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Maxinquaye

I moved to Bristol for the first time in May '94, with my seventeen-month stay there happening to coincide with the releases of Dummy by Portishead; Protection by Massive Attack; and Tricky's Maxinquaye. Just being a hard-up office drone with no connection to whatever remained of the scene that had given rise to these talents, there was, from my standpoint, scant visible evidence of the city's new status as epicentre of trip-hop. I learned about these albums the same way most people did: via national radio and through the music press. 

With Portishead, it was love at first acquaintance; whereas I was slower on the uptake with Tricky: only after I'd heard 'Aftermath' and 'Ponderosa' several times apiece on the radio did they sink their hooks into me. Now I'd rate Maxinquaye as the best of those three albums - I think it carries its twenty-seven years remarkably lightly. Those first two songs I got to know from it, together with 'Overcome', remain my favourites to this day, but there are many other treasures within. It's an album whose distinctive sound-world always seemed sub-marine to me, as if one were hearing it through water.

I bought it on cassette at some point in '95 before leaving Bristol. I don't recall when or where I acquired the CD copy I have now.

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