ok, i’ve decided it’s time to reclaim the right to use the phrase ‘trip hop’ without fear.
you see, before the term became synonymous with lazy assed beats, generic looped samples and a second rate vocal there was a whole sub-genre of of instrumental hip hop that matched the high expectations of the term.
for a while in the early-mid 90s, bands such as skylab, unkle, major force west, future sound of london etc were on a journey of sonic experimentation with the use of space (inner and outer) as a thematic jump off point, psychedelic overtones in their musical choices, and the sheer scope of imagination fuelled no doubt by ingestion of the necessary recreational drug of the day.
songs, or ideas as traditionally formed songs were not really the point, were stretched out to the max, instrumentation involved the use of treated guitars, hammond organs, sitars and then given remix treatment by fellow travellers like the orb, or andrew weatherall.
then along came portishead and totally killed the party with their soul sucking moods and the unfair tagging of the trip hop genre.
subsequently, due to the huge success of the portishead debut, every studio (home based or otherwise as this was probably one of the first explosions in the home made music as the reliance on a simple sample and drum loop meant it was an easy option for many bedroom bound teens) in the country was full of copyists trying to match the uniqueness of geoff barrow et al.
the result was that the term became watered down, and associated with the glut of made-to-order beats and loops, a lot of which came packaged nicely on such labels as mo’wax, and yes, ninja tune.
within a short space of time, the “instrumental hip hop” genre was dropped off everybodys playlist, and decent records were given the kiss of death if the term ‘trip hop’ was used anywhere in reviews, skylab never recovered from the fallout, unkle went rock (albeit with a widescreen electronic sheen), and fsol disappeared up a mountain and ended up getting lost for a few years, only to reappear quietly as their psychedelic pseudo amorphous androgynous.
of course, now that noel g has given his stamp of approval for this tripped out excess with his sanctioning of the epic 22 minute oasis remix by amorphous androgynous, and the recent head fuck release by dj food, then there is a chance that a revival of the original ideas behind ‘trip hop’ could be just around the corner.
i for one would welcome such a laid back groove to be on the up again as i’m a little tired of the over cooked electro pop shenanigans that have saturated the charts in ’09.
so now i have got that rant out of my system, where do the regular fries fit into all this ?
they were a much more based in the rock side of things, and a band of musicians (yeah yeah, and music industry insiders) who escaped the confines of the rock-n-roll cliches of the late 90s via the use of old analogue synths, phased guitars, funky loops and spaced out atmospherics.
the strokes they were not.
while i totally concur that the weakest aspect of the bands oeuvre were the post happy monday styled vocals, i can’t but help think that for all the hatred thrown in their direction they happened to release a lot of records that took the template of “trip hop” (in its original sense) and apply a verse/chorus/verse approach to the songs. in other words : psychedelic rock with underlying club friendly beats, and i loved them.
often the real aural joys were buried in the drawn out instrumental grooves and with that in mind i have dug out the full 8.5 minute version of new moon, a track that was featured on their debut ep, free the regular fries.
spaced out, loose, funky and still sounding bloody great.
mp3 : regular fries – new moon