Tricky (16 and Over)

Tricky returns with his 13th album, ununiform, out in September on his own label False Idols via !K7 Music. It’s a delicate, storming, intricate album that sees Tricky take perhaps his most radical step yet – a journey into happiness and contentment. It’s a record that shows the legendary British producer confront his legacy, history, family – even death itself. And in all of this, he finds the strangest, least familiar thing – peace. This is the first album-proper made since Tricky moved to Berlin, three years ago. While many people move to the clubbing capital of Europe to party, this was a clean break, in every sense of the word. “I like it here because I don't know anybody. I eat good food, I go for walks, I've got a bike. I’m trying to look after myself. I don’t drink here. Some people call it boring, but I wake at 9am and I'm asleep by 11 o’clock at night. I’m looking after myself.” Though most of ununiform was made in his adopted capital, four tracks were recorded in a city further east, the capital of Russia. “Moscow is my favourite city in the world,” he says. “I didn’t want to spend Christmas at home, so in December 2016 I spent three weeks there recording and eating Russian food.” The four tracks made in the dead of winter in Moscow feature collaborations with local rappers and producers. “I've been listening to Russian rap for 20 years. I love those accents, so I've always wanted a Russian rapper on my album.” The rappers and producers he worked with are among the most famous and critically acclaimed in Russia. Among them is Scriptonite, who MCs on the knotty ‘Blood Of My Blood’ and ‘Same As It Ever Was’. Vasiliy Vakulenko, one of the country’s most popular rappers, made the beat for graceful, gaseous single ‘The Only Way’. Rapper Smoky Mo appears on digital rap workout ‘Bang Boogie’, a tune produced by Gazgolder, the owner of one of Russia’s best and biggest rap labels. All this without Tricky speaking Russian. “I don't need to understand what they’re…