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Cultural Melting Pot (At spliff speed) A more clinical soundscaping in 2003, Massive Attack's overall sound grew persistently more experimental and melancholy, having a greater degree of gothic post-punk texture and moodily cinematic electronica integrated into it. The band became known for often not being able to easily get along with one another and working increasingly separately. Blue Lines is the debut album by Massive Attack, released on April 8, 1991 by Virgin Records. Generally considered the first trip hop album, though the term wasn't coined until several years later Blue Lines was a success in the United Kingdom, though sales were limited elsewhere. A fusion of electronic music, hip hop music, dub music, '70s soul music and reggae, the album established Massive Attack as one of the innovative British bands of the 1990s and the founder of trip hop's Bristol Sound. Music critic Simon Reynolds stated that the album also marked a change in electronic/dance music, "a shift toward a more interior, meditational sound. The songs on Blue Lines run at 'spliff' tempos - from a mellow, moonwalking 90 beats per minute ...down to a positively torpid 67 bpm. Blue Lines featured breakbeats, sampling, and rapping on a number of tracks, but the design of the album differed from traditional hip hop. Massive Attack approached the American-born hip hop movement from an underground British perspective, as well as incorporating live instruments into the mixes. It features the vocals of Shara Nelson and Horace Andy, along with the rapping of Tricky Kid. Blue Lines proved to be popular in the club scene, as well as on college radios. 1990-2: That year they released "Unfinished Sympathy" as a single [an obvious pun on Unfinished Symphony], a grandiosely string-arranged track at Abbey Road Studios, scored by Will Malone, that would go on to be voted the 10th greatest of all time, with a one-take video that also became iconic and much-imitated (by The Verve amongst others). The group shortened their name, on the advice of McVey to avoid controversy relating to the Gulf War. Protection (1994) is Massive Attack's second album, featured in the top ten of Rolling Stone magazine's 'Coolest Albums of All Time List,' calling it "great music for when you're driving around a city at 4 am," due to the chill out nature of the album. Like most of Massive Attack's albums, the music often defies categorisation, ranging from Rhythm and Blues (title track, Sly) to Hip Hop /rap (Karmacoma, Eurochild) to Reggae-tinged synthpop (Spying Glass) to classical-influenced electronica instrumentals (Weather Storm, Heat Miser). This album in particular has a heavy use of string instruments (or at least synthesizers imitating string instruments) compared to other Massive Attack albums, although certain tracks before and after have featured strings, like "Unfinished Sympathy" and "Live with Me". The track "Karmacoma" featured vocals from Tricky, and the video was directed by Jonathan Glazer. The song also features a sample from the track "Dream Time in Lake Jackson" by The KLF, which can be found 2 minutes in. DJ Mad Professor remixed the album in 1995 under the name No Protection. 1994-5 was also the period of Portishead's 'Dummy' and Tricky's 'Maxinquaye' albums and the term, "trip hop" was coined. Massive Attack bitterly opposed its use, wanting to not be pigeonholed. The media started to refer to the "Bristol scene",although this would be spurious to some extent as Tricky based himself in London [and later in the States] and there was not a great deal of camaraderie between the three entities. No Protection (1995) is the name of a dub remix of Massive Attack's second album Protection. The remix was done by the British dub producer Mad Professor. Mad Professor was contacted by Massive Attack after "Protection" was released to remix a song for a single. After the single was remixed, the band asked Mad Professor to listen to more of the album to explore the possibility of further remixes. The project then became a track by track remix of almost the entire album. Mad Professor heavily edited the original material to form a slow, pulsating mix in which the beat is emphasized, reverb is extensively used and the occasional vocals (many of the tracks are almost entirely instrumental) fade in-and-out in typical dub fashion, making a hypnotic, if slightly repetitive, mix. The result is arguably more textured than the original, but loses any sense of the jazzy feel of "Protection." 'Mezzanine' is Massive Attack's third studio album, released on April 27, 1998. It was produced by Neil Davidge along with the group and released by Virgin Records. Musically, 'Mezzanine' is a major departure from the jazzy and laidback sound of the first two albums ('Blue Lines' and 'Protection'), invoking the dark undercurrents which had always been present in the collective's music. It was released to near-universal acclaim worldwide, was a huge success in the UK and other parts of Europe, although it failed to share the same success in the United States, peaking at number 60 on the Billboard 200. This album was well received by critics, who praised the collective's new sound. Rolling Stone's Barney Hoskyns however, although praising the album, pointed its flaws; "[Sometimes] rhythm and texture are explored at the expense of memorable tunes, and the absence of the bizarre Tricky (who appeared on 'Blue Lines' and 'Protection') only highlights the flat, monotonous rapping of the group's 3-D." Mezzanine marked the departure of band member Andrew Vowles (Mushroom), due to creative conflicts. Similar to their previous albums, the majority of the songs consists of one or more samples, ranging from Isaac Hayes to Led Zeppelin. The album has sold over 300,000 copies in the UK alone since its release.The album relies heavily on abstract and ambient sounds, as demonstrated in the song 'Mezzanine' among others. Horace Andy, a well-known reggae artist also performed several spots on the album. The entire album was provided on their website for legal download many months before the physical release was announced. It was one of the first major uses of the MP3 format by a commercial organization. In 1998 Manfred Mann sued Massive Attack for unauthorized use of a sample of the song "Tribute", used in "Black Milk". The song has subsequently appeared as "Black Melt" on later releases and at live performances, with the notable absence of the sample. The track "Man Next Door" also sampled '10.15 Saturday Night', B-Side of British band The Cure's first single release in 1979. Mezzanine was darker, heavier sounding and more guitar-driven, the album came out initially to rather mixed reviews and a perception that it was not a commercial record, although it went on to be their most commercial. With Daddy G no longer involved in the studio, Davidge and Del Naja steered "LP4" on their own. Enlisting the vocals of a flu-ridden Sinéad O'Connor and perennial favourite Horace Andy, 100th Window was mastered in August 2002 and released in February 2003. More sonically conceptual than the other records and featuring no samples of other artists or cover versions, 100th Window, a reference to a book about internet security used as a metaphor apropos 'no man is an island'. It was not as critically well received in Britain as the other records, although the album received a warmer reception internationally; scoring a 75 outof 100 on review aggregation site Metacritic. Of Massive Attack's original core trio, the album only featured Robert Del Naja (3D); Andrew Vowles departed shortly after the release of 'Mezzanine', and Grant Marshall (Daddy G) was on a sabbatical to raise his young daughter. Released in 2003, it was written and produced by Del Naja and Neil Davidge, and features the vocals from Horace Andy and Sinéad O'Connor, as well as an appearance by Damon Albarn. It is the first album by the band that made no use of samples, and contains none of the jazz or fusion stylings of the band's earlier recordings. The title of the album comes from the book "The Hundredth Window: Protecting Your Privacy and Security in the Age of the Internet"; this title is an allusion to the idea that one's security is compromised if even one window is left open. In a 2003 interview, Del Naja explained that, "There's always a way in, there's always one thing you'll leave and locks are undone, and something you've forgotten. It's a great analogy to the human psyche and the soul, and the way we're voyeuristic, we like to look at and see everything we can get our hands on, have that power and be able to look at other people and look into thoughts while closing ourselves off and keeping ourselves as private as possible." Robert Del Naja (born 21 January 1965, in Bristol, UK), also known as 3D, is an artist and musician. Originally famous as a graffiti artist and a member of the Bristol group known as "The Wild Bunch", Del Naja went on to become a founding member of Massive Attack in addition to working with James Lavelle as a collaborator on the UNKLE albums Never, Never, Land and War Stories. His vocal performance is very distinctive, spoken in an almost whisper, with an echo effect applied over the top. Del Naja is one of the founding members of Bristol collective Massive Attack, who burst onto the dance scene with their debut album Blue Lines to considerable praise from critics and listeners alike. The second album, Protection, featured more usage of string music and an additional dub feel. Massive Attack's next album was titled Mezzanine and featured a move to a more guitar based sound. Del Naja has said "it was more my direction on this record." However he has also admitted that he got his own way by "being stubborn, throwing tantrums — the usual fucking childish behaviour." It also features more of Robert's own voice particularly on songs such as 'Inertia Creeps' and 'Risingson'. 'Inertia Creeps' was influenced by Del Naja's experiences in Istanbul, and the whole of the album has strong beats from various cultures. 100th Window, Massive Attack's fourth album, was effectively a solo project for Del Naja. It attracted some mixed reviews, which included some wholehearted praise. Stylus Magazine, for example, said: "100th Window is a masterpiece of its kind" and it "sounds fresh and wondrous." Del Naja was a young graffiti artist before becoming a vocalist. Indeed his first ever live gig was as a DJ accompanying artwork he had produced in a gallery in Bristol. He has produced work in various different media, and has published a book of his art. His work has been featured in magazines and on record sleeves. He took part in the largest ever British graffiti art battle alongside Wolverhampton artist Goldie.Del Naja has two Massive Attack tattoos; one of the 'Blue Lines' "flame" on his left arm, and a larger one similar to the beetle on the cover of 'Mezzanine'. Daddy G, (born Grantley Evan Marshall, 18th December 1959 in Bristol), is a musician and founding member of Massive Attack. Marshall joined the Bristol music scene as a member of the sound system The Wild Bunch in the 1980s, which included two other Massive Attack members, Robert Del Naja (3D and Andrew Vowles (Mushroom). After The Wild Bunch disbanded in 1986, Del Naja, Vowles, and Marshall then formed the group Massive Attack, which is considered to be the first and definitive group in the trip-hop genre. Horace Andy (born Horace Hinds, 19 February 1951, Kingston, Jamaica) is a roots reggae songwriter and singer, known for his distinctive vocals and hit songs such as "Government Land", "You Are My Angel", "Skylarking" and a cover version of 'Ain't No Sunshine'. 1990 saw Andy's profile further raised when he began collaborating with Massive Attack, going on to contribute to four of their albums, most notably with "Angel" (a new version of "You are My Angel" released on their third album, Mezzanine. Tricky (born Adrian Nicholas M. Thaws on 27 January 1968) is a musician, producer and actor. He is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop culture. His debut album 'Maxinquaye' was nominated for the Mercury Prize and voted Album of the Year by NME Magazine. Tricky was born in Knowle West, Bristol. His father left the family before he was born and his mother, Maxine Quaye, committed suicide when he was only four. He named his solo album after her - Maxinquaye - and once said that though he hardly knew her, he feels like she's speaking through him with his words.Eventually he met DJ Milo and hung out with a sound system called The Wild Bunch, which by 1987 evolved into Massive Attack. He received the nickname 'Tricky Kid' and at 18 he became a member of the Fresh 4, a rap group built from The Wild Bunch. He also rapped on Massive Attack's acclaimed debut album Blue Lines (1991). In 1991, before the release of Massive Attack's album Blue Lines, he met Martina Topley-Bird. Some time later she came to his house, and mentioned to Tricky and Mark Stewart that she could sing. Martina was only fifteen years old, but her 'honey-coated vox' impressed them and they recorded a song called "Aftermath" (though The Face '95 mentions that the first song they recorded together was called "Shoebox". Tricky showed "Aftermath" to Massive Attack, but they weren't interested. So in 1993 he decided to press a few hundred vinyl copies of the song. He cut it directly off of the tape, so that the song is basically "just bassline and hiss". (NME '94). Finally, a white label got him a contract with Island Records and he started to record his first solo album. Tricky failed to complete a number of lyrics for the Massive Attack album Protection and gave the band some of the lyrics he had written for Maxinquaye instead. Different versions of the same songs appear on both albums - called "Overcome" and "Hell is 'Round the Corner" on Maxinquaye and "Karmacoma" and "Eurochild" on Protection. When Massive Attack were asked, in a radio interview on CFNY (Toronto), about why the lyrics were the same, they jokingly said that it was because he was lazy.