Martina Topley-Bird

All Music Guide:

Because of a printing error on Maxinquaye, Martina Topley-Bird has often been referred to as "Martine," an error the unpredictable, low-profile, and confusion-loving singer/songwriter didn't bother correcting. The woman Vibe referred to as "the black Dietrich of Soul" grew up in London and went to schools that were mostly white and middle class. Being the odd one out suited Martina just fine; in fact, it was an environment she thrived in. A chance meeting with Tricky led to a relationship, both romantic and musical. Martina's ethereal voice mixed well with Tricky's gruff style, sounding like a siren calling listeners into a dark world. She played a large role on Tricky's debut, Maxinquaye, along with the follow-ups Nearly God and Pre-Millennium Tension.

The relationship eventually cooled down to platonic and Martina looked to strike out professionally on her own. She spent most of 2002 working on her debut, producing it herself with some help from Tricky and Alex McGowan. The appropriately named Quixotic hit the shelves in the U.K. in 2003, with guest appearances from DJ/producer David Holmes, Kyuss guitarist Josh Homme, and former Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan. Critics loved it, so much so that it was a 2003 finalist for the U.K.'s esteemed Mercury Prize, but it failed to find release in America. With help from Martina, Palm Pictures "re-designed and re-sequenced" the album and released it as Anything in the summer of 2004. During a four-year hiatus, she collaborated with Diplo, Gorillaz, and Son of Dave. She returned to recording proper in 2008 with the Danger Mouse-produced retro-sounding yet experimental album The Blue God. After an international tour, Topley-Bird released Some Place Simple in 2010 on Damon Albarn's Honest Jon's imprint.

Wikipedia:

Martina Topley-Bird (born 7 May 1975, St. Pancras, London) is an English vocalist and songwriter who first gained fame as the featured female vocalist on trip hop pioneer Tricky's debut album, Maxinquaye (a printing error credited her as "Martine"). She worked with him on his follow-up albums and, in 2003, released her own solo album, Quixotic.

Biography [edit]

Martina Topley-Bird is the daughter of well-known British direct marketing specialist, Drayton Bird, and her mother is Salvadoran, Seminole Indian and the rest is untraceable African American. Her first contact with public persona was as a choir singer at Clifton College. It was while she was a teenager at the school that she met trip hop pioneer Tricky, with whom she worked on his first album Maxinquaye. She continued her collaboration with Tricky on his follow-up albums Nearly God, Pre-Millennium Tension and Angels with Dirty Faces.She gave birth to Tricky's daughter around the release of Maxinquaye.

Following a falling-out of their professional and personal relationship in 1998, she began pursuing a solo career. It was not until 2003 that she released her debut album, Quixotic (Independiente Records), mainly produced by Topley-Bird and production team AMP9 (Alex McGowan, Steve Crittall, Nick Bird) at Space Eko Recording Studios London. Upon its release, it received positive reviews from critics and was a finalist for the 2003 Mercury Music Prize. The song "Sandpaper Kisses" from the album was featured in the video game, Fahrenheit (released in North America as Indigo Prophecy).

The album finally saw a limited release in the United States in July 2004 when the Palm Pictures label released a re-designed and re-sequenced version with a new title (Anything), a trimmed-down tracklisting and all-new cover art.

The following year she appeared on the Starbucks compilation album, Sweetheart 2005: Love Songs, which features contemporary musicians covering classic love songs. She sang "I Only Have Eyes for You", a song originally by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Al Dubin.

Her second solo album, The Blue God, was released in May 2008. The track "Carnies" was released as the first single on 3 March 2008 and reached No.20 on the UK Indie Charts. "Poison" was released as the second single and reached No.9 on the Indie Charts.

In 2010, Topley-Bird appeared on the album Heligoland by Massive Attack, lending her voice on the tracks "Psyche" and "Babel". She also toured with Massive Attack as their support act and providing guest vocals. Topley-Bird's third album, Some Place Simple, was released in July 2010. It contained stripped-down versions of songs from her first two releases, along with four new songs.

Topley-Bird performed Maxinquaye live at the Sundance Festival, London, in April 2012.