First announced in September 2013, the hardback edition of “3D and the Art of Massive Attack” finally hit bookshelves this week. Originally slated to come out in late October 2013, it has been delayed more than a few times in the interim. What was most frustrating about this was that there was hardly any information on the reasons for the delays or what the revised release date was. But anyway its here know and Vinyl Factory who are the publishers of this edition, have done a handsome job of putting it together with 3D.
One of the pioneers of early electronic music Jean-Michel Jarre, has just announced a string of high profile collaborations destined for his new album due later this year. These musical collaborators range from the likes of M83, Tangerine Dream (didn’t know they were still together!) and of course, Massive Attack, who in this instance are 3D and Euan Dickinson. I guess Daddy G is being kept busy DJ-ing around Europe in recent months…
Close to two years after first getting word of this project, (check out this blog post of the initial announcement in May 2013), the end result of the unique but maybe not altogether surprising pairing of Del Naja and Yorke was just released online as a free stream via Soundcloud.
Well, we’re coming to the end of another year once again, and when speaking about Massive Attack in 2014, besides the tour this Summer there hasn’t been an awful lot from the band in terms of new music. Sure we had the Battle Box 003 remix in March but since then things have been decidedly quiet, with Massive Attack presumably hard at work on the mooted LP6. So, it comes as a nice surprise that a sizable amount of new music has quite unexpectedly been dumped in our laps at year’s end.
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.
I think if your on this site, reading this now, then Mr. Davidge doesn’t need much of an introduction – he’s been the man behind the curtain with regards to Massive Attack, for near enough two decades now, quietly getting things done in the studio co-writing and producing alongside D&G.; He’s been a integral part of the band in that time, not desiring any of the spotlight that usually comes with being in a world renowned outfit, such as Massive Attack, even though it looks like that’s finally about to change.
Just a quick post, that the first clutch of live dates for Massive Attack’s 2014 summer tour have been released. So far they are all festival dates around Europe (Iceland’s in Europe, right?), but I would suspect they will also be doing their own self-contained shows as well.
Just when I started thinking that 3D’s Battle Box project had quietly been abandoned since it’s inaugural 12″ single last November, he’s just gone a spun the new track from it on us, in what promises to be an ongoing series of new material.
If your reading this, then there’s good chance you’ve heard the news that 3D is to release an art book (a visual companion, if you will) on the history of Massive Attack. I think it’s an exciting prospect for many fans, since he’s teased it quite often in interviews in the least few years, and to many fans (myself included), the band’s visual identity has made almost as big an impression as their music down through the years.
After nearly six months of waiting since its announcement, the event billed succinctly as “Massive Attack V Adam Curtis”, opened to an expectant crowd of roughly 2,000 at Manchester’s Mayfield Depot. The shroud of secrecy over this unusual pairing was finally lifted; so what would they have in store for us.
