Bristol underground scene
Encyclopedia
The Bristol underground scene is a term used to describe the culture surrounding trip hop
, drum and bass
, and graffiti art that has existed in Bristol
from the early 1990s to the present.
The city of Bristol in the UK
has spawned various musicians and artists, and is typified by its urban culture. While the city is most associated with a group of artists who emerged during the 1990s, especially the 'Bristol Sound', the city maintains an active and diverse underground urban scene.
The city has been particularly associated with trip hop
. Salon
magazine has said that trip hop was spawned in "the bohemian, multi-ethnic city of Bristol, where restlessly inventive DJs had spent years assembling samples of various sounds that were floating around: groove-heavy acid jazz
, dub reggae, neo-psychedelia, techno
disco music, and the brainy art rap."
The Bristol scene is characterised by a strong relationship between music and art, especially graffiti art. A founder member of the band Massive Attack
, Robert Del Naja
, was originally a graffiti artist, and local graffiti artist Banksy
has also gone on to produce album covers and artworks. Banksy collaborator Inkie
was also part of the scene.
The style was perhaps typified by the song "Unfinished Sympathy
" which has frequently been described as one of the best songs of all time, according to polls produced by MTV2, NME, and various other magazines and reviewers. A reviewer for the BBC has said that: "More than a decade after its release it remains one of the most moving pieces of dance music ever, able to soften hearts and excite minds just as keenly as a ballad by Bacharach
or a melody by McCartney
."
The Bristol sound has been described as "possessing a darkness that is uplifting, a joyful melancholy". As a whole the Bristol Sound was characterised by a slow, spaced-out hip hop sound that a number of artists in the early and mid 1990s made synonymous with the city. These artists can include the aforementioned original Bristolians Massive Attack
, Portishead and Tricky
and others such as Way Out West, Smith & Mighty
, Up, Bustle and Out
, Roni Size
, and The Wild Bunch
.
Many graffiti artists work in Bristol. One of the most notable is Banksy
, who has also designed album covers for bands such as Blur
.
Banksy is a world renowned artist who uses his original street art form to promote alternative aspects of politics from those promoted by the mainstream media. Some believe that his graffiti helps to provide a voice for those living in urban environments that could not otherwise express themselves, and that his work is also something which improves the aesthetic quality of urban surroundings; others disagree, asserting that his work is simple vandalism.
Banksy has produced work all over the world, including in Barcelona, New York, Australia, London, and the West Bank.
There has long been an interplay between the different music and art scenes. Robert Del Naja of the internationally successful band Massive Attack was initially a graffiti artist, "indeed, his first ever live gig was as a DJ accompanying artwork he had produced in a gallery in Bristol".
s erupted, the first of the decade's civil disturbances."
"Around this time, the Bristol underground scene was steeped in punk and reggae influences, and soon embraced hip-hop - and with it the colourful New York-style lettering at the most creative end of the graffiti art spectrum."
The 1990s was when the scene began to create work of international significance. 1991 saw the release of Massive Attack's Blue Lines
, an album which has met international critical acclaim. Blue Lines was named the 21st greatest album of all time in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. Stuart Bailie of BBC Northern Ireland stated that "It was soul music. But it had bold, symphonic arrangements. It featured samples of the Mahavishnu Orchestra … It had funky breaks and an emotional power that was hard to figure. It sounded anxious and lost. But there was a grandeur in the music also. People who came across the record became obsessed, spinning it endlessly."
Separately to this, some writers have talked of an undercurrent of darkness within the City due to its history.
stated that: "Racial matters have always carried a historical resonance in Bristol, a city made affluent on the profits of tobacco and slave-trading. Street names such as Blackboy Hill and Whiteladies Road
remain as reminders." However, the popular belief that both Whiteladies Road and the Blackboy Hill had connections with the slave trade is untrue: both names appear to be derived from pubs.
"It's a past that we feel equivocal about", says Steve Wright. "It's a double-edged thing. There are the beautiful Georgian terraces that we love, but they were built on the profits of slavery. It's our shady past, and Bristolians are a bit self-effacing, a bit ashamed of it and are quite keen to layer new associations on top of it. There's always been a defiant, subversive streak in Bristol, and Banksy's work is very much in that tradition."
There has often been a slight undercurrent of tension both in the politics and creatively with artists and musicians in the merger of black and white culture. During the 1950s the Bristol evening post carried what many today would consider openly racist articles, warning of the dangers of black bus drivers.
The music and art of the Bristol underground scene has often used dark imagery and lyrics. Massive Attack's song, Unfinished Sympathy talks of a lover's unhappiness, and the mood is soulful, downbeat and emotional.
Banksy within his pictures has used images of civilian casualties of war, and his work often talks of frustration and anger.
Arguably Portishead's most successful song Glory Box includes the lyrics "Give me a reason to love you" and speaks of a lover's unhappiness with her current situation. Another successful song "All Mine" speaks of forcing a lover to be unable to escape making them "tethered and tied" until "the day they die". Suggestions of the songs meaning have included the idea that it is either "scary or incredibly romantic. It can be about the initial obsession you get in fresh relationships."
Massive Attack's 2006 single Live With Me
features a vocal performance by a deep soul singer and again includes soulful lyrics such as "Nothing's right, if you ain't here". The video includes images of a young woman drinking herself into a stupor, on her own, in a dark city. The video finishes with a shot of her tumbling over and over down a staircase until she is out of shot. One review of the video described it as follows: "It's uncomfortable viewing, but I found it really haunting. It features a young (mid twenties) professional-looking woman drinking herself into oblivion on her own in her flat. I can’t really put my finger on what it is about it that I find so arresting, but I thought it was an incredibly powerful four minute film."
for example. Del Naja and Banksy have both submitted art works to the War Paint exhibition which showcases anti war art work.
and Bristle magazine.
The Bristolian news sheet achieved a regular distribution of several thousand, pulling no punches with its satirical exposés of council and corporate corruption. The Bristolian, 'Smiter of the High and Mighty', even spawned a radical independent political party that polled an impressive 15% in Easton ward in 2003. In October 2005 it came runner up for the national Paul Foot Award
for investigative journalism
The anarchist-oriented Bristle, ‘fighting talk for Bristol and the South-West’, was started in 1997 and celebrated its twentieth issue in 2005. Its pages especially feature subvertising
and other urban street art to complement news, views and comments on the local activist scene as well as tackling issues such as drugs, mental health and housing.
1970s women's liberation paper Enough, was succeeded in the 1990s by the environmental and pagan Greenleaf (edited by the late George Firsoff), West Country Activist, Kebelian Voice, Planet Easton, the anarcho-feminist Bellow and present-day punk fanzine Everlong, all of which have been published in Bristol.
Urban radio projects such as the 1980s pirate, Savage Yet Tender, and Electro Magnetic Installation, have proved to be more short-lived. Dialect Radio however, as Bristol's first Community Internet Radio Station, is still going and is broadcast over BCFM 93.2fm most weeks, and is available to download over the internet. It is put together by the Bristol Radio Co-op, and is run entirely by volunteers on a not-for-profit basis, and covers local arts, music, political issues, and local people of interest.
Trip hop
Trip hop is a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music which originated in the early 1990s in England, especially Bristol. Deriving from "post"-acid house, the term was first used by the British music media and press as a way to describe the more experimental variant of breakbeat which...
, drum and bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...
, and graffiti art that has existed in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
from the early 1990s to the present.
The city of Bristol in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
has spawned various musicians and artists, and is typified by its urban culture. While the city is most associated with a group of artists who emerged during the 1990s, especially the 'Bristol Sound', the city maintains an active and diverse underground urban scene.
The city has been particularly associated with trip hop
Trip hop
Trip hop is a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music which originated in the early 1990s in England, especially Bristol. Deriving from "post"-acid house, the term was first used by the British music media and press as a way to describe the more experimental variant of breakbeat which...
. Salon
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
magazine has said that trip hop was spawned in "the bohemian, multi-ethnic city of Bristol, where restlessly inventive DJs had spent years assembling samples of various sounds that were floating around: groove-heavy acid jazz
Acid jazz
Acid jazz is a musical genre that combines elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly looped beats. It developed in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance: jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Grant Green are...
, dub reggae, neo-psychedelia, techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
disco music, and the brainy art rap."
The Bristol scene is characterised by a strong relationship between music and art, especially graffiti art. A founder member of the band Massive Attack
Massive Attack
Massive Attack are an English DJ and trip hop duo from Bristol, England consisting of Robert "3D" Del Naja and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. Working with co-producers, as well as various session musicians and guest vocalists, they make records and tour live. The duo are considered to be of the trip...
, Robert Del Naja
Robert Del Naja
Robert Del Naja , also known as 3D, is an English artist and musician. Initially gaining notoriety as a graffiti artist and member of the Bristol collective known as "The Wild Bunch", Del Naja went on to become a founding member of the band Massive Attack where he is active to this day.-Music:Del...
, was originally a graffiti artist, and local graffiti artist Banksy
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique...
has also gone on to produce album covers and artworks. Banksy collaborator Inkie
Inkie
Inkie is a London based painter and street artist, originally from Clifton, Bristol. He is cited as being part of Bristol's graffiti heritage, along with Banksy, 3D and Nick Walker.-Career:...
was also part of the scene.
The 'Bristol Sound'
The Bristol sound was the name given to a number of bands from Bristol, England, in the 1990s. These bands spawned the musical genre trip-hop, though many of the bands shunned this name when other British and international bands imitated the style and preferred not to distinguish it from hip-hop.The style was perhaps typified by the song "Unfinished Sympathy
Unfinished Sympathy
"Unfinished Sympathy" is a song by English electronica group Massive Attack, from their debut album Blue Lines . The song was written collaboratively by the members of the group , with Jonathan "Jonny Dollar" Sharp and Shara Nelson, the latter providing lead vocals for the song...
" which has frequently been described as one of the best songs of all time, according to polls produced by MTV2, NME, and various other magazines and reviewers. A reviewer for the BBC has said that: "More than a decade after its release it remains one of the most moving pieces of dance music ever, able to soften hearts and excite minds just as keenly as a ballad by Bacharach
Burt Bacharach
Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...
or a melody by McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
."
The Bristol sound has been described as "possessing a darkness that is uplifting, a joyful melancholy". As a whole the Bristol Sound was characterised by a slow, spaced-out hip hop sound that a number of artists in the early and mid 1990s made synonymous with the city. These artists can include the aforementioned original Bristolians Massive Attack
Massive Attack
Massive Attack are an English DJ and trip hop duo from Bristol, England consisting of Robert "3D" Del Naja and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. Working with co-producers, as well as various session musicians and guest vocalists, they make records and tour live. The duo are considered to be of the trip...
, Portishead and Tricky
Tricky
Tricky is an English musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop...
and others such as Way Out West, Smith & Mighty
Smith & Mighty
Smith & Mighty are a Drum and bass/Trip hop group from Bristol, consisting of Rob Smith and Ray Mighty. Their first releases, in the late 1980s, were breakbeat covers of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and "Walk on By"...
, Up, Bustle and Out
Up, Bustle and Out
Up, Bustle and Out are musicians and recording artists - DJ D. "Ein" Fell and producer-performer Rupert Mould from Bristol, Senor Cuffy , Dave Cridge UK...
, Roni Size
Roni Size
Roni Size is a British record producer and DJ, who came to prominence in 1997 as the founder and leader of Reprazent, a drum and bass collective...
, and The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch (sound system)
The Wild Bunch was a sound system based in the St Paul's district of Bristol, England from 1983 to 1986. The group was renowned for playing sets that drew large crowds from the club scene and had performed shows as far away as London. They performed in soundclashes against other Bristol sound...
.
Urban graffiti
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique...
, who has also designed album covers for bands such as Blur
Blur (band)
Blur is an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1989 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing...
.
Banksy is a world renowned artist who uses his original street art form to promote alternative aspects of politics from those promoted by the mainstream media. Some believe that his graffiti helps to provide a voice for those living in urban environments that could not otherwise express themselves, and that his work is also something which improves the aesthetic quality of urban surroundings; others disagree, asserting that his work is simple vandalism.
Banksy has produced work all over the world, including in Barcelona, New York, Australia, London, and the West Bank.
There has long been an interplay between the different music and art scenes. Robert Del Naja of the internationally successful band Massive Attack was initially a graffiti artist, "indeed, his first ever live gig was as a DJ accompanying artwork he had produced in a gallery in Bristol".
History of the Bristol Underground scene
Bristol has long been a multicultural city. In the 1950s and 1960s there were waves of immigration that made Bristol one of the most racially diverse cities in the UK. This mix included greater access to new strands of music such as reggae. "In 1980, following a police raid on the popular Black and White Café, the St Pauls riotSt Pauls riot
The St Pauls riot occurred in St Pauls, Bristol, England on 2 April 1980 when police raided the Black and White Café on Grosvenor Road in the heart of the area. After several hours of disturbance in which fire engines and police cars were damaged, 130 people were arrested...
s erupted, the first of the decade's civil disturbances."
"Around this time, the Bristol underground scene was steeped in punk and reggae influences, and soon embraced hip-hop - and with it the colourful New York-style lettering at the most creative end of the graffiti art spectrum."
The 1990s was when the scene began to create work of international significance. 1991 saw the release of Massive Attack's Blue Lines
Blue Lines
-Personnel:* All tracks produced and mixed by Massive Attack, Cameron McVey and Jonny Dollar.** Robert "3D" Del Naja: vocals - keyboards** Grantley "Daddy G" Marshall: vocals** Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles: keyboards# "Safe from Harm"#* Shara Nelson: vocals...
, an album which has met international critical acclaim. Blue Lines was named the 21st greatest album of all time in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. Stuart Bailie of BBC Northern Ireland stated that "It was soul music. But it had bold, symphonic arrangements. It featured samples of the Mahavishnu Orchestra … It had funky breaks and an emotional power that was hard to figure. It sounded anxious and lost. But there was a grandeur in the music also. People who came across the record became obsessed, spinning it endlessly."
Darkness
The Bristol underground scene was characterised by a sparseness and darkness. Bands like Portishead and Massive Attack are known for using sparse instrumentation - a prominent bass line, vocals with what are usually melancholic lyrics and sometimes other effects commonly associated with hip-hop, such as samples and scratching. Banksy also tends to use very few colours, concentrating on black and white with sharp outlines, covering controversial topics such as war.Separately to this, some writers have talked of an undercurrent of darkness within the City due to its history.
Racial tensions within the City
An article in 2008 in The TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
stated that: "Racial matters have always carried a historical resonance in Bristol, a city made affluent on the profits of tobacco and slave-trading. Street names such as Blackboy Hill and Whiteladies Road
Whiteladies Road
Whiteladies Road is a main road in Bristol, England. It runs north from the Victoria Rooms to Durdham Down, and separates Clifton on the west side from Redland on the east...
remain as reminders." However, the popular belief that both Whiteladies Road and the Blackboy Hill had connections with the slave trade is untrue: both names appear to be derived from pubs.
"It's a past that we feel equivocal about", says Steve Wright. "It's a double-edged thing. There are the beautiful Georgian terraces that we love, but they were built on the profits of slavery. It's our shady past, and Bristolians are a bit self-effacing, a bit ashamed of it and are quite keen to layer new associations on top of it. There's always been a defiant, subversive streak in Bristol, and Banksy's work is very much in that tradition."
There has often been a slight undercurrent of tension both in the politics and creatively with artists and musicians in the merger of black and white culture. During the 1950s the Bristol evening post carried what many today would consider openly racist articles, warning of the dangers of black bus drivers.
Creative tensions within bands
Some of this tension spilled over into some of the artists creative work. Massive Attack for example were wrought with creative tensions over their 1998 album Mezzanine, which resulted in one of the three core members leaving. Robert Del Naja has described the dark atmosphere within the group: "There was always this tension between control and collaboration. Always… We were just trying to get the job finished… Everything became thinner and smaller. All that warmth being spun into a tiny little thread, then that thread just being cut."Artistic use of darkness
Banksy within his pictures has used images of civilian casualties of war, and his work often talks of frustration and anger.
Arguably Portishead's most successful song Glory Box includes the lyrics "Give me a reason to love you" and speaks of a lover's unhappiness with her current situation. Another successful song "All Mine" speaks of forcing a lover to be unable to escape making them "tethered and tied" until "the day they die". Suggestions of the songs meaning have included the idea that it is either "scary or incredibly romantic. It can be about the initial obsession you get in fresh relationships."
Massive Attack's 2006 single Live With Me
Live with Me (song)
"Live with Me" is a song by Massive Attack which was included in their 2006 compilation album, Collected, and was also released as a single...
features a vocal performance by a deep soul singer and again includes soulful lyrics such as "Nothing's right, if you ain't here". The video includes images of a young woman drinking herself into a stupor, on her own, in a dark city. The video finishes with a shot of her tumbling over and over down a staircase until she is out of shot. One review of the video described it as follows: "It's uncomfortable viewing, but I found it really haunting. It features a young (mid twenties) professional-looking woman drinking herself into oblivion on her own in her flat. I can’t really put my finger on what it is about it that I find so arresting, but I thought it was an incredibly powerful four minute film."
Politics
By definition the underground scene tends to be slightly apart from the mainstream and this is reflected in the politics of some of the artists and musicians associated with it. Robert Del Naja, one of the most influential artists and musicians of this scene has openly declared his opposition to the Iraq WarOpposition to the Iraq War
Significant opposition to the Iraq War occurred worldwide, both before and during the initial 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, United Kingdom, and smaller contingents from other nations, and throughout the subsequent occupation...
for example. Del Naja and Banksy have both submitted art works to the War Paint exhibition which showcases anti war art work.
Bristol independent media
Bristol also has a well-established tradition of print media, now best exemplified by The BristolianIan Bone
Ian Bone , is a prominent British anarchist and an active publisher of anarchist newspapers and tabloids, such as Class War and The Bristolian...
and Bristle magazine.
The Bristolian news sheet achieved a regular distribution of several thousand, pulling no punches with its satirical exposés of council and corporate corruption. The Bristolian, 'Smiter of the High and Mighty', even spawned a radical independent political party that polled an impressive 15% in Easton ward in 2003. In October 2005 it came runner up for the national Paul Foot Award
Paul Foot Award
The Paul Foot Award is an award given for investigative or campaigning journalism, set up by The Guardian and Private Eye in memory of the journalist Paul Foot, who died in 2004....
for investigative journalism
The anarchist-oriented Bristle, ‘fighting talk for Bristol and the South-West’, was started in 1997 and celebrated its twentieth issue in 2005. Its pages especially feature subvertising
Subvertising
Subvertising is a portmanteau of subvert and advertising. It refers to the practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements. Subvertisements may take the form of a new image or an alteration to an existing image or icon, often in a satirical manner...
and other urban street art to complement news, views and comments on the local activist scene as well as tackling issues such as drugs, mental health and housing.
1970s women's liberation paper Enough, was succeeded in the 1990s by the environmental and pagan Greenleaf (edited by the late George Firsoff), West Country Activist, Kebelian Voice, Planet Easton, the anarcho-feminist Bellow and present-day punk fanzine Everlong, all of which have been published in Bristol.
Urban radio projects such as the 1980s pirate, Savage Yet Tender, and Electro Magnetic Installation, have proved to be more short-lived. Dialect Radio however, as Bristol's first Community Internet Radio Station, is still going and is broadcast over BCFM 93.2fm most weeks, and is available to download over the internet. It is put together by the Bristol Radio Co-op, and is run entirely by volunteers on a not-for-profit basis, and covers local arts, music, political issues, and local people of interest.