Before Tricky and Portishead defined the Bristol sound with the advent of trip-hop, Smith & Mighty were carving the coastal city a reputation for innovative electronic music built around beats and big, big bass tones. Their work having been subsequently eclipsed by their successors, ‘The Three Stripe Collection’ which (as the subtitle suggests), spans the years 1985-1990 and pulls together the best tracks from their releases on their own Three Stripe label, marks an attempt to redress the balance and remind the world of the sound of Bristol before the whole trip hop thing blew up.
The opening salvo of ‘Walk On’ and ‘Anyone’ (reworkings of Dione Warwick’s recordings of the Bacharach and David penned ‘Walk on By’ and ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart’) is in some ways reminiscent of the kind of cut ‘n’ paste mash-ups the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu put out in the mid 80s. While perhaps not as fun and not nearly as audacious as Drummond & Cauty’s pre-KLF output, Smith & Mighty’s approach demonstrates significantly greater refinement, and as such elevates these tracks above the realms of mere novelty.
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‘Acid Off A Way’ (Parts 1 and 2) are choc full of bubbling synths, orchestral strikes and looped vocal samples, locking into a deep spiral groove, and big beats coupled with chubby bass tones define the sound of Smith & Mighty’s distinctively funky brand of hip-hop.
It’s not hard to see why, for a time, their was the sound of the city, but equally, it’s not hard to figure why their achievements were overshadowed by their successors. After a time, the individual tracks all congeal into one interminable groove, with little to distinguish one from another. What’s more, where Smith & Mighty may have broken ground, so many others followed that now, they just sound like so many other acts. Nevertheless, as a slice of history and a document of an act that paved the way for countless others, ‘The Three Stripe Collection’ achieves exactly what it sets out to do.
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