Pre-Millennium Tension

By the time Adrian Thaws began working on his second album as Tricky, the languid electronic soul of his debut, <i>Maxinquaye</i>, was being polished by other artists into something even more palatable at dinner parties. Eager to shake the “trip-hop” tag, Tricky made his own music increasingly unsettling: “Can hardly breathe”, he utters in a smoke-damaged drawl against backward guitars and rumbling beats on “Vent”, heralding a murky, claustrophobic and fractious 45 minutes. His fusion of rap, punk, dub and, on “Piano”, the sound of a respirator, is as hypnotic (“Christiansands”) as it is abrasive (“My Evil Is Strong”)—and consistently inventive. <i>Pre-Millennium Tension</i> restated the possibilities for British hip-hop, its influence creeping as far and wide as Burial and Radiohead.