Massive Attack: Inertia Creeping In

Fast Facts:

Members:
- Robert “3D” Del Naja (1988-present)
- Grant “Daddy G” Marshall (1988-present)
- Adrian “Tricky” Thaws (1988-1994)
- Andrew “Mushroom” Vowles (1988-1999)
Formed: 1988
Hometown: Bristol, United Kingdom
Inspirations: Isaac Hayes, Public Enemy, Lee Perry, Pink Floyd, Brian Eno
Recommended Listening: Mezzanine

Who is Massive Attack?

Massive Attack is an English musical group known for being the first act to release trip hop music. Their first album, Blue Lines, was released in 1991 and is widely recognized as the first ever distinctly “trip hop” album – spawning the genre from the album’s production style. The members of Massive Attack first met through the Bristol party collective “The Wild Bunch” in the 1980s. Four members were included in the release of Massive Attack’s first single in 1988: Daddy G, 3D, Tricky, and Mushroom. This original lineup lasted from 1988 to 1994, including the release of their first album Blue Lines in 1991. For the release of their second album, Protection (1994), Tricky’s involvement became limited, with him officially exiting the band prior to the release of Mezzanine (1998). Mushroom would also leave the band in 1999 shortly after Mezzanine’s release. Both members exited to focus on their respective solo careers. The band’s final official project, the EP Ritual Spirit, was released in 2016. While Massive Attack has not released an album in over 15 years, the band has never officially broken up. Both remaining members continue to perform shows and post on the band’s social media account. In recent years, Massive Attack has become increasingly focused on using their music and popularity for activist purposes.

Massive Attack’s Legacy

As discussed, Massive Attack is best known for introducing trip hop music through their use of soul, jazz, and blues-styled vocals over hip-hop beats. At the time, “trip hop” wasn’t a genre quite yet – still, other acts coming from similar scenes in Bristol picked up on the sound, using hip-hop, dub, soul, reggae, dance, and electronic production together as a single, cohesive musical language: what came to be known as trip hop in 1994. Though Blue Line’s impact isn’t just limited to its influence in creating a genre or even developing electronic music – the album effectively proved to critics that an album didn’t have to align with current, over-arching labels: Blue Lines was not hip-hop, blues, soul, jazz, dance, pop, R&B, or rock. It was in its own lane, using electronic methods of production to unite numerous styles of production. Accordingly, some attribute the album’s success as a major contributor to defining the overarching music culture throughout the U.K. Additionally, though incorporation of romantic, dramatic, or emotional vocalists over electronically-created music, Massive Attack continued to prove with each release that sample-based hop-hop or electronic styles didn’t have to be club-oriented.

Later on, with the release of Mezzanine, Massive Attack continued to receive widespread media and public attention. In somewhat of a stylistic departure, Mezzanine combined elements of trip hop with influence from darker, denser music genres: post-punk, alternative rock, and even industrial. This combination attracted the masses, with the album debuting at #1 on U.K. charts and would go on to sell more than two million copies. During their 1988-2010 run, Massive Attack ended up receiving multiple rewards and universal critic appraise for their work and apparent legacy in electronic genre history.

Discography

1991 – Blue Lines
- Genres: Trip hop, hip-hop, dub, soul, UK street soul
1994 – Protection
- Genres: Trip hop, dub, UK street soul
1998 – Mezzanine
- Genres: Trip hop, dub, illbient, post-industrial, industrial rock
2003 – 100th Window
- Genres: Trip hop, ambient pop, illbient, ambient dub, glitch pop
2010 – Heligoland
- Genres: Trip hop, downtempo, glitch pop, post-industrial, ambient pop

Related Artists

Collaborators

Neneh Cherry
Horace Andy
Elizabeth Fraser
Sinéad O’Connor
Damon Albarn

Audera