La Vie en Noir - 2004 TripHop Retrospective, Pt. 2 (2015 RWRK)

Dark, emotional & complex, at the height of its popularity, beginning in about 1995, TripHop combined a whiff of the rave with the suggestion of smoky club atmospherics. The first BeatConscious retrospectives of this style were compiled in 2004, about a decade after the peak; now, yet another decade down the line, I'm spiffing up those retrospectives & re-releasing them for your listening pleasure.

In the course of the reworking, I found that many iconic releases I have from this period had never been ripped to the hard drive ... perhaps classics like the K&D Sessions and Portishead seemed overplayed to me at the time. What it means today, 20 years after the peak, is that these tunes can be freshly enjoyed by a new generation of listeners & a TripHop Retrospective Vol. 3 will follow.

On this set, you'll hear from Kruder & Dorfmeister, William Orbit, Lamb, Hefner, Beanfield, Noorda (The Dining Rooms) & more talent from the many compilation albums of that fine head-noddin' time.