{
  "slug": "trip-hop",
  "name": "Trip-Hop",
  "aliases": [
    "trip hop",
    "bristol sound",
    "downtempo"
  ],
  "description": "Slowed hip-hop breaks, dub bass and film-score melancholy, made largely in Bristol in the early nineties. Nobody who made it liked the name, and all of them made records nothing else sounds like.",
  "origin": {
    "place": "Bristol, England",
    "year": 1991
  },
  "lineage": [
    {
      "genre": "golden-age-hip-hop",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/golden-age-hip-hop/",
      "inherited": "The method, slowed. Bristol took the loop-and-verdict grammar off New York records — a break held long enough to become the song — and dropped it forty BPM into something nobody could dance to."
    },
    {
      "genre": "ambient",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/ambient/",
      "inherited": "What the breaks sit in. The space around a Massive Attack record is Eno's rather than hip-hop's: a mix built as weather instead of as a stack of parts, which is why the genre sounds like a room."
    },
    {
      "genre": "dub",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/dub/",
      "inherited": "The mix. Bristol's sound-system inheritance is why these records are built from the bass upward, why the reverb is a location rather than an effect, and why the vocal is allowed to disappear for a bar and come back."
    }
  ],
  "bpm": {
    "min": 80,
    "max": 100
  },
  "updated": "2026-08-28",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/trip-hop/",
  "trackCount": 12,
  "curatedBy": [],
  "playlists": {},
  "tracks": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "trackKey": "massive-attack--unfinished-sympathy",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/massive-attack--unfinished-sympathy/",
      "title": "Unfinished Sympathy",
      "artist": "Massive Attack",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/massive-attack/",
      "year": 1991,
      "label": "Wild Bunch / Circa",
      "isrc": "GBAAA9100034",
      "whyItMatters": "A full string section over a hip-hop break and Shara Nelson singing for her life. Routinely named one of the best singles ever made, and the claim is not obviously wrong.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-a-way-in",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — A Way In",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-a-way-in/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-sounds-like-a-single",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — Sounds Like a Single",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-sounds-like-a-single/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Massive%20Attack%20Unfinished%20Sympathy",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWmrfgj0MZI",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "trackKey": "portishead--glory-box",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/portishead--glory-box/",
      "title": "Glory Box",
      "artist": "Portishead",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/portishead/",
      "year": 1994,
      "label": "Go! Beat",
      "isrc": "GBAQT9400066",
      "whyItMatters": "An Isaac Hayes loop, a guitar that sounds like a broken theremin, and Beth Gibbons delivering the most desolate vocal of the decade. Grim, gorgeous, unrepeatable.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "nineteen-ninety-four",
          "name": "1994",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-ninety-four/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Portishead%20Glory%20Box",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=4qQyUi4zfDs",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "trackKey": "tricky--aftermath",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/tricky--aftermath/",
      "title": "Aftermath",
      "artist": "Tricky",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/tricky/",
      "year": 1994,
      "label": "4th & Broadway",
      "isrc": "GBANY9400112",
      "whyItMatters": "Claustrophobic, mumbled, and structurally barely there. Tricky made records that sound like being told a secret you did not want, and this is the first and best of them.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Tricky%20Aftermath",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=25y3cMC9i94",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "trackKey": "dj-shadow--midnight-in-a-perfect-world",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/dj-shadow--midnight-in-a-perfect-world/",
      "title": "Midnight in a Perfect World",
      "artist": "DJ Shadow",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/dj-shadow/",
      "year": 1996,
      "label": "Mo' Wax",
      "isrc": "GBAQH9600061",
      "whyItMatters": "Assembled entirely from other people's records and somehow completely personal. Shadow proved sampling could be authorship rather than borrowing.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/DJ%20Shadow%20Midnight%20in%20a%20Perfect%20World",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=InFbBlpDTfQ",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "trackKey": "massive-attack--angel",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/massive-attack--angel/",
      "title": "Angel",
      "artist": "Massive Attack",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/massive-attack/",
      "year": 1998,
      "label": "Virgin",
      "isrc": "GBAAA9800327",
      "whyItMatters": "Horace Andy over a bassline that builds for five minutes and then detonates. The moment trip-hop stopped being mellow and started being genuinely frightening.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Massive%20Attack%20Angel",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=hbe3CQamF8k",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "trackKey": "portishead--roads",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/portishead--roads/",
      "title": "Roads",
      "artist": "Portishead",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/portishead/",
      "year": 1994,
      "label": "Go! Beat",
      "isrc": "GBAQT9400064",
      "whyItMatters": "Barely a beat, a Rhodes, and a string arrangement that arrives like a collapse. The quietest track on this list and easily the most emotionally violent.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Portishead%20Roads",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=7nxWP9BhI7w",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 7,
      "trackKey": "unkle-featuring-thom-yorke--rabbit-in-your-headlights",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/unkle-featuring-thom-yorke--rabbit-in-your-headlights/",
      "title": "Rabbit in Your Headlights",
      "artist": "UNKLE featuring Thom Yorke",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/unkle-featuring-thom-yorke/",
      "year": 1998,
      "label": "Mo' Wax",
      "isrc": "GBAQH9800046",
      "whyItMatters": "Six minutes of accumulating dread that resolves into one of the loudest releases in the genre. The Jonathan Glazer video is inseparable from the record.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/UNKLE%20featuring%20Thom%20Yorke%20Rabbit%20in%20Your%20Headlights",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=XbByxzZ-4dI",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 8,
      "trackKey": "sneaker-pimps--6-underground",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/sneaker-pimps--6-underground/",
      "title": "6 Underground",
      "artist": "Sneaker Pimps",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/sneaker-pimps/",
      "year": 1996,
      "label": "Clean Up",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The most straightforwardly seductive record the genre produced, and proof that trip-hop's atmosphere worked just as well attached to an actual pop song.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Sneaker%20Pimps%206%20Underground",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Wuwfe3DRJzE",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 9,
      "trackKey": "massive-attack--teardrop",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/massive-attack--teardrop/",
      "title": "Teardrop",
      "artist": "Massive Attack",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/massive-attack/",
      "year": 1998,
      "label": "Virgin",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A harpsichord, a heartbeat and Elizabeth Fraser singing about grief. The group's third and most fragile masterpiece, and the one that proved the formula was a language rather than a trick.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Massive%20Attack%20Teardrop",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=u7K72X4eo_s",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 10,
      "trackKey": "tricky--hell-is-round-the-corner",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/tricky--hell-is-round-the-corner/",
      "title": "Hell Is Round the Corner",
      "artist": "Tricky",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/tricky/",
      "year": 1995,
      "label": "4th & Broadway",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Built on the same Isaac Hayes loop as Glory Box, released within months of it, and utterly unlike it. The clearest available demonstration that in Bristol the sample was a starting point rather than the idea.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Tricky%20Hell%20Is%20Round%20the%20Corner",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=NUJqsY140Po",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 11,
      "trackKey": "dj-krush--kemuri",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/dj-krush--kemuri/",
      "title": "Kemuri",
      "artist": "DJ Krush",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/dj-krush/",
      "year": 1994,
      "label": "Mo' Wax",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Tokyo's answer, and a reminder that the sound was never only Bristol's. All the space and dread of the English records with a turntablist's attention to the surface of every sample.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/DJ%20Krush%20Kemuri",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=aVjgRlto8PI",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 12,
      "trackKey": "nightmares-on-wax--les-nuits",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/nightmares-on-wax--les-nuits/",
      "title": "Les Nuits",
      "artist": "Nightmares on Wax",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/nightmares-on-wax/",
      "year": 1999,
      "label": "Warp",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The warm end of the genre, from Leeds by way of Ibiza. George Evelyn keeps the slowed break and throws out the dread, which turns out to leave something perfectly durable behind.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "twice-over",
          "name": "Twice Over",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/twice-over/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "warp",
          "name": "Warp",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/warp/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Nightmares%20on%20Wax%20Les%20Nuits",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0FdXIYxLbE",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}