The Super-Impossible Brain-Busting Trip-Hop Quiz

Photo by Hamish Brown

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In 2008, Portishead—one of pop music’s great sleeping giants—awoke from hibernation to deliver its first studio album in 11 years. Then late last year, snarling rapper Tricky reissued his 1995 classic Maxinquaye. February’s release of Heligoland, Massive Attack’s first new album in seven years, completes the unlikely resurgence of trip-hop—a genre that blew up in the early ’90s and almost instantly vanished, only to inch its way back into the public consciousness nearly 20 years later. Centered in the British harbor town of Bristol and revolving around these three artists, trip-hop was known for cinematic soundscapes, paranoid moods, scratchy rapping and sluggish tempos. Sound like fun? It was! Here, we test your knowledge of this surprisingly resilient sound.

1. Before trip-hop came along, which actor was Bristol’s claim to fame?
a) Laurence Olivier
b) Terence Stamp
c) Michael Caine
d) Cary Grant

2. Tricky does not blame a woman for which of the following on “Suffocated Love?”
a) Slitting his wrist
b) Stealing his car
c) Spending his money
d) Making him prematurely ejaculate

3. Portishead’s “Glory Box,” Tricky’s “Overcome” and Massive Attack’s “(Exchange)” all sample which deceased soulman?
a) Curtis Mayfield
b) Isaac Hayes
c) Barry White
d) James Brown

4. As a young man, Portishead’s Geoff
Barrow worked for Coach House studio in what capacity?
a) Janitor
b) Receptionist
c) Tea boy
d) Television spokesman

5. Which chanteuse did not collaborate with Massive Attack on one of its first four proper studio albums?
a) Elizabeth Fraser
b) Tracey Thorn
c) Kate Bush
d) Sinéad O’Connor

6. True or false: Portishead’s third studio album, Third, opens with a
Portuguese reading of a Wicca tenet?

7. The video for Massive Attack’s “Teardrop” stars which of the following?
a) A dying soldier
b) A sobbing astronaut
c) A singing fetus
d) A largemouth bass

8. What is Tricky’s real name?
a) Adrian Nicholas M. Thaws
b) O’Shea Thadius Jackson
c) Barnaby James Tompkins-Rice
d) Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson

9. Massive Attack did not appear on the soundtrack to which of the following?
a) Mulholland Dr.
b) Batman Forever
c) Moulin Rouge
d) House M.D.

10. In how many cities was Portishead’s Roseland NYC Live album recorded?
a) One
b) Two
c) Three
d) Four