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Title: The Birth of Trip Hop!
Review: I got this in 1989 at a Washington, D.C. bookstore when it first came out and found it an incredibly original piece, little suspecting the impact it would have years later. This one album and its follow-up "Vast Haloes," can be considered the earliest definite form of the genre now called trip hop. All the features are here: surreal lyrics, ethereal voicing, unusual arrangements, danceable ethnic rhythms, unexpected turns of musical phrasing. A side project by Steve Kilbey of The Church, he had his then love interest Donnette Thayer do the vocals to songs he composed that he felt were outside his band's range. He would later employ some of these experiments on The Church album "Priest = Aura" in 1992. If you want to see the kernels where My Scarlet Life, Portishead, and even Dead Can Dance started, check this out.
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