After yesterday's post I started thinking about some of the music that made me who I am today... like what band is it that shattered everything I knew before and rebuilt my senses to appreciate the finer things in music? As I was trying to figure out what artist/band I was going to use for my post was shocked when I realized I haven't really posted much Massive Attack in the past. In fact I don't know if I have posted any, at all! Which is insane seeing as my favourite bands are as follows: Joy Division, The Libertines, Babyshambles, Mobius Band, Crystal Skulls and Massive Attack (ok so there are a couple more but...)
Massive Attack were/are one of those bands that made me think "wow, this is exactly what I have always wanted music to sound like." At 15 I was aware of Massive Attack through their connection to Tricky (who I was obsessed with) and knew they came from Bristol (just like my other favourite band at that time, Portishead, who are still one of my favourites) and little else. I bought their album Protection first and I enjoyed it quite a bit (I was already familiar with the dub version No Protection and didn't know it, but that's another story) but I really went bonkers for them when I heard Mezzanine.
Mezzanine is an album of total opposites that work in harmony. It is dark, and distant. Cold and isolated. Warm and breezy. Full of fear and hatred. An album about love and heartbreak that sees both the silver lining on the cloud and the shadow cast by it. It is one of those albums that was such a labor of love it basically broke up the band. Here's a little description from Wikipedia on the album:
Massive Attack's third album, Mezzanine, was released in 1998. Mezzanine showed the band moving towards an extremely dark, tense sound filled with distorted guitars and a combination of drum machines and live percussion that lacked the laid-back, jazzy nature they had occasionally shown in their previous albums. Original member Vowles, dissatisfied with this change in sound, left the band. He was replaced by Neil Davidge, who worked with Del Naja for much of his material on Mezzanine.
Mushroom (Andrew Vowles) didn't return to the group and Daddy G (Grant Marshall) has been 'spending time with his family' since Mezzanine.
Although some critics have said that Massive Attack haven't put out anything good since 1998 I, personally, disagree have enjoyed every Massive Attack release since. In fact even went so far as to see them live a couple months ago. It was really a sight to see but I felt like the show would have been better had it not been at the Riviera in Chicago. The acoustics in that place SUCK and every band I've seen there has not sounded quite right (it's been as though they couldn't hear themselves sing! Elizabeth Frasier and Horace Andy who are LEGENDS were all over the place, unable to hold onto notes or keys or anything). I would like to see them at another venue someday and suggest that if you get the chance you go see them. Even if their show gets screwed up (like it did when I saw them) it's still worth seeing!
Anyway... I thought I would try to give you the FULL Massive Attack experience here and post a little something from all over their catalogue... I hope you all enjoy this and if I can I might try to sneak a couple more remixes in either later tonight, or maybe I'll do another Massive Attack post... I dunno...
Here's the remixes:
Primal Scream- "Exterminator (Massive Attack Remix)"
U.N.K.L.E.- "Rabbit In Your Headlights (Reverse Light Massive Attack Remix)"
Garbage- "Milk (Massive Attack Classic Remix)"
Massive Attack- "Daydreaming (Blacksmith Remix)"
Here's some album tracks:
Massive Attack- "Lately" off Blue Lines
Massive Attack- "Man Next Door" off Mezzanine
Massive Attack- "Small Time Shot Away" off 100th Window
Here's some videos... the first one is the 'unreleased' video for 'Angel' which is EPIC... the other two are new videos off their 'Best Of...' called Collected.
And while I still have your attention I would like to thank you all for stopping by... as you can see below the numbers recently have been AMAZING! Keep coming back! I love you all! I'm not making a fucking penny off this shit (I don't think) but it makes me so happy that I'm making people's day just a little more fun! THANK YOU!
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