While by no means a huge commercial success, the record was met with major critical praise and was heralded as an instant classic in many quarters. Nelson , featured on many of the album's most memorable tracks, exited for a solo career soon after, and the group then changed their name to simply "Massive" to avoid any implication of approval for the U. After a three-year hiatus, Massive Attack -- their full name now properly reinstated -- resurfaced with Protection.
Three singles -- "Karmacoma," "Sly," and the title track -- were released from the LP, which was also remixed in its entirety by dub specialist Mad Professor and issued as No Protection. A lengthy tour followed, and over the next several years, Massive Attack 's output was primarily confined to remixes for artists including Garbage. They also worked with Madonna on a track for a Marvin Gaye tribute album.
Finally, to promote their appearance at the annual Glastonbury music festival, the group issued the EP Risingson during the summer of The third full-length Massive Attack effort, Mezzanine , appeared in mid In addition to reggae singer Horace Andy making his third consecutive LP appearance with the group, vocal chores were handled by the Cocteau Twins ' Elizabeth Fraser and newcomer Sara Jay. Mezzanine became a hit among critics, clubs, and the college crowds, spinning successful singles such as "Teardrop" and "Inertia Creeps.
A tour of America and Europe followed, but Vowles left the band after disagreeing with the artistic direction of Mezzanine. Marshall later took a brief leave of absence to raise his family and producer Neil Davidge picked up the slack. The record was the group's first effort to be free of samples or cover songs, but it still performed well commercially, eventually selling more than a million copies.
For much of the s, members of Massive Attack moonlighted in film score work, often under the Suns pseudonym. Mezzanine will be 20 years old now this April. I don't know about you but I definitely feel a bit older having typed that. Mezzanine was my gateway drug into not only Massive Attack but into alternative and electronic music in general. Bear in mind I was in my earlier teens at the time, but Mezzanine really shook me up the first few months I listened to it and changed my opinion of what music could be.
Another year nearly over and I'd thought I'd better write a quick blog post about what Massive Attack have been up to in Compared to , this year has been relatively quiet, but we can only hope behind the scenes that its also been a good productive year for the band and that we can expect new music and maybe, just maybe, a new album! Following on from the first two EP's Ritual Spirit and The Spoils Massive Attack have released so far this year, we have two more brand new tracks on separate releases on the same day today.
Both of these tracks can be previewed as one minute samples in this post. Massive Attack's debut album, Blue Lines came out in April , so you'll have to forgive me as I'm nearly 6 months behind on writing this post to mark its 25th anniversary. Well it looks like that promise has been delivered upon. In my time as a Massive Attack fan while loving their music of course, I've also been an avid collector of the band's physical releases. Massive Attack ended up having to sell their communal car to pay for the string session, but it was agreed that the finished product was worth it.
However, there was one problem to solve before the trio could go any further. Since August , the British military had been part of a coalition of forces engaged in the Gulf War after Iraq had invaded the neighbouring state of Kuwait over control of oil production in the area. After months of building coalition forces in the region, the general offensive against Iraq began on 17 January This was Operation Desert Storm.
Air bombings on Iraq went on for the next 42 days and nights. Into this atmosphere came the release of Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy, which was pencilled in for a release date of Monday 11 February However, with the Gulf War raging, the BBC had decided to place an unofficial ban on certain songs and artists who they claimed would have been "unsuitable" for airplay while British friends, relatives and loved ones were serving in the Middle East.
The New Statesman published a list of the 67 songs that were deemed by the broadcaster to be sensitive in light of the conflict, which included for obvious reasons Blondie's Atomic, Pat Benatar 's Love Is A Battlefield and - with an eye on the Middle Eastern locale of the battle - Walk Like An Egyptian by The Bangles.
Because of this cautious approach, Massive Attack's label Circa made the decision to amend the trio's name for the release of Unfinished Sympathy - on the sleeve and label, they were just called " Massive ". The BBC claimed that there was no outright ban on these tracks, but they had compiled a list of songs for local stations that may be thought to be insensitive coming out of a news report that detailed British casualties.
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