# The 12 Best Trip-Hop Tracks of All Time 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:** Bristol, England, 1991 - **Tempo:** 80–100 BPM - **Also known as:** trip hop, bristol sound, downtempo - **Tracks:** 12 - **Updated:** 2026-08-28 - **Canonical page:** https://waxonia.com/genre/trip-hop/ ## The list ### 1. [Massive Attack](https://waxonia.com/artist/massive-attack/) — [Unfinished Sympathy](https://waxonia.com/track/massive-attack--unfinished-sympathy/) *1991 · Wild Bunch / Circa* 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. Also on: [The Waxonia Desk — A Way In](https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-a-way-in/), [The Waxonia Desk — Sounds Like a Single](https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-sounds-like-a-single/), [The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred](https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/). [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Massive%20Attack%20Unfinished%20Sympathy) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWmrfgj0MZI) ### 2. [Portishead](https://waxonia.com/artist/portishead/) — [Glory Box](https://waxonia.com/track/portishead--glory-box/) *1994 · Go! Beat* 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. Also on: [1994](https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-ninety-four/), [The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred](https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/). [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Portishead%20Glory%20Box) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=4qQyUi4zfDs) ### 3. [Tricky](https://waxonia.com/artist/tricky/) — [Aftermath](https://waxonia.com/track/tricky--aftermath/) *1994 · 4th & Broadway* 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. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Tricky%20Aftermath) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=25y3cMC9i94) ### 4. [DJ Shadow](https://waxonia.com/artist/dj-shadow/) — [Midnight in a Perfect World](https://waxonia.com/track/dj-shadow--midnight-in-a-perfect-world/) *1996 · Mo' Wax* Assembled entirely from other people's records and somehow completely personal. Shadow proved sampling could be authorship rather than borrowing. Also on: [The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred](https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/). [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/DJ%20Shadow%20Midnight%20in%20a%20Perfect%20World) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=InFbBlpDTfQ) ### 5. [Massive Attack](https://waxonia.com/artist/massive-attack/) — [Angel](https://waxonia.com/track/massive-attack--angel/) *1998 · Virgin* 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. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Massive%20Attack%20Angel) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=hbe3CQamF8k) ### 6. [Portishead](https://waxonia.com/artist/portishead/) — [Roads](https://waxonia.com/track/portishead--roads/) *1994 · Go! Beat* 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. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Portishead%20Roads) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=7nxWP9BhI7w) ### 7. [UNKLE featuring Thom Yorke](https://waxonia.com/artist/unkle-featuring-thom-yorke/) — [Rabbit in Your Headlights](https://waxonia.com/track/unkle-featuring-thom-yorke--rabbit-in-your-headlights/) *1998 · Mo' Wax* 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. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/UNKLE%20featuring%20Thom%20Yorke%20Rabbit%20in%20Your%20Headlights) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=XbByxzZ-4dI) ### 8. [Sneaker Pimps](https://waxonia.com/artist/sneaker-pimps/) — [6 Underground](https://waxonia.com/track/sneaker-pimps--6-underground/) *1996 · Clean Up* 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. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Sneaker%20Pimps%206%20Underground) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Wuwfe3DRJzE) ### 9. [Massive Attack](https://waxonia.com/artist/massive-attack/) — [Teardrop](https://waxonia.com/track/massive-attack--teardrop/) *1998 · Virgin* 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. Also on: [The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred](https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/). [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Massive%20Attack%20Teardrop) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=u7K72X4eo_s) ### 10. [Tricky](https://waxonia.com/artist/tricky/) — [Hell Is Round the Corner](https://waxonia.com/track/tricky--hell-is-round-the-corner/) *1995 · 4th & Broadway* 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. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Tricky%20Hell%20Is%20Round%20the%20Corner) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=NUJqsY140Po) ### 11. [DJ Krush](https://waxonia.com/artist/dj-krush/) — [Kemuri](https://waxonia.com/track/dj-krush--kemuri/) *1994 · Mo' Wax* 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. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/DJ%20Krush%20Kemuri) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=aVjgRlto8PI) ### 12. [Nightmares on Wax](https://waxonia.com/artist/nightmares-on-wax/) — [Les Nuits](https://waxonia.com/track/nightmares-on-wax--les-nuits/) *1999 · Warp* 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. Also on: [Twice Over](https://waxonia.com/theme/twice-over/), [Warp](https://waxonia.com/theme/warp/). [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Nightmares%20on%20Wax%20Les%20Nuits) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0FdXIYxLbE) --- Hand-curated by Waxonia. We host no audio; all links point to streaming platforms.