Tricky Presents Brown Punk
Thursday, 10 Apr 2008 11:53
Tricky presents his brand new label Brown Punk
Brown Punk, out now.
In a nutshell…
Eclectic, hit and miss, experimental, flawed, interesting.
What's it all about?
A 15-track walk through a record label that builds on the ethos of legendary Manchester music label Factory Records. Here, as they did under Factory's Tony Wilson, the artists are "free to f**k off".
Using the industry weight of the label's head, Tricky Presents offers a handful of the bands in the Brown Punk family the chance to carve out their own place in the music industry.
Part of a double release alongside a documentary-style movie - the imaginatively titled Brown Punk: The Movie - the CD also acts as a soundtrack to Tricky's directorial debut, which spins a (hopefully) fictional yarn about the establishment of the Brown Punk project.
Who's it by?
With a string of albums under his belt and a host of collaborations ranging from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Chesney Hawkes (yes, you read that right), Tricky is more than qualified to spot new talent.
However, the Brown Punk project sees Tricky hand over the reins to artists he himself believes have the talent and drive to succeed. But will a taste for the diverse and an idealistic attitude towards the future of the record industry be enough?
As an example…
"I try to look strong/try to look cool/when my bluff is gone god knows that I will surely play the fool/and play the hero again/play the hero again." Joseph Macwan - Hero
"I came around/became the clown around your town/now I'm going down." - Gospel featuring Kyra - Skating My Pool
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
The tricky (sorry) thing about this compilation as a single unit is it is such as a mixed bag.
As opposed to critical or industry praise, it is perhaps more likely that the best that can be hoped for here is that some of the bands featured here go on to achieve at least half the success of their mentor - with those that don't make the grade going quietly back to their day jobs.
What the others say
"Throwing some... um, dirty garage-rock sounds your way, here come the Dirty. Discordant, catchy and 83 sleaze infested, gutter-crawling seconds long. Lovely" - Kerrang reviews the Dirty's Why I Think Its Love.
"Laid Blak has been brought up on Marley, roots, carnival music and soundsystem culture. They mash it all up and what comes out makes hips move and spines tingle," - feature for itzcaribbean.com, November 2007.
So is it any good?
If this 15-track sampler is anything to go by, Brown Punk has assembled an interesting ensemble of conspirators that, although unlikely to bring the industry to its knees, certainly have a few great tunes in their canon.
A reworking of the concept of Dolly Parton's Jolene set to a House of the Rising Sun sample in Alex Mills' Suzanne is inspired and other such beauty can be gleaned from Gospel featuring Kyra's Skating My Pool, to name but two of the great songs on offer.
Unfortunately, when things go bad they go very bad. Face's 8 Millimetre is a boring onslaught of threats in which the protagonist wastes four minutes of your life with what sounds like a caffeinated monologue from the back pages of Guns & Ammo.
As for the movie, using the label's talent to 'act' their way through a fantasy gangster feature was entirely misguided and serves only as an exercise in self-indulgence. Nowhere is this more glaring than in the film's cliched 'tortured rock star' subplot and a 'shock' scene halfway through the film that has absolutely no right to be there.
Meanwhile - back on the CD - the bedtime reggae melody of Radigan's The Truth and the eerie ska rock of Joseph Macwan's Hero return to save the day and put the project back on track. 1st Blood's Connecting People offers a stylishly warped blend of beats and rhymes, while Laid Blak's Burnin' delivers a fat slice of ragga-pop genius.
Bringing proceedings to a close is Maxfield's Wasting - a smooth reminder of Bristol's reign as the epicentre of the UK music scene - before Tricky himself brings down the curtain with his own dark operetta.
Overall, we could do without the film and personally, I would rather cut off my own ears than hear another track from the Dirty. But if some of the artists here break through and have a successful career, the world will indeed be a better place.
8/10
Noel Mellor
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