The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project

MyWifeHatesTrain said:
7/9/24
View attachment 207959
Dr. John, the Night Tripper - Gris-Gris



www.allmusic.com

Gris-Gris - Dr. John | Album | AllMusic

Gris-Gris by Dr. John released in 1968. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
www.allmusic.com www.allmusic.com
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This one sent me to ye olde hard drive to retrieve a run-in I had with Mac Rebennack back in 2013. The trombone player here is the good Dr.'s daughter.

Witchy Red > Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya...



Admit it - that was the best wah wah trombone solo ever.


Right Place Wrong Time...

 
So it’s evidently considered a Trip Hop classic. I was unfamiliar. It plays like a survey of electronica circa 1997. There are tracks that evoke The Orb and tracks that resemble Big Beat stylings. Guy went to NY when he was 17 and made a bunch of field recordings which he uses as jumping off points for the music. He went on to make a bunch of soundtracks. It’s like a dubby down tempo Fatboy Slim record.
 
MyWifeHatesTrain said:
So it’s evidently considered a Trip Hop classic. I was unfamiliar. It plays like a survey of electronica circa 1997. There are tracks that evoke The Orb and tracks that resemble Big Beat stylings. Guy went to NY when he was 17 and made a bunch of field recordings which he uses as jumping off points for the music. He went on to make a bunch of soundtracks. It’s like a dubby down tempo Fatboy Slim record.
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All Music gave it a whopping 3 stars.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
All Music gave it a whopping 3 stars.
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It’s a case where the review reads better lol.

RS gave it three stars too and that review reads like a 1 star review. Their review goes off the rails and starts talking about how a Dr Premiere mixtape album does a better job of catching the spirit of NYC. Which seems like a weird critique of an album inspired by NYC, but whatevs.

I enjoyed it.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
It’s not bad, but also not earth shattering. My wife calls it hip restaurant music.

Definitely more on the poppy end of the trip-hop / illbient spectrum. You won’t confuse it with Massive Attack or Portishead
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Looking over trip hop albums lists, I often wonder how often albums (like this) that are hard to pin down to a genre get labeled as Trip Hop. Like I get why endtroducing ends up on these lists, but it is pure hip hop through and through and more an influence on Trip Hop than an actual Trip Hop album.
 
MyWifeHatesTrain said:
Looking over trip hop albums lists, I often wonder how often albums (like this) that are hard to pin down to a genre get labeled as Trip Hop. Like I get why endtroducing ends up on these lists, but it is pure hip hop through and through and more an influence on Trip Hop than an actual Trip Hop album.
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Fully agree. Trip-hop can be a big MISC category.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
Fully agree. Trip-hop can be a big MISC category.
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Electronic music was one of the tough genres from me to wrap my head around when I was first getting into music. Rock, Jazz, Pop, Country, etc. were all varied but I would get the gist but Electronic seemed too varied to make much sense. Like MTV was pushing Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk and Portishead and Electric music but when I would tag along with my raver friends to a party this was completely different from the house music that would play there. Electronic music as a genre almost feels like a “catch all” for band with electronic elements but that doesn’t fit neatly with another genre.
 
dbarila said:
I don't think I've ever heard 2 Trip Hop bands that sound even close to the same.
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I can draw lines from Massive Attack to Portishead to morcheeba though. There are a few songs here that connect, but some of this is ambient, some is big beat, some is straight up Techno. There was even one piece that edged on house. It’s fine to have elements of other things going on but this is a little too eclectic and it’s not like he is using those other sounds to supplement a broader Trip Hop sound. It plays like a Mixmag sampler from 97. He seems like an all arounder not a specialist. I actually bet when he DJed back in the day it was a lot of fun because it wasn’t just the one thing (which is what is great about a Chrmical brothers DJ set)
 
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