Well first off, two things. One, the new Massive Attack track “Summertime” featuring Scarlett Johansson (needs no introduction) is out digitally from Amazon.com and Itunes as of today on the soundtrack for the Mexican thriller, “Days Of Grace”. Secondly, it is’nt really what you might think i.e. a collaboration.

Out today is the new Mark Stewart album, “The Politics Of Envy”.

That’s great and all, but why am I blogging about it. Well, apart from being Mark’s first album since 2008’s Edit (which was a great return to form for him) it also has on one track, a collaboration between himself and Massive’s Daddy G. The track’s called “Apocalypse Hotel” and you can hear a preview of it (and all the other tracks on the album from 7Digital or ITunes. Outside the online samples, I have yet to hear the album, but will probably be picking it up in a few weeks and will offer my opinion of the G track then.

On news-shelves this month is a nice 3 page article in Q Magazine, about the tense recording sessions Massive Attack underwent when recording Mezzanine and how it ultimately led to fracturing the band irreconcilably. I’ve already scanned and added it to the gallery archive for anyone who would like to download it in glorious 300dpi.

So for this inaugural playlist of the month, I’m focusing on the old 100th Window samples that used to be played repeatedly on the old MA.COM, circa 2003. They’re an interesting representation of the album broken down into its most basic elementary forms. After listening to these, I think you may have an even further appreciation for the intricacies and depth of sound offered by the 100th Window album.

As for this new site, I’ve spent quite a fair chunk of time making it. It’s a blog/wiki/forum/social network all-in-one, all perfectly integrated into one whole. All actions done across the site – making a forum post, editing the wiki, leaving a blog comment etc… all get reported back to your activity stream – think of it as a mini version of a Facebook Wall.