\u201cCalling it Adrian Thaws is saying you don\u2019t really know me,\u201d says Tricky, explaining the title of his 11th album. \u201cSo many times people have tried to put a finger on me and every album I go to a different place.\u201d It\u2019s typical of one of music\u2019s most unpredictable characters that the first album to bear his birth name is one of his least introspective. Adrian Thaws is a vivid, attention-grabbing set of songs which roam from hip hop to house, jazz to blues, rock to reggae. It was recorded in Tricky\u2019s home studio in London, where he\u2019s living again after almost two decades in New York, Los Angeles and Paris, and features an international crew of collaborators: Francesca Belmonte, Nneka, Mykki Blanco, Bella Gotti, Tirzah, Blue Daisy and Oh Land. It\u2019s designed to be played loud. \u201cI suppose this is my club\/hip hop album,\u201dhe says. \u201cI\u2019ve only heard my music a few times in a club but I grew up in clubs from when I was 14: blues parties, hip hop clubs, a few raves. I’m not known for doing club music but this album has some club tracks on it \u2014 well, what I would consider club music.\u201d Tricky makes complicated music because Adrian Thaws has had a complicated life. Born in 1968, he grew up in an extended family that was both black and white, urban and rural, containing strong women and volatile men. His choice of cover versions is revealing. Janet Kaye\u2019s 1979 lovers rock classic Silly Games reminds him of his childhood in Bristol\u2019s Knowle West district. London Posse\u2019s 1990 track Gangster Chronicle harks back to his musical apprenticeship with the Wild Bunch and Massive Attack under the name Tricky Kid before he launched his solo career with 1995\u2019s startling Maxinquaye.<\/p>\n
Adrian Thaws is Tricky\u2019s second release on his own False Idols label via !K7, hard on the heels of his 2013 album, also called False Idols. One thing that makes Adrian Thaws such a gripping, commanding album is the prominence of Tricky\u2019s own vocals but, as always, he\u2019s brought company. Returning from False Idols is Irish-Italian singer Francesca Belmonte, who sings on Lonnie Listen, Something in the Way, I Had a Dream and new single Nicotine Love. There are new faces too. British grime MC Bella Gotti (formerly known as Nolay) is a dynamically belligerent presence on the two-fisted hip hop tracks Gangster Chronicle and Why Don\u2019t You. \u201cHer style is so aggressive,\u201d says Tricky. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing worse than weak hip hop. If I\u2019m going to do it I want it to be intense.\u201d American MC Mykki Blanco, who joins Francesca on Lonnie Listen\u2019s android hip hop, impressed Tricky when he supported him at a show in Germany. \u201cI saw this dude in a mini-skirt and high heels and he was so aggressive on stage. Some of the crowd were like what the fuck? Imagine a big dude with a woman\u2019s rage \u2014 that\u2019s someone who can do some serious damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
London singer Tirzah, who performs Silly Games and ominous opening track Sun Down with hints of Martina\u2019s deadpan cool, was introduced to Tricky by his daughter Mazy. Danish singer-songwriter Oh Land duets with Tricky on Right Here\u2019s rumbling synth-pop. British electronic musician Blue Daisy, who co-wrote and remixed My Palestine Girl, was another tour bus discovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic is easy,\u201d he says with a husky laugh. \u201cYou\u2019ve just got to be honest with yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n