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Aftersun is a Massive Attack track with guest vocals from Dot Allison, heard exclusively during the end credits of the 2004 jet Li starring film “Danny The Dog”.

Dot Allison had previously been the lead singer for the early 90’s Scottish band One Dove, before releasing two solo albums before collaborating with Massive Attack. She would then go on to be apart of Massive Attack’s 100th Window tour of 2003-2004, substituting for the lack of Elizabeth Fraser and Sinead O’Connor on that tour.

Back in 2001, news first broke via the NME magazine, that Dot Allison had contributed vocals to at least two Massive Attack songs. One of these songs would eventually form the basis for the track Aftersun, when Massive Attack revisited it during the scoring sessions for Danny The Dog’s soundtrack in late 2003/early 2004, after  the director of the film, Louis Leterrier, requested of Massive Attack a song with vocals to be played over the film’s end credits.

The film’s soundtrack album which was released in October 2004, contained over 50 minutes of instrumental music, but Aftersun was for undisclosed reasons omitted. Later that same year with Massive Attack’s permission, Dot Allison released a M4A of the track via her website. Since then, Aftersun has not received any other type of release, either physically on disc or digitally online.

The only publicly available version of Aftersun, heard in the end credits is said to not be the finished mix of the song and neither Massive Attack nor Dot Allison is entirely satisfied with it. Dot Allison described it as being more of a “demo”, in one interview at the time. This may have been the undisclosed reason why the track was ultimately left off the soundtrack album.

Co-Writer of Aftersun, Magnus Fiennes is a record producer who has collaborated frequently with Dot Allison before in the past such as on her 1999 solo album album, Afterglow. He has also worked with the likes of All Saints, Pulp and Morcheeba.

Certain theatrical versions of Danny The Dog, (retitled Unleashed for the UK and US market) do not feature Aftersun during the end credits sequence, but instead two unrelated songs (Baby Boy and Unleash Me) from hip-hop producer and Wu-Tang Clan member “The RZA” with no Massive Attack involvement in them (even though some fans erroneously believing these are Massive Attack songs). The Unrated DVD version of Unleashed does however retain Aftersun, similar to all versions of the film titled “Danny The Dog”.

This Aftersun bears no relation to the other unreleased and unheard Massive Attack track also called Aftersun (reported in the music press at the time) which was a product of the 2000/2001 LP4 recording sessions with Lupine Howl. Massive Attack liked the name but decided to dump the original song. This is quite similar to the naming process behind Antistar.

Dot Allison on Aftersun and working with Massive Attack – “To be honest I would prefer to work on a track where there is not a film production company in the background. I reckon we will make an astounding track with the right time and energy. We love Aftersun as a song, but we would like to hear a different mix.” [MassiveAttackArea.com – February 2005]

Jerome Lateur, producer of the film Danny The Dog on why Aftersun was excluded from the film’s soundtrack album – “It is not on the soundtrack, as it does belong to the movie itself. It is an artistic choice of Massive Attack; a wish to render as well as possible the musical atmosphere of the movie, to keep an experimental approach, and that’s quite interesting. And that’s true for the soundtrack, but not for the whole movie” [MassiveAttackArea.com – October 2004]

When I was chasing the fear away. I forgot to breathe again. In this moment we shine. Burn to ember every time.

When I was trying to shelter. I forgot to rescue you. In these moments we drown. Take this rose with thorns to crown.

Every time I fall I am ascending. Every time you call me near. Only when we slip the need is ending. Mirror I am letting go…

When you were trying to save me. You forgot to let me go. In this freedom we found. Raining stars down to the ground.

And with the truth in your hands. You concealed it with your lies. In this moment we drowned. Lost more than we ever found

Every time I fall I am ascending. Every time you call me near. Only when we slip the need is ending. Mirror I am letting go…

I cut the orchid down. I cut the orchid down. Hold me now. I cut the orchid down. I cut the orchid down

•  Official Website For Dot Allison
• Movie Trailer For Danny The Dog/Unleashed