Welcome, and thank you for visiting this site.  My name is Simon Arbuthnot, I am a research student at Edinburgh Napier University and these web pages contain information and media related to my masters degree dissertation project on UK Hip-Hop identities in the 1990s, conducted through Edinburgh Napier University in 2021.

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I have been a DJ and music maker for my entire adult life, but particularly in the 1990s and into the 2000s, heady times indeed.  It is my passion, my lifestyle, my identity.  I chose to examine and document this period of time in UK music history because I lived through it, danced to it, worked in it and immersed myself in the culture of sampling and turntable plunderphonics.  In my own life I have created Trip-Hop inspired music as one half of MonoSapiens (with my brother Rik) and you can hear most of our back catalogue on our YouTube page by hitting that button!

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I always felt that the term 'Trip-Hop' was an illustrative, appropriate name for the way the UK interpreted Hip-Hop music.   To me, this was as much club music as it was head-nodding chill out music.  Narcotic enough to entrance listeners into relaxation, or to give you the buzz to bust out your best moves on the floor. 

 

History now views 'Trip-Hop' as the Bristol sound of Massive Attack, Tricky and Portishead.  Yet so much more music exists that some call 'instrumental Hip-Hop', the sound of Ninja Tunes, Mo Wax, Warp Records, Grand Central Records, Wall of Sound.  These labels made music for dance-floors and headphones, for your ears and your mind and your hips.  Whether you were grooving to it on the floor, or relaxing to it on the beach, 'Trip-Hop' sums up perfectly the fusion of acid house sensibility with Hip-Hop style, the sound of the UK taking you on a journey into sampling.

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Included here are some excerpts from the text of my research paper, as well as the full paper itself (just click the link above), and some media content in which I examine some of the elements that make up the analysis.

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I made this paper to be as accessible as possible, to Hip-Hop fans as much as to other academic researchers. Please feel free to connect with me using any of the contact information, or talk to me on the forum page with any comments or discussion points.  This is not an all-encompassing history of everything, and opinions can differ dramatically.  I would love to hear them!