Portishead
Dummy
Blue Lines
Massive Attack

Electronic » Downtempo » Trip-Hop

Yet another in a long line of plastic placeholders to attach itself to one arm or another of the U.K. post-acid house dance scene's rapidly mutating experimental underground, Trip-Hop was coined by the English music press in an attempt to characterize a new style of downtempo, jazz-, funk-, and soul-inflected experimental breakbeat music which began to emerge around in 1993 in association with labels such as Mo'Wax, Ninja Tune, Cup of Tea, and Wall of Sound. Similar to (though largely vocal-less) American hip-hop in its use of sampled drum breaks, typically more experimental, and infused with a high index of ambient-leaning and apparently psychotropic atmospherics (hence "trip"), the term quickly caught on to describe everything from Portishead and Tricky, to DJ Shadow and U.N.K.L.E., to Coldcut, Wagon Christ, and Depth Charge -- much to the chagrin of many of these musicians, who saw their music largely as an extension of hip-hop proper, not a gimmicky offshoot. One of the first commercially significant hybrids of dance-based listening music to crossover to a more mainstream audience, trip-hop full-length releases routinely topped indie charts in the U.K. and, in artists such as Shadow, Tricky, Morcheeba, the Sneaker Pimps, and Massive Attack, account for a substantial portion of the first wave of "electronica" acts to reach Stateside audiences.

Trip-Hop Artists Highlights

Portishead
Portishead
Massive Attack
Massive Attack
Tricky
Tricky
DJ Shadow
DJ Shadow
The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers
Olive
Olive

More Trip-Hop Artists

Trip-Hop Album Highlights

Dummy
Portishead
Dummy
Blue Lines
Massive Attack
Blue Lines
Endtroducing.....
DJ Shadow
Endtroducing.....
Maxinquaye
Tricky
Maxinquaye
Becoming X
Sneaker Pimps
Becoming X
Extra Virgin
Olive
Extra Virgin

More Trip-Hop Albums

Trip-Hop Song Highlights

Title/Composer Performer Stream
Sour Times Portishead
Protection Massive Attack
Ponderosa Tricky
Human Behaviour Björk
6 Underground Sneaker Pimps
You're Not Alone Olive
Glory Box Portishead
What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 4 DJ Shadow
Spin Spin Sugar Sneaker Pimps
Wandering Star Portishead

More Trip-Hop Songs

Other Styles in Downtempo