The Scream of a Dying Pterodactyl

I admire David Quantick the music pundit and broadcaster for his erudition and wit. Also, he once bought me a hot chocolate.

Whenever there is a Quantick program on the radio, I make a point of listening. 

The latest gem to come my way is a repeat of his series about the Bristol sound, which you can find here. Listen to it before it disappears, if you get a chance.

It's a wonderful documentary charting the origin of trip-hop (though David derides the term) in the funk, punk and (crucially) dub scene in Bristol.

It brought back memories of seeing Massive Attack at the Royal Albert Hall. They warmed up for the concert by playing a tape of Lalo Schifrin's theme to Enter the Dragon as they took to the stage.

And it has got me digging out my dusty CDs of Portishead and Massive Attack and Tricky. I even have Tricky's Maxinquaye on vinyl here somewhere... Let's hope that's not too dusty. 

Plus I'm ordering Martina Topley-Bird’s 'new' album Quixotic (2003!) from Amazon.

Many thanks, David. 

And, incidentally, the title of this post comes from Martina’s wonderfully evocative description of the sort of atmospherics Tricky was making on his recordings.

(Image credits: Maxinquaye, Mezzanine, Dummy and Quixotic are all from Amazon UK. Go there and buy them immediately if you don't already have them. Don't buy that cheap copy of Quixotic before I get it, though.)