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Artist
©
12+ albums
female vocalisttrip-hopdubelectronicspoken word
about
© is the alias of New York's Leslie Winer. She released one album, "Witch", in 1991, which has been cited as a precursor to trip-hop. The album was re-released in the late 90s under her real name. From BBC Collective: Leslie Winer is a bit of a mystery. After working as a well-known model in New York, where she got a reputation for being "difficult to work with" (therefore heightening her appeal to fashionistas), she met William Burroughs and Jean-Michel Basquiat, dropped out of the scene, and produced this stunning, prescient album. Then she seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth, only to occasionally resurface doing vocals for second-hand artists like Bomb The Bass and Mekon. Perhaps she needed the money... Recorded in 1990/1, under the weight of the eighties and all they entailed, this album is a wonderful mix of disgust at the legacy of the past decade and heartfelt hopes for the future. Having been at the centre of the cold-beauty-obsessed 1980s, Winer was in the perfect position to see their dark side, but what makes her stand out is the clarity of her vision. This shows through partially in the groundbreaking music - trip hop before there was trip hop. Blue Lines came out at exactly the same time, but I think Witch has stood the test of time much better, to some extent because she hasn't used loops lifted from old soul tracks. However, what makes this album really stand out is the lyrics. Rather than the well-presented but banal lyrics of Massive Attack,
