“I’m a Muslim, I’m a Jew/I’m Ku Klux Klan, I’m a nigger too.” That claim, from “Coalition,” is pretty outlandish, but Tricky—the unorthodox MC-producer who debuted in 1995 by posing in a wedding dress and covering Public Enemy with a Nirvana-loving Englishwoman in the Chuck D role—has always relished stretching identity like taffy. On Knowle West Boy, named for his hard-knock Bristol, England, origins, the former Massive Attack outrider ventriloquizes through several unfamiliar vocalists, male and female, often letting his own grainy purr trail behind them like a shadow or an echo. The music, coproduced by M.I.A. confederate Switch, warps and wanders too, from rock-rap to dancehall to new wave to folk. So while the ghetto reminiscences of “Council Estate” and “School Gates” revisit where Tricky’s from, he’s still finding new places to go.

DOWNLOAD “Cross to Bear,” “Coalition,” “School Gates”