Tricky has announced details of his ninth studio album, Mixed Race. Despite his recent reconciliation with Massive Attack, the LP boasts a very different set of collaborators, including Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie and Tricky's little brother, Marlon Thaws.
Mixed Race was recorded in Paris, where Tricky now lives, but was strongly influenced by Jamaica, north Africa and the US, according to a press release. The lead single is Murder Weapon (listen here), a cover of the 1992 reggae hit by Echo Lott.
Besides its success in the reggae and dancehall charts, Lott's classic was later remixed and embraced by jungle DJs. Under Tricky's direction, the song retains all of its swagger, undercut with vocals by Franky Riley. Tricky apparently "fell in love" with the song when someone sang it to him at a shop, and he "has been obsessed with it ever since". As with Black Steel, his 1995 reworking of Public Enemy's Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos, Tricky wanted "to hear how it would sound with a female vocalist".
The album also sees contributions by reggae acts Hawkman and Terry Lynn, and Hakim Hamadouche, who plays, er, lute. "Every album is a learning experience and this is concentrated music, there's no dilution," Tricky said. "I'm comfortable in my own skin now, comfortable with being in the light. I'm not just a kid from Knowle West trying to build a future, I have some experience, I can experiment ... and honestly, musically, I can't be touched."
In December, Massive Attack's Daddy G met with Tricky, reportedly mending fences after years of estrangement. "I [asked] Tricky to come on board for this album [Heligoland] and there's talk about him maybe coming on the next [one]," Daddy G told BBC 6 Music. "Things seem like they've healed between us ... It's not that well, but things have changed. Things have softened up."
Tricky will play a handful of UK festivals this summer. Murder Weapon will be released on 30 August, followed by Mixed Race on 27 September.
