Skilled Mechanics

The whole thing comes off as an imaginary Tricky radio station where the DJ plays his own stuff and mixes himself into other artist's tracks, so if alternate views and unclassifiable collections are desired, Skilled Mechanics isn't a lark or a side project but a necessity.

Skilled Mechanics is an intelligent, pertinent piece of work that shows just how fresh the ideas of Thaws remain.

Beats the last one ... more hummable tunes, less questionable stances.

Despite these mis-hits, Skilled Mechanics seethes with low-level, lo-fi menace, its spare instrumentation creating an unsettling queasiness that will have been familiar to Tricky’s admirers since 1995’s Maxinquaye.

The seething mood is familiar but the cursory electro beats offer little of the grimy richness of primetime Tricky.

The most successful tracks are those where Tricky is front and centre.

Those few powerful moments are the exception rather than the norm. Their rawness is an essential element that could have lent Skilled Mechanics the sort of organic, internalized anxiety that once defined Tricky

While it isn’t without its moments, that is not enough to forgive the sub-standard R’&’B and lumpy rock crossovers.