1.
Album
–
Album, is a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item on CD, record, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century album sales have mostly focused on compact disc and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used from the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl, an album may be recorded in a recording studio, in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed live, the majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at times while listening to the other parts using headphones. Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, historically, the term album was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage the word was used for collections of pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, the LP record, or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. It was adopted by the industry as a standard format for the album. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, the term album had been carried forward from the early nineteenth century when it had been used for collections of short pieces of music. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, as part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some commenters have declared that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs, Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yess Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. There are no rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as albums. These are known as box sets, material is stored on an album in sections termed tracks, normally 11 or 12 tracks. A music track is a song or instrumental recording. The term is associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks. When vinyl records were the medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves
2.
Massive Attack
–
Massive Attack are an English trip hop group formed in 1988 in Bristol, consisting of Robert 3D Del Naja, Grant Daddy G Marshall and formerly Andy Mushroom Vowles & Adrian Tricky Kid Thaws. Their debut album Blue Lines was released in 1991, with the single Unfinished Sympathy reaching the charts, 1998s Mezzanine, containing Teardrop, and 2003s 100th Window charted in the UK at number one. Both Blue Lines and Mezzanine feature in Rolling Stones list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, the group has won numerous music awards throughout their career, including a Brit Award—winning Best British Dance Act, two MTV Europe Music Awards, and two Q Awards. They have released five albums that have sold over 11 million copies worldwide. DJs Daddy G and Andrew Vowles and graffiti artist-turned-rapper Robert Del Naja met as members of partying collective The Wild Bunch, One of the first homegrown soundsystems in the UK, The Wild Bunch became dominant on the Bristol club scene in the mid-1980s. Circa became a subsidiary of, and was subsumed into, Virgin Records. Blue Lines, was co-produced by Jonny Dollar and Cameron McVey, Geoff Barrow, who went on to form Portishead, was an intern and trainee tape operator at Bristols Coach House studio when the album was recorded. In the nineties, the became known for often not being able to easily get along with one another. Marshall returned to a role in 2005, having joined the touring line-up in 2003 and 2004. Unsigned, Mushroom, Daddy G and 3D put out Any Love as a single, 3D co-wrote Neneh Cherrys Manchild, which peaked at number 5 in the UK single chart. Cameron McVey and Neneh Cherry helped them to record their first LP Blue Lines, partly in their house, the album used vocalists including Horace Andy and Shara Nelson, a former Wild Bunch cohort. MCs Tricky and Willie Wee, also part of The Wild Bunch, featured. Neneh Cherry sang backing vocals on environmentalist anthem, Hymn of the Big Wheel, the group temporarily shortened their name to Massive on the advice of McVey to avoid controversy relating to the Gulf War. They went back to being Massive Attack for their next single, after Shara Nelson left, the band brought in Everything but the Girls Tracey Thorn as a vocalist and released Protection on 26 September 1994. With McVey out of the picture, Massive Attack enlisted the talents of former Wild Bunch Nellee Hooper to co-produce some songs on it. Other tracks were co-produced by The Insects and 3D, a dub version, No Protection, was released the following year by Mad Professor. Protection won a Brit award for Best Dance Act, the other collaborators on Protection were Marius de Vries, Craig Armstrong, a Scottish classical pianist, and Tricky. Trickys solo career was taking off at time and he decided not to collaborate with Massive Attack after this
3.
Trip hop
–
Trip hop is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. Trip hop can be highly experimental and it was pioneered by acts like Massive Attack, Tricky, and Portishead. Trip hop achieved commercial success in the 1990s, and has described as Europes alternative choice in the second half of the 90s. DJs, MCs, b-boys and graffiti artists grouped together into informal soundsystems, Bristols soundsystem DJs, drawing heavily on Jamaican dub music, typically used a laid-back, slow and heavy drum beat. Bristols Wild Bunch crew became one of the soundsystems to put a spin on the international phenomenon, helping to birth Bristols signature sound of trip hop. As the hip hop scene matured in Bristol and musical trends evolved further toward acid jazz and house in the late 1980s, another influence came from Gary Clails Tackhead soundsystem. Clail often worked with former The Pop Group singer Mark Stewart, produced by Adrian Sherwood, the music combined hiphop with experimental rock and dub and sounded like a premature version of what later became trip hop. In 1993, Kirsty MacColl released Angel, one of the first examples of the crossing over to pop. In the 1990s, Janet Jackson brought trip hop into the American charts with the song If, several songs on her Janet. and The Velvet Rope used this genre of music, Songs like Got Til Its Gone and You. Massive Attacks first album Blue Lines was released in 1991 to huge success in the UK, Massive Attack released their second album entitled Protection in 1994. The term trip hop was coined that year, but not in reference to anything on the Massive Attack albums, in 1993, Icelandic musician Björk released Debut, produced by Wild Bunch member Nellee Hooper. The album, although rooted in four-on-the-floor house music, contained elements of trip hop and is credited as one of the first albums to introduce electronic music into mainstream pop. She had been in contact with Londons underground electronic music scene and was involved with trip hop musician Tricky. Björk embraced trip hop even more with her 1995 album Post by collaborating with Tricky, homogenic, her 1997 album, has been described as a pinnacle of trip hop music. 1994 and 1995 saw trip hop near the peak of its popularity, with such as Howie B, Naked Funk. The period also marked the debut of two acts who, along with Massive Attack, would define the Bristol scene for years to come, in 1994 Portishead, a trio comprising singer Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow, and Adrian Utley, released their debut album Dummy. Their background differed from Massive Attack in many ways, one of Portisheads primary influences was 1960s and 1970s film soundtrack LPs, nevertheless, Portishead shared the scratchy, jazz-sample-based aesthetic of early Massive Attack, and the sullen, fragile vocals of Gibbons also brought them wide acclaim. In 1995, Dummy was awarded the Mercury Music Prize as the best British album of the year, Tricky also released his debut solo album Maxinquaye in 1995, to great critical acclaim
4.
Minimal techno
–
Minimal techno is a minimalist subgenre of techno music. It is characterized by an aesthetic that exploits the use of repetition. Minimal techno is thought to have originally developed in the early 1990s by Detroit-based producers Robert Hood. By the early 2000s the term minimal generally described a style of techno that was popularised in Germany by labels such as Kompakt, Perlon, minimal techno first emerged in the early 1990s. The development of the style is attributed to a so-called second wave of American producers associated with Detroit techno. According to Derrick May, while the artists were enjoying their early global success, techno also inspired many up-and-coming DJs. This younger generation included such as Richie Hawtin, Daniel Bell, Robert Hood, Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, Kenny Larkin. The work of several of these evolved to become focused on minimalism. Robert Hood describes the situation in the early 1990s as one where techno had become too ravey, such trends saw the demise of the soul-infused techno that typified the original Detroit sound. Robert Hood has noted that he and Daniel Bell both realized something was missing from techno in the era, and saw that an important feature of the original techno sound had been lost. Hood states that it sounded great from a standpoint. People would complain that theres no funk, no feeling in techno anymore, I thought it was time for a return to the original underground. The minimal techno sound that emerged at this time has been defined by Robert Hood as a stripped down. Just drums, basslines and funky grooves and only whats essential, only what is essential to make people move. I started to look at it as a science, the art of making people move their butts, speaking to their heart, mind and its a heart-felt rhythmic techno sound. Daniel Bell has commented that he had a dislike for minimalism in the sense of the word. By 1994, according to Sherburne, the term minimal was in use to describe any stripped-down, los Angeles-based writer Daniel Chamberlin attributes the origin of minimal techno to the German producers Basic Channel. Chamberlin also sees the use of sine tone drones by minimalist composer La Monte Young, Sherburne has suggested that the noted similarities between minimal forms of dance music and American minimalism could easily be accidental
5.
Virgin Records
–
Virgin Records is a British-founded record label originally founded by English entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman in 1972. It was later sold to Thorn EMI in 1992, today, the operations of Virgin Records America, Inc. are still active and headquartered in Hollywood, California, as it operates exclusively under the Capitol Music Group since 2007. US artists include Knox Hamilton, LTric and Rise Against, in fact the first real store was above a shoe shop at the Tottenham Court Road end of Oxford Street. After making the shop into a success, they turned their business into a fully fledged record label, the name Virgin, according to Branson, arose from Tessa Watts, a colleague of his, when they were brainstorming business ideas. She suggested Virgin – as they were all new to business – like virgins, the original Virgin logo was designed by English artist and illustrator Roger Dean, a young naked woman in mirror image with a large long-tailed serpent and the word Virgin in Deans familiar script. A variation on the logo was used for the spin-off Caroline Records label and this was soon followed by some notable krautrock releases, including electronic breakthrough album Phaedra by Tangerine Dream, and The Faust Tapes and Faust IV by Faust. The Faust Tapes album retailed for 49p and as a result allowed this relatively unknown band to reach number 12 in the album charts, other early albums include Gongs Flying Teapot, which Daevid Allen has been quoted as having never been paid for. Under the guidance of Tessa Watts, Virgins Head of Publicity, shortly afterwards, the Notting Hill record shop was raided by police for having a window display of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Heres the Sex Pistols in the window. After modified versions of the label came the red, white and blue design introduced in 1975. The current Virgin logo was created in 1978, commissioned by Simon Draper, brian Cooke of Cooke Key Associates commissioned a graphic designer to produce a stylised signature. In 1983 Virgin purchased Charisma Records, renaming it Charisma/Virgin, then later Virgin/Charisma, before folding the label in 1986, in the process they acquired Genesis and comedy group Monty Python. The Charisma label was reactivated in the US in 1990 and enjoyed success with such as Maxi Priest, Right Said Fred,38 Special. When this Charisma label was retired in 1992, all of its artists were, as before, in 1987, Venture Records was created for new age and modern classical artists including Klaus Schulze, who had been associated with Virgin since the early 1970s. 10 Records Immortal Records Delabel Caroline Records was a label used from 1973 to 1977. The name and logo were used for some American editions of Virgin records in the 1980s and 1990s. Caroline was primarily used for independent distribution until the label was reactivated in 2013, today, Caroline Records acts as an independent label taking the place of EMI Label Services, after Virgins former parent company EMI was purchased by Universal Music Group. Front Line Records was a label for issuing Jamaican and English reggae music from 1978 to approximately 1987, a short-lived associated label, Dindisc, had Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and The Monochrome Set during its brief existence, after which its recordings became part of Virgins catalogue. Noo Trybe Records was a hip hop label that existed from 1994 to 1999
6.
Record producer
–
A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
[4]