Chapter Thirteen

Sounds of Paranoia

11 records, in the order the book names them

• 001

  Pump Up The Volume

  M/A/R/R/S

  Some of these early collage-based ‘DJ records’ – M/A/R/R/S’s ‘Pump Up The Volume’, Coldcut’s ‘Beats and Pieces’, Bomb The Bass’ ‘Beat Dis’ – were sufficiently uptempo to get swept up into the burgeoning house scene.

  4AD; 4th & Broadway
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 002

  Beat Dis

  Bomb The Bass

  Some of these early collage-based ‘DJ records’ – M/A/R/R/S’s ‘Pump Up The Volume’, Coldcut’s ‘Beats and Pieces’, Bomb The Bass’ ‘Beat Dis’ – were sufficiently uptempo to get swept up into the burgeoning house scene.

  Rhythm King
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 003

  Blue Lines

  Massive Attack

  Members included Nellee Hooper (who later brought a Bristol-ian jazzy fluency to his production work for Soul II Soul, Neneh Cherry and Bjork) and Daddy G and Mushroom, who went on to form Massive Attack with rapper 3D. Tricky contributed raps to both Massive albums, while Portishead’s soundscape-creator Geoff Barrow assisted with the programming on Massive’s 1991 debut Blue Lines.

  Wild Bunch/Circa
  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 004

  One Love

  The Stone Roses

  But Massive Attack’s real originality lay in more tranquil tracks like ‘One Love’, with its mesmerizing clockwork rhythm and jazzy, electric piano pulsations.

  all Silvertone
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 005

  Protection

  Massive Attack

  The title track of Protection and the album’s downtempo despondency reiterated the basic Massive Attack anti-stance: the longing for refuge and sanctuary from external chaos, music as healing force and balm for the troubled soul.

  Circa
  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 006

  Dummy

  Portishead

  Throughout Portishead’s debut Dummy, singer Beth Gibbons sounds like she’s buried alive in the blues.

  Go Beat
  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 007

  Endtroducing

  DJ Shadow

  With the release of his 1996 debut Endtroducing, Shadow was garlanded with acclaim by American rock critics.

  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 008

  Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

  Wu-Tang Clan

  The Clan’s 1993 debut album Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) begins with a sample from a martial arts movie about ‘Shaolin shadow-boxing and the Wu-Tang sword’.

  Loud/RCA
  album Open ↗ YouTube
• 009

  Warrior

  Dillinja

  There’s a palpable aura of the demonic pervading both Maxinquaye and darkest drum and bass tracks like Dillinja’s ‘Warrior’ and ‘The Angels Fell’: a clammy-palmed apprehension that we’re living through Armagideon Time, Babylon’s last days.

  both Logic
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 010

  The Angels Fell

  Dillinja

  There’s a palpable aura of the demonic pervading both Maxinquaye and darkest drum and bass tracks like Dillinja’s ‘Warrior’ and ‘The Angels Fell’: a clammy-palmed apprehension that we’re living through Armagideon Time, Babylon’s last days.

  Metalheadz
  track Open ↗ YouTube
• 011

  Maxinquaye

  Tricky

  I prefer the first version because it makes ‘Maxinquaye’ into a sort of place name: the lost Motherland.

  both 4th & Broadway
  album Open ↗ YouTube