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Editorials
Mezzanine will be 20 years old now this April. I don't know about you but I definitely feel a bit older having typed that. Mezzanine was my gateway drug into not only Massive Attack but into alternative and electronic music in general. Bear in mind I was in my earlier teens at the time, but Mezzanine really shook me up the first few months I listened to it and changed my opinion of what music could be.
Massive Attack's debut album, Blue Lines came out in April 1991, so you'll have to forgive me as I'm nearly 6 months behind on writing this post to mark its 25th anniversary.
In my time as a Massive Attack fan while loving their music of course, I've also been an avid collector of the band's physical releases. CD's vinyls, cassettes, promos etc... you name it, if its got the Massive Attack name on it I've probably either bought it or am still trying to find it! I've even dedicated a section of this site (Discography) to listing and detailing all of these said releases.
For this post, I'm going to be offering up my own top 10 moments (with video evidence courtesy of YouTube!), of Massive Attack performing live from their birth as a live band in the mid-nineties, up until last year's controversial Adam Curtis co-production.
It's cliche to say Massive Attack's music has got somewhat of a cinematic edge to it. As if its the music to a film that has yet to be made. At least that's what I keep reading in countless interviews with the band. And I guess the claim that there is a filmic quality to their music is given alot more credibility when you consider just how many times its been licensed for film and TV. So for this blog post I'm going to be listing some of my favourite uses of Massive Attack's music in the movies.
First post of 2013, and I just want to take a moment to remember the fact that 100th Window has reached its 10th anniversary this month since its initial release. So please forgive me if this post gets a bit nostalgic but I just want to share my feelings towards this album and rather or not its stands up when listening to it 10 years on. Now for some needed context...
We have another year nearly over and done with and with that we begin seeing all those end of year lists and being overcome with temporary nostalgia. So in the spirit of all that, I've done my own little thing of collecting together all the happenings and goings-on with Massive Attack this year and placing it all into a timeline.
They say imitation is the highest form of flattery.In music terms, that would apply quite aptly to the cover version. Massive Attack have certainly done a number of covers of other bands songs in their time, but as for this post I will be making a top 10 list of my favourite tunes other bands/artists have made out of Massive Attack tunes.
Bombin' was directed by documentary filmmaker Dick Fontaine and was a sequel to his earlier 1984 documentary "Beat This!", once again taking a look at how American hip-hop culture was making its way over the pond to the UK, this time using the lens of the graffiti and tagging subcultures. The documentary offers a fascinating look at 1980's UK hip-hop and graffiti culture and for Massive Attack fans, there is of course the appearance of 3D (at the ripe old age of 21) tagging it up with Goldie in Birmingham and Wolverhampton.
They say the physical single is dying out. I suppose in this iTunes era, were music can be consumed at the click of a button, that that is probably true. And that is even more truer for bands such as Massive Attack, who for a long time now, have been a self-proclaimed "albums" band.
