[aj] Vibe Review of AWDF
Michael Aregood (cabuay@philonline.com)
Sat, 09 May 1998 13:56:53 +0800
>Tricky 'Angels With Dirty Faces'
>
>Since the release of his third album, Pre-Millenium [sic] Tension, in 1996,
>Tricky's seen electronica gain a respectable berth alongside trip hop, the
>genre he largely invented. Now he's distancing himself from his music
>bedfellows by evolving even further. Tricky's latest, Angels With Dirty
>Faces, is a flat-out blues album that, with a sound as modern as the most
>advanced hip hop succeeds in consolidating his position as a music
>maverick. Opening the album with "Mellow," Tricky runs through his
>cauldron of voodoo voices while a stuttering blues guitar defines the
>groove. Tricky's slithery rapping has grown increasingly menacing yet less
>paranoid, but has also become more slurred. That leaves the mother of his
>child/vocal foil, Martina, as Tricky's most intelligible voice. In the
>context of Tricky's music, Martina's a great vocalist. When the sista
>sings or raps, it's all about enunciation. With her dry, spacey accent,
>she's like Lisa Bonet chanelling Billie Holiday.
>
>Tricky makes you thirsty listening to his parched, raspy voice on "Carriage
>for Two," a hymn to his daughter: "Hey 'T,' I've got me a little black girl
>and this little black girl's beautiful / I try to do what's dutiful / Teach
>her to lead." In counterpoint, Martina lazily riffs key verses and the
>chorus from "God Bless the Child" over jarring machanistic beats. It's a
>family affair of the modern variety. In "Talk to Me," the duo deliver
>their haunted rap incantations over a random drum pattern and a meandering
>bass line, creating woozy smoke rings. Rap as voodoo blues is what Tricky's
>jamming to--linking him in attitude with late jazz legend Miles Davis.
>Brothers of the rasp, it makes you wonder: If Miles had been an MC, would
>he have sounded like this?
>
>On the last trac, "Record Companies," he hocks a well-directed wad of spit
>at the predatory aspects of the record industry. Ranting in his spiteful
>hiss, Tricky taunts: "Now which one of you's gonna be the next niggy / You
>don't have to worry about them / 2Pac holding hands with Biggie." In
>Tricky's heaven, the two great rappers have already made peace, while down
>below the rap game nurtures discord for dollars.
>
>Angels... is Tricky's White album or his Black album, depending on your
>taste in magic. It demonstrates the strengths of traditional songcraft
>("Money Greedy," "The Moment I Feared," "You") yet is supported by brave,
>unorthodox music.
>
>--George Pitts
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