![]() ![]() Beginning with their sophisticated debut, Blue Lines, which featured the vocalist Shara Nelson on the masterful “Unfinished Sympathy” and “Safe from Harm,” there was something special about their blunted cinematic (Martin Scorsese was another hero) sound that had a paranoid artfulness. Massive Attack unintentionally kicked off a new British Invasion in the nineties that was as powerful as the Beatles in the sixties, Led Zeppelin in the seventies, or Duran Duran in the eighties. Slowly but surely, we had to reclaim our identities as Brit artists who wanted to do something different with our music.” We realized it made no sense for us to talk about the South Bronx. At the time, we tried to rip off the entire style of American hip-hop performers, but we realized, as artists, it’s important to be yourself. “When we first formed Massive Attack, basically we were DJs who went into the studio with our favorite records and created tracks. ![]() “In the beginning, the sampler was our main musical instrument,” Daddy G said in his slight West Indian accent. Mezzanine is an album best listened to loud, preferably on earphones, to properly hear the layers of weirdness and rhythms, a soulful sound collage that was miles away from the “Parklifes” and “Champagne Supernovas” of their Brit-pop contemporaries Blur and Oasis. It incorporates more rock elements, including a newly hired band with the guitarist Angelo Bruschini, formerly of the New Wave band the Numbers, leading the charge and change. ![]() Mezzanine, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary on April 20, was a departure from the gritty electronica of Massive Attack’s first two projects, Blue Lines and Protection. Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, and Andrew Vowles in 1998. “In fact, we wound up recording in separate studios.” The producer Neil Davidge later described the process as “messy,” but from that angst, tension, and messiness, Massive Attack delivered a masterpiece. “When we got together to record, we realized the amount of creative friction between us,” Mushroom would confess later. Though Del Naja was shorter than the lanky Daddy G or the equally tall Mushroom, who were both somewhat reserved, his presence towered over the group, and it caused an earthquake break between the brotherhood. The band first came together in their hometown of Bristol. He was its resident auteur, and his Francis Bacon view of the world was visible in the band’s videos, album designs, and stage lighting. “That little space where it’s quite scary and erotic.” Also known as an excellent graffitist and painter (inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat) and rumored to be the mysterious street artist Banksy (a claim he denied), Del Naja had seemingly become the leader of the group. “ Mezzanine is that place in between, when you’re not sure if it’s yesterday or today,” Del Naja told me at Olympic Studios in London. Me and my beautiful homegirl Wendy Washington rode out to the Palace of Versailles as Massive’s remake of the soul classic “Be Thankful for What You Got” blared from the speakers. The year before, when I’d visited Paris, I’d taken Blue Lines along to serve as my soundtrack of the city. But I never forgot the experience of sitting with Massive, trying to refrain from being too much of a fanboy. I had to beg the cornball editor in chief to send me, and in the end, the story was never published. Del Naja penned most of the Dadaistic lyrics on Mezzanine and thought of its title.Īs a pop journalist, I had already covered their contemporaries Portishead and Tricky, so of course I felt it was my duty and destiny to fly to London to cover Mezannine. Although they collaborated with other singers and musicians, the core Massive trio consisted of Grant “Daddy G” Marshall, Andy “Mushroom” Vowles, and Robert “3D” Del Naja. ![]() They were preparing to release their third album, the beautifully complex and brooding Mezzanine. In 1998, when I was a writer for Vibe magazine (which was the leading black culture journal), I went to London to interview the trip-hop kings Massive Attack. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |