Massive Attack - Heligoland
Posted by AlMachine on Wednesday, February 24, 2010


What has become of Massive Attack? A generation has grown up with the legendary Bristolians in their heads. Best part of two decades ago they became the soundtrack for a thousand student stoners, sitting in their dingy bedrooms, smoking weed to the Blue Lines, Protection and later Mezzanine. But after 2003’s unspectacular 100th Window, a reunited Robert del Naja and Daddy G face the prospect of being played gently in the homes of those same students - now established accountants, engineers and marketing men, settled in suburbia with their company cars on the driveway and weekend dinner parties. For this very reason, it is a delight to hear beats coming from Heligoland’s dark heart that sound like the ghost of these people’s past lives coming back to haunt them.

The opening couplet of Pray For Rain and Babel hint at the ominous interior of Heligoland’s spiralling soul, but by the time the familiar tones of Horace Andy make their first appearance of the record on Girl I Love You, we find ourselves deep in classic Massive Attack territory. The trademark bass boom drags its feet all over post-millennial beats that sound like they inspired Radiohead’s Kid A and Amnesiac, rather than being influenced themselves.

There is plenty of light to counterbalance Heligoland’s brooding menace though, not least on the dreamy pop of Psyche with Martina Topley Bird gracing the record with her candyfloss vocals.

While these moments of clear reflection are pleasant though, Massive Attack are at their best when the lights are low and there is the smell of something more menacing in the air. Elbow’s Guy Garvey lends his droll voice and claustrophobic lyrics to the stunning Flat Of The Blade, veering from sumptuous brass to beats straight from Bjork’s magical toy box.

Even Damon Albarn manages to sound a little less chirpy than he has of late on Saturday Come Too Slow. The cuckoo-clock arpeggios of Bedouin acoustic guitar sound like a flash of inspiration that came too late for Blur’s Out Of Time, but never fit the glossy sheen of Gorillaz, while the delicate piano offers more than a nod of affection towards The Good, The Bad and The Queen.

It is the ability to drag together these disparate influences though - not to mention input from the likes of Portishead’s Adrian Utley, TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek and producer Mark ‘Spike’ Stent - that makes Massive Attack what they are. The days when their records will bathed in halos and showered with critical accolades may be over for good, but clearly the magic has started flowing through the veins of trip-hop’s original pioneers once more.

Andy Robbins

7/10

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