The Synthetic Sound: Trip Hop (Part II)

Trip Hop, also called the Bristol Sound, is now an internationally recognized genre of electronic music; however, it wasn't always as widely known as it is today. In fact, the genre had much humbler beginnings than most other musical styles, and the sleepy city of Bristol is hardly the kind of environment that coins its own sound. The, ahem, less-than-professional documentary above attempts to answer the questions "Why Bristol?" and "Why this sound?" The DJs in the film provide interesting, underground insights to the music movement that changed the world's perception of electronic music forever. (Interestingly, one of the MCs recounts how his songs became darker as soon as he arrived in Bristol. He believes that the environment absolutely influenced his art in unforseen ways.) There are more scholarly articles on the Bristol Sound and the Bristol underground, but it's always interesting to have an up-front, immediate perspective on the culture and the real people who sustain it.