Massive Attack

Trip-hop pioneer Tricky, of Massive Attack fame, talks with Wired.com about becoming a musician and about how he views his naive approach as important to his unique sound.

via wired

We try to avoid politics at Synthtopia, because we’d rather be thinking about patching a synthesizer than thinking about patching up the country. 

We know you don’t come to Synthtopia to read about politics – you may even come to the site to escape it for a while. 

But – can George W. Bush be gone soon enough?

Bush’s legacy to his country will be 8 years of incompetent administration, the worst deficits in history and laying waste to traditional Republican values.

You might think that music and musicians could escape George W. Bush, but no. 

Massive Attack has publicly condemned the use of their music by the Bush administration as a tool for interrogation and torture.

Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor has just made this statement, Regarding NIN music used at Guantanamo Bay for torture:

It’s difficult for me to imagine anything more profoundly insulting, demeaning and enraging than discovering music you’ve put your heart and soul into creating has been used for purposes of torture.

If there are any legal options that can be realistically taken they will be aggressively pursued, with any potential monetary gains donated to human rights charities.

Thank GOD this country has appeared to side with reason and we can put the Bush administration’s reign of power, greed, lawlessness and madness behind us.

When news like this comes out, you realize that you can’t ignore it, compartmentalize it or think that this stuff won’t affect what you do. 

George W. Bush has bought the domain name for his Presidential library back from cybersquatters – so lets hope that he gets to work on patching up his legacy, so we can think about patching up ours.

London’s Southbank Centre is one of the hippest venue’s in the world, and it’s the home of an event, Massive Attack’s Meltdown 2008, that may be the event of the year.

Massive Attack’s Meltdown will feature performances from:

• Gong – Seeded in Paris during the 1968 student riots, Gong weave their unique magic with an imaginative mix of psychedelic jazz fusion, eastern/world music, synths and loops, and deep space funk all laced with self-deprecating humour – 40 years on their underground influence is massive.
• Massive Attack – This year’s Directors open the festival by performing songs from their wide-ranging career live on stage.
• Yellow Magic Orchestra – Pioneers of electropop, Yellow Magic Orchestra brought synthpop to the world along with Kraftwerk in the 1980s.
• Vangelis’ Blade Runner Soundtrack performed live by the Heritage Orchestra, mixed by Massive Attack.
• Grace Jones – The statuesque Grace Jones performs, including songs from her as yet untitled new album.
• DJ Peaches
• DJ Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet
• George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic
• DJ Andrew Weatherall

More artists to come – but you have to admit, that’s a pretty awesome lineup already.

I was in London last year on business last year and had a night open. I checked what was happening at the Southbank Centre and ended up going to a tribute to Robert Anton Wilson, author of the Illuminatus Trilogy. The evening was a dense multimedia event, featuring Coldcut, Mixmaster Morris, Bill Drummond from the KLF, V for Vendetta author Alan Moore and Ken Campbell, the producer of the Illuminatus play.

It was insanely cool, and if Meltdown is even half as cool, it will be an event to remember.

Amazon has released their customer picks for the Top 10 Dance & DJ releases of 2003:

1. 100th Window – Massive Attack
2. The Richest Man in Babylon – Thievery Corporation
3. Beautiful Tomorrow – Blue 6
4. Simple Things – Zero 7
5. Love Box – Groove Armada
6. Hotel Costes 5 – Various Artists
7. Mirror Conspiracy – Thievery Corporation
8. Verve Remixed – Various Artists
9. Play – Moby
10. La Revancha Del Tango – Gotan Project

These releases were the top purchases in Amazon’s Dance and DJ category in 2003.

This 2003 release covers similar territory to the band’s 1998 Mezzanine. The sound is epic and lives up to the name Massive.

This moody orchestral work finds Massive Attack working with some interesting collaborators. Sinead O’Connor adds her distinctive sound to “What Your sould Sings”. Her singing makes this a moving song. She also helps out on “A Prayer for England”, where her emotional delivery contrasts with Massive Attacks restrained backing. Horace Andy contributes the vocal for “Name Taken”, a string filled number that’s anything but easy listening.

Overall, the sound on 100th Window is restrained and mellow. The music stretches the boundaries of trip-hop. If there’s a weakness, it’s that the interest comes primarily from the vocalists, rather than the music itself.

100th Window doesn’t break new ground to the extend that Massive Attack’s 1991 release Blue Lines did. Nevertheless, it’s a well produced slice of challening dance electronica.