In 1991, they released their debut album, Blue Lines, which has been included on numerous best-of lists and is generally considered the first album of the ‘trip-hop’ genre.[3] The single "Unfinished Sympathy" was a chart hit in Europe, including number one on the Dutch Top 40, and was later voted the 63rd-greatest song of all time in a poll by NME.[4] In 1994, they released their second album Protection. Thaws left the band later that year to pursue a solo career. In 1998, they released their third album, Mezzanine, giving them their first number one on the UK Albums Chart. Mezzanine also contains the top-10 single "Teardrop", which became the opening theme of the American television series House.[5] In 1999, Vowles left the band, with Del Naja and Marshall continued as a duo. They further released the albums 100th Window (2003) and Heligoland (2010). Thaws rejoined the band for the release of a new EP, Ritual Spirit in 2016. Blue Lines and Mezzanine feature in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[3][6] The group have collaborated with several recurring guest vocalists, including Horace Andy, Shara Nelson, Tracey Thorn, Elizabeth Fraser, Sinéad O'Connor, Damon Albarn and Hope Sandoval.
Massive Attack's awards include a Brit Award for Best British Dance Act, two MTV Europe Music Awards, and two Q Awards.[7][8] Their five studio albums have sold over 13 million copies worldwide.[9] Massive Attack are also known for supporting several political, human rights and environmental causes.
History
The Wild Bunch and "Any Love" (1980s-1990)
In the early 1980s, DJs Daddy G and Mushroom, and rappers Tricky and 3D met as members of partying collective the Wild Bunch. One of the first homegrown soundsystems in the UK, the Wild Bunch became dominant on the Bristol club scene in the mid-1980s.[9]
In 1988, Massive Attack was created as a spin-off quartet. Unsigned, the group (Mushroom, Daddy G, 3D and Tricky) put out "Any Love" as a single.[10] It was co-produced by Bristol double-act Smith & Mighty and featured the falsetto-voiced singer-songwriter Carlton McCarthy. In 1990, they committed to deliver six studio albums and a "best of" compilation to Circa Records. This record label became a subsidiary of, and was later subsumed into, Virgin Records, which in turn was acquired by EMI.[11][12][13]
In 1989, 3D had co-written Neneh Cherry's Manchild.[14] This working relationship continued with Cherry helping Massive Attack to record their first album Blue Lines. Cherry's partner Cameron McVey was an executive producer of the album and became the group's first manager.[15][16] Cherry and McVey provided financial support, via the Cherry Bear organisation, and the album was partly recorded in their house.[17] The band used guest vocalists, interspersed with their own sprechgesang stylings, on top of what became regarded as an essentially British creative sampling production; a trademark sound that fused hip hop, soul, reggae and other eclectic references, both musical and lyrical.[11] The album used vocalists including Horace Andy and Shara Nelson, a former Wild Bunch cohort.[18] MC Willie Wee, also once part of the Wild Bunch, featured. Neneh Cherry sang backing vocals on environmentalist anthem, "Hymn of the Big Wheel".[19] Co-production was also provided by Jonny Dollar.
Blue Lines was released on 8 April 1991 on Virgin Records.[19] The album has been retrospectively considered the first of the "trip-hop" genre and received critical acclaim.
That year they released "Unfinished Sympathy" as a single, a string-arranged track at Abbey Road studio, scored by Will Malone.[20] The group temporarily shortened their name to "Massive" on the advice of McVey to avoid controversy relating to the Gulf War.[21] They returned to being "Massive Attack" for their next single, "Safe from Harm".
With McVey out of the picture,[clarification needed] Massive Attack enlisted the production talents of former Wild Bunch Nellee Hooper to co-produce some songs on it, with Mushroom. Other tracks were co-produced by the Insects and 3D. A dub version, No Protection, was released the following year by Mad Professor. Protection won a Brit award for Best Dance Act.[22] The other collaborators on Protection were Marius de Vries and Craig Armstrong,[23] a Scottish classical pianist.
In 1995, Tricky decided to end his involvement with the band in order to pursue a solo career.[11] The crediting of Tricky's contribution for Blue Lines was also a source of friction.[24] This was also the period of the release of Tricky's Maxinquaye and Portishead's Dummy. The term "trip hop" was coined and was referred to by the media as part of the "Bristol scene".[25][26]
In 1995, Massive Attack started a label distributed by Virgin/EMI, Melankolic, and signed Craig Armstrong and a number of other artists such as Horace Andy, Lewis Parker, Alpha, Sunna, and Day One. The group espoused a non-interference philosophy that allowed the artists to make their albums in the way they wanted.[27]
The same year the Insects became unavailable for co-production and having parted ways with Nellee Hooper, the band were introduced to Neil Davidge,[28] a relatively unknown producer who had an association with anonymous dance-pop outfit DNA. The first track they worked on was "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game", a cover version sung by Tracey Thorn for the Batman Forever soundtrack. Initially, Davidge was brought in as engineer, but soon became producer.[29]
The group increasingly fractured in the lead-up to the third album, Davidge having to co-produce the three producers' ideas separately. Mushroom was reported to be unhappy with the degree of the post-punk direction in which 3D, increasingly filling the production vacuum, was taking the band.[28]
In 1997, the group contributed to the film soundtrack of The Jackal, recording "Superpredators (Metal Postcard)", a song containing a sample of Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Mittageisen"[30] and "Dissolved Girl", a new song with vocals by Sarah Jay (that was later remixed for the next album), which was featured at the beginning of the 1999 film The Matrix, although it was not on the official soundtrack.
Later that year they released a single, "Risingson", from what would be their third album, Mezzanine.[31]
Mezzanine, "Teardrop", Vowles's departure and Marshall's absence (1997-2001)
In 1997, 3D became the band's main producer in the recording sessions that made Mezzanine, Massive Attack's most commercially successful album,[32] selling nearly four million copies. It featured Neil Davidge as a sound engineer and co-producer, and Horace Andy and Elizabeth Fraser as the main guest vocalists. During recording, Angelo Bruschini became their permanent lead guitarist both in a session capacity and live.[31]
The lead single, after "Risingson", was "Teardrop", sung by Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins. The song was accompanied by a video directed by Walter Stern, of an animatronic singing fetus. Horace Andy sang on three songs, including "Angel". A track the band made for the film The Jackal, "Dissolved Girl", sung by Sarah Jay, was remixed for inclusion on the record.
Touring extensively, friction between Mushroom and the other band members came to a head. Mushroom was unhappy with the direction of the group and having to appear on tour. In 1999, Mushroom left the band.[35]
Around this time, 3D, with Davidge decamped into Ridge Farm studio with friends and band members of Lupine Howl (made up of former members of the band Spiritualized, including Damon Reece, who went on to be Massive Attack's permanent session drummer and one of two live drummers) towards a fourth Massive Attack LP, taking things even further into a rock direction.[15] 2001 also saw the release of Eleven Promos, a DVD of Massive Attack's 11 music videos thus far, including "Angel", a £100,000+ promo.[36]
Despite having taken 3D's side after Mushroom's departure and participating in a webcast as a duo in 2000, Daddy G took a personal break from the band in 2001.
100th Window, Marshall's return and Collected (2002-2006)
With Daddy G temporarily no longer involved in the studio, Davidge and 3D steered "LP4" on their own. Enlisting the vocals of Sinéad O'Connor and Horace Andy, 100th Window was mastered in August 2002 and released in February 2003.[37] Featuring no samples or cover versions, 100th Window was not as critically well-received in Britain as the other records, although the album received a warmer reception internationally, scoring a 75 out of 100 on review aggregation site Metacritic.[38] The group collaborated with Mos Def on the track "I Against I", which appeared on the "Special Cases" single and the soundtrack for Blade II. "I Against I" is also notable as the only track from the 100th Window sessions that features a writing credit from Daddy G. 100th Window sold over one million copies and was toured extensively (including Queen Square, Bristol—a one-off sell out concert set up in the city centre park, which was seen as a homecoming).[39]
Also in 2003, 3D was arrested on allegations involving child pornography, which were reported widely in the media.[40] Del Naja was soon eliminated as a suspect[41] (although he was charged with ecstasy possession and unable to get a U.S. visa for a while) with Daddy G and fans offering their support. The arrest affected the beginning of the 100th Window tour schedule.
In 2005, 3D and Davidge agreed to an offer from director Louis Leterrier to score the entire soundtrack for Danny the Dog, starring Jet Li. Dot Allison, who had sung with the band on the 100th Window tour, sang the end title track, "Aftersun". 3D and Davidge also scored the soundtrack for the Bullet Boy film, with 3D on the end title vocals.
In 2005, Daddy G started coming into the studio, although little came of the material. He decided to instead work with a production duo, Robot Club, in another studio, feeling that he would be more free to develop tracks in the way he wanted. Meanwhile, 3D and Davidge recorded with a number of different singers as well as creating a track named "Twilight", for UNKLE's War Stories album. Later that year, Massive Attack decided to release their contractually obliged compilation album Collected in 2006. They released it with a second disc, made up of previously released non-album songs and unreleased sketches.[37]
In 2007, 3D and Davidge scored three soundtracks, In Prison My Whole Life (which featured a track called "Calling Mumia" with vocals by American rapper Snoop Dogg), Battle in Seattle and Trouble the Water.
In February 2007, Massive Attack hosted a charity benefit for the Hoping Foundation, a charity for Palestinian children. In 2008, it was announced that Massive Attack were to curate the UK's Southbank Meltdown, a week-long event. It was suggested in interviews that this event would inspire Massive Attack back into action, having spent several years drifting towards the completion of their fifth studio album.[42]
Later that year, 3D and Daddy G headed to Damon Albarn's studios for some writing and jamming. Around this time, Davidge scored the soundtrack for a Paul McGuigan film, Push and in December, 3D completed the score for 44 Inch Chest with the Insects and Angelo Badalamenti.
Davidge and 3D got back together in 2009 with Daddy G to finish the fifth album, incorporating bits of the Albarn material. Later it was announced that the band were to headline the 2009 Bestival festival,[43] and soon after that they were to tour the UK and Europe. In May, 3D's instrumental "Herculaneum", featured in the film Gomorra, won an Italian award for Best Song. Later that month, 3D and Daddy G picked up a special Ivor Novello award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.[44]
On 29 May 2009, Jonny Dollar died of cancer aged 45, survived by his wife and four children. Dollar was the programmer and hands-on producer behind Blue Lines, writing some of the melodies that were the basis for the string arrangements in "Unfinished Sympathy".[45]
On 25 August 2009 their new EP, Splitting the Atom, was announced. The other new tracks on the EP were Tunde Adebimpe's "Pray For Rain", Martina Topley-Bird's "Psyche" and Guy Garvey's "Bulletproof Love". The latter two tracks appear as remixes of the album versions.
The fifth album was released on 12 November 2009, called Heligoland, after the German archipelago of Heligoland, after a previous project called "Weather Underground" was abandoned.[9] 3D said "I think it's got definitely a more organic feel".[46] The opening track, "Pray For Rain" featured guest vocals of TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe. Damon Albarn, Martina Topley-Bird and Mazzy Star frontwoman Hope Sandoval also provide guest vocals on the album. 3D said in October 2010, to the Spinner website, that his plans were now for "unorthodox" releases of several EPs in 2011, rather than an album.[47]
Ritual Spirit EP and reunion with Tricky (2013-2019)
In a 2013 interview for his first solo art show since 2008, 3D confirmed that not only was new Massive Attack material in the works, but that rumours of a reunion with Tricky were true.[48] Tricky had not been featured on a Massive Attack album since 1994's Protection.
"The idea is to put a record out next year", he says. "We actually get on really well at the moment because we don't spend time in the studio together", he says with a wry grin. "Me and Tricky wrote some new tracks in Paris last year, which haven't seen the light of day yet – but that was fun. They should be on the next album."
On 5 February 2014, it was confirmed that Massive Attack would headline at Secret Solstice, a new music festival in Reykjavík in June.[49] On 21 February 2015, it was confirmed through the Massive Attack Facebook page that they would be collaborating with Run the Jewels.[50][51][52]
On 21 January 2016, the iPhone application "Fantom" was released. The application was developed by a team including 3D and let users hear parts of four new songs by remixing them in real time, using the phone's location, movement, clock, heartbeat, and camera.[citation needed]
On 28 January 2016, Massive Attack released a new EP, Ritual Spirit, which includes the four songs released on Fantom. The EP was written and produced by Del Naja and new collaborator, Euan Dickinson.
It was their first release since the 2011 Four Walls / Paradise Circus collaboration with Burial, and the first time since 1994 that Tricky had been featured on Massive Attack content. Scottish hip-hop group Young Fathers, London rapper Roots Manuva and singer Azekel also featured on the EP.[53]
On 26 July 2016, Massive Attack previewed three new songs: "Come Near Me", "The Spoils", and "Dear Friend" on the Fantom iPhone application on which they previously previewed the four songs from the Ritual Spirit EP.[54]
On 29 July 2016, they released a new EP, "The Spoils", which includes "The Spoils" and "Come Near Me", both previewed on Fantom. The EP was written and produced by Daddy G, without 3D and Tricky’s involvement. "The Spoils" features vocals from American singer-songwriter Hope Sandoval, and "Come Near Me" features British vocalist Ghostpoet. A music video for "Come Near Me", directed by Ed Morris, and featuring Kosovan actress Arta Dobroshi, was released the same day as the single.[55] The video for "The Spoils", featuring Cate Blanchett and directed by Australian director John Hillcoat, was released on 9 August 2016.[56]
On 13 July 2018, Massive Attack cancelled their appearance at the Mad Cool festival in Madrid because of sound bleed from Franz Ferdinand on a neighbouring stage. The festival offered several solutions to accommodate the band, but Massive Attack rejected them all.[57]
In 2019, Massive Attack went on tour to promote the 20th anniversary rerelease of Mezzanine, billed as "Mezzanine XX1". The American tour dates, originally scheduled for April, were postponed to September due to illness in the band.[58]
Eutopia EP and audiovisual releases (2020 - present)
In July 2020, Massive Attack released a political audiovisual EP called Eutopia.[59] The three-track fusion was created across five cities during the COVID-19 global lockdown period, and was partly formed by generative algorithmic visuals from AI art pioneer Mario Klingemann and collaborations with Algiers, Young Fathers and US poet Saul Williams.[60] The conceptual project, co-written and produced by 3D and documentary filmmaker Mark Donne, featured strong arguments for global system change from UN Paris Climate Agreement author Christiana Figueres, founder of the Universal Basic Income Principle Professor Guy Standing and inventor of the US "Wealth Tax" policy Professor Gabriel Zucman. Each video ends with a quote from Thomas More's Utopia.[61]
Massive Attack were scheduled to headline the 2022 edition of the Primavera Sound music festival in Barcelona, Spain, but an unnamed band member's serious illness forced the band to cancel its appearance with the rest of its European tour.[62]Angelo Bruschini, who played guitar on Mezzanine and 100th Window while touring with the band since 1995, died of lung cancer on 23 October 2023.[63]
The group played their first show in five years on 5 June 2024 in Gothenburg, Sweden, joined by guests Elizabeth Fraser, Horace Andy and Young Fathers, who all toured with the band during their European shows that summer.[64] The same line-up played Bristol in August. Billed as a 'Climate Action Accelerator' gig, the group worked with local businesses to reduce the event's environmental impact.[65][66] Around this time, Massive Attack announced their first American tour since 2019; again to feature Fraser, Andy and Young Fathers. However, on 11 October 2024, the group cancelled all the US dates less than a week before. They cited "unforeseen circumstances" as the reason.[67][68]
Musical style
Some of their most noted songs have been without choruses and have featured dramatically atmospheric dynamics. They use distorted guitar crescendos, lavish orchestral arrangements and prominent looped/shifting basslines, underpinned by high and exacting production values, sometimes using copious digital editing and mixing.[12] The pace of their music has often been slower than prevalent British dance music of the time. These and other psychedelic, soundtrack-like and DJist techniques, formed their style which has often been emulated. Journalists described this sound as "trip hop" from the mid-nineties onwards.[69] In an interview in 2006, Daddy G said, "We used to hate that terminology trip-hop so bad," [laughs] "You know, as far we were concerned, Massive Attack music was unique, so to put it in a box was to pigeonhole it and to say, 'Right, we know where you guys are coming from.'"[70]
Other projects
'Fire Sale' exhibition
A solo exhibition of Del Naja's art was held at the Lazarides gallery in central London, from 24 May to 22 June 2013. The show's content spanned a period of over twenty years and featured many of the art pieces that Del Naja created for Massive Attack. Each piece, reinterpreted especially for the exhibition, was hand-printed and finished. The show also featured three one-off 'digital infinity mirrors', two of which contained phrases supplied by Reprieve that were extracted from drone pilot dialogues. Del Naja performed a DJ set during the opening night on 23 May 2013.[71]
Massive Attack and Adam Curtis
Del Naja conceived and designed an eight-night festival with filmmaker Adam Curtis—in collaboration with UVA (United Visual Artists)—that premiered in Manchester, UK in July 2013. The festival featured Curtis's film, unofficially titled The Plan, which was projected on a huge screen surrounding the audience, while music from Massive Attack was interweaved throughout the film.[72] Del Naja, who orchestrated the film's soundtrack, described the experience as a "collective hallucination" and the film was also shown at the Manchester International Festival in July 2013.[73][74][75][76] Music created by Del Naja for the festival became the score for a BBC production entitled HyperNormalisation in 2016.[77]
In 2019, Del Naja and Adam Curtis teamed up for a second time on a live show based on the band's Mezzanine album.[78] The show challenged the idea of nostalgia and power, and featured machine learning GANS and deep fakes from Mario Klingemann, as well as new films from Curtis that were used to tell a narrative story. They were used as visuals for cover versions of non Massive Attack songs based on samples and loops that made up the album's identity.[79]
Mezzanine DNA
In April 2019, it was reported that Massive Attack had encoded Mezzanine into DNA to mark the 20th anniversary of the seminal 1998 album. The album has also been made available in the form of a matte black spray paint can. A limited number of spray cans will contain the DNA encoded audio within matte black paint and each can will contain approximately one million copies of the album.[80] Addressing the novel storage method, Del Naja – who is also known as a graffiti artist as ‘3D' – said: “It’s a creative way to store your back catalogue, although DNA-encoded spray paint is unlikely to be adopted by street artists seeking anonymity”.[81]
In 2008, Massive Attack curated the annual Meltdown festival on London's South Bank. During the two weeks of live performance, cinema and art, they worked with human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith and his organisation Reprieve which uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners.[84]
Massive Attack donated all proceeds from their 2010 EP Atlas Air to War Child, a charity the band previously supported when they contributed to The Help Album.[86]
On 14 November 2012, on the eve of the Bristol Mayor election, the band caused some surprise by endorsing independent millionaire and former Liberal DemocratGeorge Ferguson, citing the need for a mayor who would help facilitate creative projects to the city, and wasn't simply following a party political agenda.[88] Previously, Del Naja had openly criticised Ferguson for being a member of the Society of Merchant Venturers,[89] an organisation dating back to the 16th century which had many connections with the Bristol slave trade.[90] Del Naja endorsed Ferguson again in the 2016 election.[citation needed]
In September 2018, Massive Attack criticised the Mayor of Bristol for cancelling the Bristol Arena project in the Temple Meads area of Bristol. The Mayor had announced a private sector company, YTL would build a privately funded arena in Filton, a northern suburb of Bristol and the band announced they would not play there. Despite this, when a pop up arena was temporarily erected on the Filton site, Massive Attack played two gigs in March 2019.
In November 2019, along with other public figures, Massive Attack signed a letter supporting Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn describing him as "a beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia and racism in much of the democratic world" and endorsed him in the 2019 UK general election.[91]
In June 2024, Massive Attack endorsed Carla Denyer, the co-leader of the Green Party, as MP for Bristol Central. They said "General Election 2024 is an opportunity for #Bristol to consolidate its green reputation by electing an MP who is resolutely focused on #ClimateAction and unambiguous on the matter of genocide in #Gaza. @carla_denyer is that candidate."[92]
International politics
Del Naja and Thom Yorke of Radiohead threw an unofficial party at the occupied UBS building in the city of London in December 2011, in support for the international Occupy movement.[93]
During a concert in Istanbul in 2014, Massive Attack named those who died in anti-government protests at Gezi Park on the outdoor screen at their back with the following sentences: "Their killers are still out there" and "We won't forget Soma".[94][95]
In June 2024, Massive Attack cancelled a concert at the Black Sea Arena in Tbilisi, originally scheduled for 28 July, in response to the Georgian government's repression of the nationwide civil protests against law proposals that could have restricted freedom of press and LGBT rights in the country; in an official statement, the band explained their decision by writing quote, "At this moment, performing at the state-owned Black Sea Arena could be seen as an endorsement of their violent crackdown against peaceful protests and civil society".[96]
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
In late July 2014, Del Naja and Marshall visited the Bourj El-Barajnehrefugee camp in Lebanon to meet with Palestinian volunteers at an educational centre. The band's profit from the show in Byblos was donated to the centre.[97] In 2017, Massive Attack performed three shows in support of Hoping, an organisation that helps raise money and supports projects for Palestinian youth in refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria.[citation needed]
Massive Attack have previously played three shows in Israel, but have boycotted it since 1999 "as a form of non-violent pressure on Israel to end its brutal occupation of Palestine".[98] They have described their decision as "not an action of aggression towards the Israeli people", but "towards the [Israeli] government and its policies", arguing that "the Palestinians [in Gaza and the West Bank] have no access to the same fundamental benefits that the Israelis do."[99] In May 2020, Massive Attack co-signed an open letter urging Israel to end the blockade of the Gaza Strip.[100]
In May 2024, the group publicly expressed their support to the music acts who had decided to boycott The Great Escape Festival in Brighton and Hove, in protest against the event's sponsor Barclays and its investments in companies supplying arms that were reportedly used by Israeli military forces in their invasion of the Gaza Strip.[101]
Decarbonisation project
On 28 November 2019, Robert Del Naja announced that Massive Attack partnered with a research centre based at the University of Manchester to explore the music industry's climate impact. He wrote in a column in The Guardian: "the commissioning of the renowned Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research to map the full carbon footprint of typical tour cycles, and to look specifically at the three key areas where CO2 emissions in our sector are generated." This will include information about band travel and production, audience transport and venue. "The resulting roadmap to decarbonisation will be shared with other touring acts, promoters and festival/venue owners to assist swift and significant emissions reductions."[102]
Environmentalism
In 2010, Massive Attack donated the income from a Lincoln car commercial to the clean up campaign after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[103]
Since October 2018, Massive Attack have also been supporting the climate activists of the Extinction Rebellion group, also known as XR, which conducted protests in London in October 2018 then April 2019. On 21 April, Massive Attack played a DJ set for the Extinction Rebellion protesters[104] in the heart of London in Marble Arch.[105] In July and October 2019, the group protested in 60 other cities worldwide,[106] Robert Del Naja providing a portable radio network using speakers in backpacks with receivers and transmitters for the campaigners in London.[107]
In 2021 the band published a report they had commissioned from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. The report examined the impact of live music on the environment and gave a set of recommendations for meeting the Paris agreement targets. Del Naja criticised the UK government for not doing more to meet the targets.[108] Massive Attack became the first band globally to commit their touring companies to the UN “Race to Zero” – Paris 1.5 compatible emissions reductions schedule.[109]
The band played a Bristol show named "Act 1.5" on 24 August 2024 with the goal of being a "large-scale climate action accelerator", blazing a "trail for new standards of decarbonisation of live music." There were 25 different measures to minimise carbon, including giving extra benefits to local attendees and those travelling by train, powering the venue by renewable energy only, serving only plant-based foods and minimising waste through compostable plates and cutlery.[65][110]
In March 2018, following the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Massive Attack suspended their Facebook page, stating: "In light of Facebook’s continued disregard for your privacy, their lack of transparency and disregard for accountability – Massive Attack will be temporarily withdrawing."[111]
Band members
Current members
Robert "3D" Del Naja – vocals, keyboards, guitars, programmer, arranger, producer, mixer (1988–present)
Despite the band rejecting the label, Massive Attack are generally considered to be a pioneering act of the Bristol music scene and the trip hop genre, with some calling them the greatest trip hop band.[112] Their debut album, Blue Lines, is generally considered to be the first album of the genre, even though the term was not coined until 1994. Both Blue Lines and Mezzanine are considered to be amongst the best albums of the 1990s and of all time.[113][114]
In 1999, Unfinished Sympathy was voted the 10th greatest song of all time in a poll by The Guardian.[115]
Delivered since 1991. The GAFFA Awards (Danish: GAFFA Prisen) are a Danish award that rewards popular music awarded by the magazine of the same name.[119]
The Edison Award is an annual Dutch music prize, awarded for outstanding achievements in the music industry. It is one of the oldest music awards in the world, having been presented since 1960.[120]
The International Dance Music Award was established in 1985. It is a part of the Winter Music Conference, a weeklong electronic music event held annually.[121]
The MTV Europe Music Awards were established in 1994 by MTV Europe to celebrate the most popular music videos in Europe. Massive Attack has received two awards from three nominations.
The Q Awards is the UK's annual music awards held by music magazine Q for excellence in music. Massive Attack has received two awards from two nominations.
Trip hop is a musical genre that originated in the late 1980s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic fusion of hip hop and electronica with slow tempos and an atmospheric sound, often incorporating elements of jazz, soul, funk, reggae, dub, R&B, and other genres, typically of electronic music, as well as sampling from movie soundtracks and other eclectic sources.
Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws, better known by his stage name Tricky, is a British record producer and rapper. Born and raised in Bristol, in southwest England, he began his career as an early member of the band Massive Attack, alongside Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall & Andrew Vowles. Through his work with Massive Attack and other artists, Tricky became a major figure in the Bristol underground scene, which gave rise to multiple internationally recognized artists and the music genre of trip hop.
Damon Albarn is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He is the frontman and main lyricist of the rock band Blur and the co-creator and primary musical contributor of the virtual band Gorillaz.
Blue Lines is the debut studio album by English electronic music group Massive Attack, released on 8 April 1991 by Wild Bunch and Virgin Records. The recording was led by members Grantley "Daddy G" Marshall, Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adrian "Tricky" Thaws, and Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles, with co-production by Jonny Dollar. It also features contributions by singers Shara Nelson and Horace Andy. Generally regarded as the first "trip hop" album, Blue Lines blended elements of hip hop with dub, soul, reggae, and electronic music.
100th Window is the fourth studio album by English electronic music group Massive Attack, released on 10 February 2003 by Virgin Records. The album was mainly produced by lead member Robert Del Naja, as the group's producer Andrew Vowles departed shortly after the release of their previous album Mezzanine (1998), and Grant Marshall opted out of the production of the album. 100th Window features vocals from regular guest Horace Andy, as well as newcomers Sinéad O'Connor and Damon Albarn. Stylistically, it is the first album by the group to make no use of existing samples, and contains none of the hip hop or jazz fusion styles that the group were initially known for.
Robert Del Naja, also known as 3D, is a British artist, musician, singer and songwriter. He emerged as a graffiti artist and member of the Bristol collective the Wild Bunch, and later as a founding member and sole consistent member of the band Massive Attack, with which he is still active. In 2009, he received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.
Eutopia is a 2020 EP by British trip hop group Massive Attack, released on July 10, 2020 on the band's YouTube account as a collection of three music videos; as of November 2024, it remains unavailable on Music streaming services. The EP represents the band's first work in four years, following the 2016 releases of the Ritual Spirit EP and the single "The Spoils".
Mezzanine is the third studio album by English electronic music group Massive Attack, released on 20 April 1998 by Circa and Virgin Records. For the album, the group began to explore a darker aesthetic, and focused on a more atmospheric style influenced by British post-punk, industrial music, hip hop and dub music. The album spawned four singles, “Risingson”, “Teardrop”, “Angel” and “Inertia Creeps”. It’s the group’s first album to not feature the input of rapper Tricky and the last to feature Andrew “Mushroom” Vowles. It also marked the first collaboration between Robert Del Naja and producer Neil Davidge.
Collected is a compilation album by British trip hop collective Massive Attack, released on 27 March 2006. The album was preceded by the release of the single "Live with Me" on 13 March. It collects most of the band's singles up until this point.
Grantley Evan Marshall, also known by the stage name Daddy G, is a British DJ and a founding member of the band Massive Attack.
Andrew Lee Isaac Vowles, also known as Mushroom, is an English musician, known for being a founding member of the trip hop/abstract art collective Massive Attack, along with Robert Del Naja (3D), Adrian Thaws (Tricky) and Grantley Marshall.
Heligoland is the fifth studio album by English electronic music duo Massive Attack, released on 8 February 2010 by Virgin Records. Named after a German archipelago, it was their first studio album in seven years, following 100th Window (2003). It has been certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
The Wild Bunch were an English sound system and loose collective of musicians and DJs based in the St Paul's, Montpelier and Bishopston districts of Bristol, England, named after Sam Peckinpah's 1969 Western film.
"Inertia Creeps" is a song by English electronic music band Massive Attack, released on 19 October 1998. It was the fourth and final single released off their third album, Mezzanine (1998). It is the least commercially successful of the four singles released from Mezzanine, charting only on the New Zealand Singles Chart at No. 16, but it has been noted as one of the best singles from the album.
The discography of British trip hop band Massive Attack consists of five studio albums, three compilations, five remix albums, one soundtrack, five EPs, eighteen singles, and twenty-seven music videos. The group was founded in 1988 by musicians Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adrian "Tricky" Thaws, Grantley "Daddy G" Marshall, and Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles in Bristol, England. Prior to this, all four were members of British sound system the Wild Bunch.
The Bristol underground scene is a cultural movement in Bristol, England, beginning in the early 1980s. The scene was born out of a lack of mainstream clubs catering for the emergence of hip hop music, with street and underground parties a mainstay. Many DJ crews formed in the early '80s playing hip hop, house and soul in disused venues with sound systems were borrowed from the reggae scene: City Rockers, 2 Bad, 2 Tuff, KC Rock, UD4, FBI, Dirty Den, Juice Crew, Rene & Bacus, Soul Twins, Fresh 4 and Bristol ultimate DJ Masters The Wild Bunch. These names were the precursors to the more well known ones that came from this scene. It is characterized by musicians and graffiti artists. The scene was influenced by the city's multiculturalism, political activism, and the art movements of reggae, punk, hip hop, hippies and new age.
Neil Davidge is an English record producer, songwriter, film score composer and musician. Once an associate of dance producers DNA, he is best known as the long-term co-writer and producer for trip hop collective Massive Attack. In 1997, he also produced the Sunna album One Minute Science. During that time he has established a career as a film score composer including projects such as Push, Bullet Boy, Trouble the Water, and additional music for Clash of the Titans.
"Risingson" is a song by the English trip hop group Massive Attack, released as a single on 7 July 1997 by Virgin Records. It is the first single from their third album, Mezzanine (1998), and the eighth single overall.
"Angel" is a song by English trip hop group Massive Attack, featuring the vocals and songwriting from Horace Andy, and is partially based on Andy's song "You Are My Angel". It was released as the third single from their third studio album, Mezzanine (1998), on 13 July 1998. "Angel" peaked at number 30 on the UK Singles Chart.
Ritual Spirit is an EP by British trip hop trio Massive Attack, released on 28 January 2016. It features trip hop artist Tricky for the first time since the release of Protection in 1994, and also features Scottish hip-hop group Young Fathers, London rapper Roots Manuva and singer Azekel.
1 2 3 Chemam, Melissa (4 March 2019). Massive Attack: Out Of The Comfort Zone. ASIN1910089729.
↑ "Massive Attack Discography– Page 1". Eil.com. Retrieved 22 May 2009. Any Love (Mega rare 1988 UK self released debut 2-track 12" on Massive Attack Records, includes Bonus Version, stickered sleeve MASS001)
↑ "Andrea Parker". NME. Retrieved 22 May 2009. Will Malone, who had worked on horror film soundtracks and Massive Attack's classic "Unfinished Sympathy".
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