jackhammer

I posted about this band recently in my journal which piqued a little interest and also a couple of members have enquired about getting more into electronic music, so what better way than to celebrate one of England's most influential and unique bands.

Massive Attack were born from the Bristol scene that was a huge collective of musicians and DJ's from the city of the same name. MA have generally been credited with being the first 'Trip Hop' band which is a genre that amalgamated sampling and DJ cutting with a less commercial sound that relies on atmospherics and a 'cinematic' soundscape whilst retaining a core sound that is quintessentially English.

The core trio of Daddy G, Mushroom and 3G has now almost become a project for 3G alone but they have always been a band that has had numerous guest vocalists and musicians to contribute to a sound that veers between dance orientated grooves and post punk guitar driven monolithic tracks.

Hugely original and innovative, their meagre 4 albums over a near 20 year period (plus a couple of average film soundtracks) have still produced a body of work that is always highly listenable and rewarding in it's intensity and vigour.

Possibly creating one of the finest electronic dance tracks ever (Unfinished Sympathy) lead the band to be evermore creative and each subsequent album has seen them diversify whilst still retaining their qualities. Even 2003's long awaited album 100th Window (which was essentially a solo album for 3G and collaborator Neil Davidge) which initially disappointed is now something of a lost classic.

If you really don't know where to begin with Electronic music and may even have prejudices against then I urge you to be amazed and enlightened to just how amazing and essential this band is.

__________________