Possible front cover artwork for the Eutopia EP. Taken from the band’s Instagram. Note the similar font to the Ritual Spirit and The Spoils EP’s.
After a few mild teases in the last few days on their social media channels, Massive Attack announced today the arrival of a new 3 track EP entitled Eutopia. So at least we can say that 2020 isn’t a total write-off at least!
After the quiet cancellation of the planned eco friendly European tour this summer (for reasons I don’t think I need to mention), this new EP comes as a welcome surprise to us fans, as it’s the first formal release the band have put out since the Ritual Spirit and The Spoils EP’s in 2016. The EP was produced relatively quickly (by Massive Attack’s standards) over the last 3 or so months of the lockdown by 3D and Euan Dickinson. The title of the EP is taken from Thomas Moore’s Eutopia book of the same name. No hint yet of a new album, but this EP also reinforces several recent comments of 3D’s lately that maybe Massive Attack have moved away from the album format entirely preferring piecemeal EP’s now.
Anyway for this EP, we have 3 new tracks by Young Fathers, Algiers and Saul Williams alongside 3 accompanying short visual films with pretty on-point political commentary. I’ll talk more about the films shortly, but first let’s talk the music itself. None of the three EP tracks have been named in the initial press release or on Massive Attack’s YouTube channel were they are free to view. We can assume when the EP gets released to the normal digital channels (iTunes, Spotify etc…) the full track names will be known then. No further details are when the EP will hit the digital channels either but I imagine it will be very soon.
Continuing their first collaboration following on from the Ritual Spirit EP is Young Fathers. They also toured extensively with Massive Attack from 2016-2018 so enlisting them again makes sense. We first heard word that Massive Attack were working with Algiers in 2017 so we now get to finally hear the fruits of that collaboration. And concerning Saul Williams, he is no stranger to political charged poetry in his music and has worked with other artists such as Nine Inch Nails in the past, so it is perhaps no surprise Massive Attack would want to work with him.
As for the visual component of the EP, the 3 films for each of the 3 tracks were all produced by Mark Donne and his Unit 3 Films production unit, who has helped produce several Massive Attack videos over the last few years. 3D also contributed to the soundtrack to Mark Donne’s documentary film “The UK Gold” back in 2015. The mesmerising morphing visuals seen in the videos were done by Mario Klingemann, whose on the fly morphing visual work was also witnessed during the last few Massive Attack tours.
The political element of the project comes from the subject matter experts Massive Attack have featured in each of the 3 videos as they talk over the visuals and music. These experts are economics Professor Guy Standing (SOAS University of London) on the Young Fathers track arguing about the need for a Universal Basic Income, Christiana Figueres (Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention) on the Algiers track talking about climate change, and economics Professor Gabriel Zucman (UC Berkeley) on the Saul Williams track exposing tax havens.
So the Eutopia EP should probably be viewed as an entire package -with the music, visuals and political commentary all coming together in only the kind of way Massive Attack can do these things. To finish off this blog post, lets hear it from Massive Attack’s own description of the Eutopia EP from today’s press release.
“Lockdown exposed the best aspects and worst flaws of humanity. That period of uncertainty and anxiety forced us to meditate on the obvious need to change the damaging systems we live by. By working with three experts, we’ve created a sonic and visual dialogue around these global, structural issues; taking the form of climate emergency, tax haven extraction and Universal Basic Income.
The spirit of this EP, its elements and ideas have nothing to do with naïve notions of an ideal, perfect world, and everything to do with the urgent & practical need to build something better. In this sense, Eutopia is the opposite of spelling mistake.”
Anyway down below is the Youtube links to the new tracks. I will update this blog post when the links to buy the Eutopia EP are out. For now, give a like to the new videos and this blog post if you want.
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.
While Massive Attack are busying themselves with touring around Europe this month, earlier today on BBC6 Music we got the first taste of what presumably is the next Massive Attack EP. When the Ritual Spirit EP came out last January we were promised at the time another EP (with Daddy G taking the reins from 3D), that would come out in the Summer. Well it looks like that promise has been delivered upon.
We're roughly halfway through Massive Attack's 2016 tour, which has just finished its UK leg before hitting the rest of Europe, so its about time for a news update post covering all that's been going on in the last couple of weeks.