Behind the Madness of Skilled Mechanics

Skilled Mechanics, a collective project started by music artist, Tricky, lets the rapper work with different types of musical artists to forefront their uncanny but pleasing vocal talents. Tricky recently released the single “Skilled Mechanics: Beijing to Berlin” and a video to go along with it. The Chinese rapper and producer, Ivy, is the first single on the Beijing to Berlin project.

The moniker “Skilled Mechanics” comes from a documentary about spies that were sent to the United States to overthrow governments. In the film, an ex-C.I.A agent calls these spies/assassins “skilled mechanics.” In an interview, Tricky says that it reminded him of someone who was a killer, and the name stuck.

In the beginning of the song, it is a bit hard to tell what Ivy is saying. However, Tricky himself was misled into thinking she was speaking her native language while rapping but then realized it must have been something different. Ivy’s rare lyrical flow in her songs compelled Tricky to feature her on his album project.

The “Beijing to Berlin” song probably isn’t something a person would sing along to at first because the words don’t seem to make out anything with the exception to the “knock, knock, knock…” part in the hook.

Other vocalists that are on Skilled Mechanics include Oh Land, Ann Dao and Francesca Belmonte. A cover of Corey Taylor’s song from Slipknot, “Bother” is featured on the album.

An artist and long-time friend that Tricky collaborated with is DJ Milo. Milo is on five tracks on Skilled Mechanics that have a hip-hop vibe to them. An addition to Tricky’s collaboration with DJ Milo, he also had his drummer, Luke Harris, be a vocalist on the Skilled Mechanics project. Tricky was very particular of whom he chose to be a vocalist for this album project.

The album will officially be released on January 22^nd on Tricky’s False Idols imprint.