Trip-jop arrived like a sultry, club-inspired dusk, dismissing daylight’s certainties and concerns for a languid, liminal dream. In the mid-90s, before the millennium’s digital glare, Bristol basslines moved at the speed of doubt. Beats dragged their heels; voices hovered, half-present, half-remembered. It was club culture turned inward – after the rave, before the reckoning. Chill electronica became a thinking person’s pulse, vinyl crackle as philosophy, delay like tracing passages in a diary. In the work of Massive Attack, Sneaker Pimps, Moby, Portishead, and Tricky, paranoia felt plush and intimate. A vibe for the century’s end: slow, suspicious, sensual—music that mistrusted the future and made a home in that hesitation.
Now, out of that fin de siècle friction comes The Guillotines: producer Kubi Öztürk, vocalist Alexandra Kimel, filmmaker-bassist Simon Baucks, and multi-instrumentalist Benni Zimmerman. Four vantage points, one shared pulse.
Their latest release, pool painted black (Kubi’s Side) tilts their recent debut single toward that slipstream of those beloved 90s trip-hop acts. KU8I stretches the original track (released last month) into a slow-burn glide: bass low and patient, percussion clipped and clean, Kimel’s clear voice suspended in cool air. Memory hums beneath it: CD booklets, dim bedrooms, first freedoms, yet the arrangement keeps its footing in the present tense. It’s not quite nostalgia… more nostalgia-adjacent.
There’s an elegant poise and sophistication in the track: dreamy textures drift over grounded grooves; delay blooms, then clears. The remix moves like a mild spring drive, windows cracked, the city sliding past in sodium blur. It offers respite without retreat, intimacy without inertia. Sometimes it’s just good to zone out with a great tune like this one…a small sanctuary for late hours, wrapped in a Snuggie eating cheese and crackers after a chaotic day of deadlines and doomscrolling.
“Feeling like a trip you take in the backseat of your parents’ car on a mild spring day, Kubi’s side is willing to have you look at the pool painted black in a wholly different light,” says the band.
Listen to pool painted black (Kubi’s Side) below:
As an opening statement, pool painted black (Kubi’s Side) sketches the band’s coordinates: electronica brushed with blues, post-rock patience, a hint of indie-dance propulsion. Chaos and order share the same room. Berlin breathes in; The Guillotines breathe out.
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