The Parallax View

Last Sunday, I was lucky enough to catch Massive Attack on their Mezzanine XXI tour, which marks the 21st anniversary of the group's monumental third album.

The man, the myth, the legend: Adam Ant was the reason I got into music in the first place. You've heard that one before? Well, hear it again.

The focus here is reggae, specifically its routes into dub, dancehall and trip hop as the decade unwinds toward the nineties and beyond.

1997 was without a doubt my favorite year in memory, and its music more than lived up to the times, remaining potent today over twenty years on.

The song creeps onto the dancefloor, slow-motion beats twist and turn as the refrain gets chanted over and over, a sick sax loop slithers across booming 808s...

This time of year — when late autumn begins giving way to the dawning chill of winter — often takes me back to the year 2001, a swirling vortex of electronic jazz and machine soul.

Now we venture beyond the cozy climes of Laurel Canyon and assorted outposts into the realm of the metaphysical, the music that lies at the fringes of canyon proper.

This music is like Detroit — a complete mistake. It's like George Clinton and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator. The subject turns to techno, house and other things...

The legacy of Andrew Weatherall looms large over dance music's history. What follows is a semi-historical narrative woven around 30 of his records.

Where I'm coming from, it simply does not get much better than Tricky: he's something like David Bowie, Rakim and Howlin' Wolf all rolled into one.