations into safer pop
territory. Tricky responded by traveling to Jamaica to record Pre-Millennium Tension,
a nervy, claustrophobic record that thrives in its own paranoia. Pre-Millennium Tension
is as much Tricky reaching back to his hardcore rap roots as it is a sonic exploration. As
such, it stands as a transition record for Tricky, but its overall effect is only slightly less
powerful than Maxinquaye or Nearly God.” Score: 4/5.

Turn Up the Volume: Tricky only walks one musical way,
his own, leading to tantalizing trip-hop tension.

Singles: Bad Dreams / Christiansands

– BAD DREAMS –

– CHRISTIANSANDS –

Stream album on Spotify…

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TRICKY: Facebook

Heartbreaking Masterwork – ‘FALL TO PIECES’ By TRICKY About His Tragic Loss

Posted on by JL

Music fro the laziest day of the week…

13 August 2020

Artist: TRICKY (Bristol)
Album: FALL TO PIECES
Released: 4 September 2020

Info: A spine-tingling reflection of inconsolable pain, heartbreaking sadness and deep
grief following the tragic death of his 24-year-old daughter Mazy Mina Topley-Bird who
took her own life last year after struggling with severe depression, only 24 years old.

Tricky wrote and recorded the LP in his Berlin apartment with (mostly) Polish artist Marta Złakowska as vocalist. She played with Tricky one night a few years ago in Krakow when Tricky found himself without a female singer. The promoter said he knew a local bartender who could do the job. Since then Złakowska tours constantly with the ex-Massive Attack musician.

“It feels like I’m in a world that doesn’t exist, knowing nothing will ever be the same
again. No words or text can really explain — my soul feels empty.” – Tricky

The Standard (English newspaper): A compelling window into an artist’s grief. It’s a grief that blackens the mood of Fall To Pieces, an album of short tracks that often end abruptly, emerging and disappearing like bursts of half-awake anxiety during a night of restless sleep. The lyrics are, for the most part, terse snatches of an inner monologue, open to interpretation, but on occasion wincingly plain: “What a f***ing game/I hate this f***ing pain,” he whispers over an austere piano loop on Hate This Pain. It’s a dour listen but it’s compelling, a window into the mind of an artist trying to work through something incomprehensible.” Score: 4/5

Listen here…


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Facebook

New LP In September – Trip-Hop Expert TRICKY Shares Heartache Track ‘THINKING OF YOU’ Feat. MARTA

Posted on by JL

New sonic impulses…

4 August 2020

Trip-hop expert TRICKY brings us his new LP – his 14th – FALLING TO PIECES
on 4 September. A reflection of sadness and grief following the tragic death of
his 24-year-old daughter Mazy Mina Topley-Bird who took her own life. He wrote
and recorded the LP in his Berlin apartment.

A couple of songs features Danish artist Oh Land, but the greater part was
recorded with Polish singer Marta Złakowska, who played with Tricky one
night a few years ago in Krakow when Tricky found himself without a female
singer. The promoter said he knew a local bartender who could do the job.
Since then Złakowska tours constantly with the ex-Massive Attack musician.

After sharing the first single Fall Please earlier on here’s another piece.
THINKING OF YOU is a heartache reverie with a deep-synth-bass resonance
and Marta‘s vulnerable voice.

Listen here…

Also on Spotify…

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Lead single FALL PLEASE…

TRICKY: Facebook