IOW blogger

On the IOW website,  music is described as:

“ the language that communicates with an individual’s “ inner being”.  It has the power to influence feelings, create atmosphere and change moods.   Research has shown that music can affect the heartbeat, brain waves, respiratory system, blood pressure, induce feelings of safety, strengthen the memory and aid learning. Music has subsisted throughout history and impacts and influences lives all around the world.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself and in the last week, my “ inner being” has been nourished by listening to the Massive Attack’s latest offering, “ Heligoland”- their first “ proper” album since 2003’s underrated and generally critically dismissed, “ 100th Window.” 

Since releasing their debut album, 1991’s highly influential, “ Blue Lines”, Massive Attack have released five albums ( and singles from them), two film soundtracks, a remix album, a singles box set and a best of compilation – hardly the most prolific output. Extra – curricular activities have included work as remixers for a diverse range of artists including U2, Madonna and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, song contributions to movies and determined political activism and lobbying.  Their recording sessions have become legendarily lengthy and fraught affairs and every album has been characterised by tracks being completely jettisoned or radically re-worked, bitter squabbles and tensions between collaborators and weeks turning into months and into years, without new material surfacing.  However, it’s a process that consistently yields remarkable adventures in sound and whilst Massive Attack may take their time, they always get you there. 

1991’s “ Blue Lines” was an astonishing collision of low end reggae bass lines, whispered rapping, lush orchestration,  imaginative soul samples, and in Shara Nelson, simply some of the most evocative female vocals you will ever hear. 1994’s “Protection”, expanded the sonic template and added electronics and brooding atmospherics to the mix, creating a sound, which was described by the press as “trip hop”.  Fellow Bristolians,  Portishead and former Massive collaborator, Tricky also produced equally ground breaking and inventive albums around this time which helped cement the influence of the “trip hop” movement, and in the mid nineties, Massive took quite an un expected turn- transforming from a sound system revolving around rappers and decks to a powerful live unit with a full complement of highly skilled musicians.

Here’s the scene; Friday night at Glastonbury 1997,  just before midnight at the World Music stage (as I think it was called then).  Michael Franti’s Spearhead have just thrilled us with their heady brew of hip hop rythums, funky jams and righteous polemic and it was nearly time for Massive to take the stage.  It had been raining for most of the day, but the skies had cleared, condensation rose into the air like thick dry ice and purple lights flooded the stage. The atmosphere and anticipation is so palpable – you can almost feel it.  A skittish drum pattern becomes audible followed by a brooding deep end dub bass – which hits me in the chest.  I can just about make out the silhouettes of the band members -  Horace Andy begins to sing, his angelic vocals fill the air – I feel a thump in my throat and am deliriously light headed.  The track is “ Angel” from the yet to be released album, “ Mezzanine” which will not appear for another ten months.  The song’s arrangement is astonishing - a sonic structure is gradually constructed and then demolished.  The drum pattern segues into a bass line which segues into a vocal which segues into a pulsating wave of electronics which segues into crashing, distorted,  electric guitar cords and then it starts over again – glorious noise is everywhere, senses are assaulted.

Whilst, “Angel” is not necessarily their finest work, although it’s pretty damn fine, it is in some ways an archetypal Massive track.  The song works as the sum of all its parts; with a power driven by nuance and soundscapes rather than individual skill or virtuoso performance – illustrating that as a creative force Massive are very much a collective. 

Following, “ Protection”, subsequent Massive albums were the aforementioned, “ Mezzanine” ( 1998) and 100th Window ( 2003), albums that took the collective further away from their soul/hip hop roots into a completely new territory that is beyond categorisation.  It wasn’t pop or rock or soul or reggae or dub or hip hop or electronica – but a unique collision of all of them.

And this brings us to “Heligoland”- probably the most pop and song based Massive have produced since, “Protection.” Of course this is pop like you’ve never heard before and Massive have made another yet sonic leap forward.  Once again, eclecticism is rife -  be it the tribal atmospherics of “ Pray For Rain”, the reflective melancholy of “ Saturday Night Came”,  the broody rock/reggae hybrid of “ Girl I Love You” and the eerie crackling malevolence of   “Atlas Air.”  This is head music that’s also extremely good for the soul.  I really hope they play at Glastonbury this year.

ELEVEN TO DOWLOAD

• Euro Zero Zero ( from “Singles Box”)
• Five Man Army ( from “ Blue Lines”)
• Butterfly Caught ( from “100th Window”)
• Group 4 ( live- you’ll have to go and see them, they normally finish their set with this- it will blow your mind!!!)
• Atlas Air ( from “ Heligoland”)
• Angel ( Blur remix, from “ Singles Box”)
• Spying Glass ( from “ Protection”)
• Blue Lines ( from “ Blue Lines”)
• Girl I Love You ( from “ Heligoland”)
• Heat Miser ( from “Protection”)
• I Against I ( collaboration with Mos Def, from the OST, “ Blade 2”)
• Wire ( from the OST, “ Welcome to Sarajevo”- this is not available to download , but if you’re very nice to me I’ll burn you a copy).