Tricky Revisits "The Only Way" with 'Stripped Down Tricky Mix'

Since his beginnings in Bristol as a collaborator of Massive Attack and his breakthrough 1995 album Maxinquaye, trip hop legend Tricky has been keeping busy for the last couple decades. In June he released the track “The Only Way”, a lush orchestrated nod to his early days, and today he drops a new mix of that same song, the slow burning “The Only Way Stripped Down Tricky Mix”.

From his home studio in Berlin, Tricky revealed that the mix came about by accident. He was working on another track and when he hit upon a certain chord structure, he decided to abandon what he had been doing and rework this into a new version of “The Only Way”.  The new mix definitely improves upon the original. Eschewing the orchestration and produced sheen that made up that version of the song, Tricky strips this down to a bare minimum. A droning synth part layered over top a classic trip hop beat with his double tracked vocals just floating above it all.  It brings out a new layer of poignancy that had previously not existed within the track and elevates the song to the benchmark that the producer had set for himself in the 90s. With the original version of "The Only Way" and now with the "Stripped Down Tricky Mix" by looking to his past it seems Tricky has been able to propel his music forward. 

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