Collaborators
Horace Andy has been on every Massive Attack album from the very beginning and has appeared on every tour without question. He is a permenant fixture, prehaps even a band mascot and is considered by many Massive Attack fans as an official member of the band. Of course, before Massive Attack, Horace Andy was a legendary Roots reggae singer from Jamaica who had released such seminal reggae records such as Government Land, Angel, Skylarking and a version of "Ain't No Sunshine". Sleepy ( Horace's affectionate nickname) has been a hero's of Daddy G's for long time and he will almost certainly be with the band for a very long time to come. Horace Andy's official website is http://www.horaceandy.com, however it looks like it is currently offline at the moment. Instead, the below link is to Horace Andy's official MySpace page.
U.N.K.L.E, the musical project headed by James Lavelle have collaborated several times with Massive Attack throughout Massive Attack's history from the U.N.K.L.E remix of Karmacoma up to providing two new remixes for False Flags. Apart from the musical pairings, 3D and James Lavelle are very good friends with Lavelle once describing [Quote] - "More than anything else it was 3D and his attention to detail about the artwork and design, the graffiti-orientated artwork with the contemporary design and music - all in the same package. It inspired the label Mo'Wax...and making music". At the moment, U.N.K.L.E's official website is promoting U.N.K.L.E's new album War Stories, which features a new collaboration with Massive Attack called Twilight.
Madonna collaborated with Massive Attack for one song back in 1995 called I Want You that was recently released on Collected. She is also noted for was saying that Blue Lines was the soundtrack for her sexcapades at the time of it's release. The Madonna official website is currently promoting her last album "Hard Candy" from 2008.
While Blur have'nt actually colloborated with Massive Attack, the lead singer and frontman of Blur, Damon Albarn has on two ocassions - One Day At A Time and Small Time Shot Away. Apart from these songs, Albarn is a great mate of 3D's and have a friendship together that has become stronger since both share the same political stances particularly concerning the anti-war movement with the war on Iraq which both were staunch dissenters of. They would both contribute money and raise general awareness of the movement through various causes and charities they have involved themselves with in recent years. Damon Albarn does not have an official website for himself, but the Blur website is the next best thing.
David Bowie colloborated with Massive Attack for one song back in 2001 called Nature Boy. Bowie has always been an admirer of Massive Attack and might possibly be future collaborator of Massive Attack's again, if reports are true of David Bowie being a future vocalist for Massive Attack's fifth album.
Massive Attack's first lady and undisputed star of Blue Lines, Shara Nelson was not only involved with Massive Attack at their conception and even considered a unofficial member of the band, but her involvement goes all the way back to 'The Wild Bunch'. Since leaving Massive Attack after Blue Lines, she has had out two solo albums, "What Silence Knows" and "Friendly Fire", even though her music career as of late has not produced much new material. Her official website offers a gellery, discography and a media player section.
During Massive Attack's early years up until the album Protection, he was intrinsically linked with Massive Attack and was practically a member of the band in all but name. He provided vocals on many early Massive Attack songs, such as the singles Daydreaming and Karmacoma. He was a friend of 3D's with the two even living together for sometime in the 1980's as flatmates. Soon after the release of Protection, Tricky fell out with Massive Attack, over myriad of reasons, probably the biggest one being Massive Attack refusing to give Tricky a producer credit on Protection and being disinterested in his song Aftermath, which would turn out to be one of the most important songs of his solo career. Tricky's official website is still promoting his last released album from 2008, "Knowle West Boy".
Sinead O'Connor was the only female presense on the last Massive attack album, 100th Window. The first single from this album, Special Cases also featured her on vocals. Her official website has information on her current touring plans and updates on the recording of her new album "Theology".
Elizabeth Fraser was once the voice behind the eighties dream pop band, The Cocteau Twins. Since the band split up, she has collaborated with Massive Attack on three songs on Mezzanine, most memorably on the hit single, Teardrop and once more on a song that appeared on Collected called Silent Spring. Her official website Elizabethfraser.com was initially created April 22, 2000 by fan and webmaster, Leesa Beales. After running the website for seven years she was contacted by Elizabeth Fraser. The message conveyed was that Elizabeth was ready to take over ownership of the website and make it her official presence on the internet. On March 22, 2007 Elizabeth's management company officially took over ownership and maintenance of elizabethfraser.com. The site is currently being redesigned and will hopefully soon offer more details regarding her much anticipated solo album.
Sara Jay is known for being the other female vocalist on Mezzanine besides Elizabeth Fraser. She added her delicate vocals to Dissolved Girl on the album, but also on a rare b-side song called Wire. At the moment, Sara Jay lives in her native Sheffield, UK were she playes local gigs and is preping her first EP of folk-driven tunes for release called "Fools Like Us". She does not have a official website, but does have a official MySpace, which is where the below link will take you.
Most well-known for being the singer in the pop duo, Everything But The Girl, who had several hits in the 1980's before she collaborated with Massive Attack on their second album, where she would provide her sublime vocals to the title track and hit single Protection. She would also provide vocals on another album track, Better Things and on the b-side track for the Batman Forver soundtrack, The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game. Everything But The Girl's careers was rejuvenated for awhile following these Massive Attack collaborations, with Tracey and her musical partner in the band, Ben Watt having several dance hits on the UK music scene. Her official website is currently promoting her new 2007 solo album "Out Of The Woods" and contains a news, gallery, video and audio section for fans to enjoy. The website is designed completely in Flash, so you must have Macromedia Flash installed on your computer before attempting to view the site.
While The Prodigy have'nt actually colloborated with Massive Attack, the main composer and the brains behind The Prodigy, Liam Howlett is a well-known good friend of 3D's. Liam Howlett and 3D both contributed a track each to a porn movie named The Uranus Experiment back in 1999, with 3D's entry being Inflight Data. Soon after this, a direct collaboration between the two happened. This collaboration became a song called "No Souvenirs", a song that is still yet to be released more than seven years after it was made. Liam Howlett does not have an official website for himself, but the The Progidy website is the next best thing. The website is designed completely in Flash, so you must have Macromedia Flash installed on your computer before attempting to view the site.
This scottish born singer was once a member of dream pop band, One Dove. After they disbanned Dot has has released two albums, Afterglow and We Are Science. Her third album "Exaltion of Larks" is expected sometime in 2008. Her official website is where you can out more information about it and listen to sound samples. Of course, Dot's connection to Massive Attack is that she substitued for both Elizabeth Fraser's and Sinéad O'Connor's vocals on their respective Massive attack songs on the 2003 and 2004 tours. On top of that, shw also collaborated on a new Massive Attack song for the Danny The Dog soundtrack called Aftersun.
Craig Armstrong is well known film composer of major motion pictures such as Romeo & Juilet and Moulin Rouge. His links to Massive Attack are numerous. He has helped score and arrange several Massive Attack songs such as Weather Storm, Sly, Heat Miser, Wire and Nature Boy. The first three of those songs being taken from Massive Attack's Protection album. For a time, he was also signed to Melankolic, which was Massive Attack's own private record label. Currently, after the quiet demise of Melankolic he is now signed to EMI Records. Currently, his official website is promoting his 2004 release Piano Works, which includes among other things two alternative re-productions of Massive Attack's songs Weather Storm and Heat Miser.
Terry Callier is an American Jazz, Soul and Folk guitarist singer-songwriter from Chicago, USA. He came to Massive Attack's fans notice when he collaborated with them on their 2006 song Live With Me, which was a promotional single for Collected, Massive Attack's "Best Of" album. Terry is at the moment getting ready to release his own best of album titled "Life Lessons". He does not have an official website, but does have a official MySpace where you listen to selected tracks from his "Best Of", which is where the link below will take you.
Caroline Lavelle is the Irish folk singer based in England who collaborated with Massive Attack on one song called Home Of The Whale. This song appeared first on the Massive Attack E.P which was released in 1992. Because of the Massive Attack collaboration she became noticed to others, most notably the electronic producer William Orbit and has three completed albums to her CV at the moment. Her official website is currently promoting her new album "A Distant Bell" and among other things of interest, contains a discography, shop, lyrics and Q&A section.
The Insects (or as "Startled Insects" as they were called at the beginning of their career) are a collective of two talented producers/multi-instrumentalists, Tim Norfolk and Bob Locke from Bristol, UK. Their music is a unique mix of experimental synthesizer textures and ethnic rhythms and in recent years they have become well known for both their soundtrack work and for helping to produce other artists. Because of their Bristol connections and frequently working out of Coach Studios in Bristol, which Massive Attack also frequented back in the earlier 1990's, they ended upcontributing a large part to the making of both Karmacoma and Eurochild, together with some minor production and programming on The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game. Their soundtrack works include "Creep", "XX/XY", "Owning Mahowny" and the 2009 feature film "44 Inch Chest", which was The Insects return to working with Massive Attack, under the guise of 100 Suns. You can check out the rest of The Insects body of work and listen to a few samples on their official site.
DJ Milo was one of the founding fathers (along with Daddy G and Nellee Hooper) of 'The Wild Bunch' in the early 1980's. The Wild Bunch would ultimately prove the genesis of Massive Attack and but of the whole trip-hop genre by the time of the 1990's. Since 'The Wild Bunch' disbanded at the end of the 1980's, Milo continued DJ-ing aroudn the world, with Japan in particular becoming a secong home to him. When Mushroom left Massive Attack, he toured together briefly with Milo as a DJ set. In 2002, DJ Milo released The Wild Bunch - Story of a Sound System, a collection of songs that are representative of the music The Wild Bunch performed. The booklet included with the album contains an extensive history of the group, as well as pictures.
Milo's website catalogued here is his official one, with biography infomation, pictures and a store to purchase his various DJ mixes over the years.
Mos Def is a American rapper and hip-hop artist who collaborated with Massive Attack on the beat-thumping I Against I which was created for the Blade 2 soundtrack, which came out in 2002. Following this collaboration, it was rumored that he would be returning for Massive Attack's fifth album, but currently that appears unlikely. Apart from being a rapper, Mos Def is also an actor who has starred in such films as Monster, The Italian Job and The Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy. His official website is currently promoting his latetst album "Real Magic" and it now has a streaming audio player on the front page, for you to listen to the new release.
Mike Patton is a Grammy nominated musician, best known as the lead singer of the band Faith No More from 1988 to 1998. He has also handled lead vocals for Mr. Bungle (which preceded his involvement with FNM), Tomahawk, Fantômas and Peeping Tom. It is with his last project, Peeping Tom, that he formally collaborated with Massive Attack on the song, Kill The DJ in 2006. For several years before this happened, himself and 3D had expressed interest in a collaboration together and perhaps even to take it a step further and setup their own band or side-project. While this will probably not happen now, there is still a possibilty that Mike Patton may still feature on Massive Attack's fifth album in the future. He does not have a official website, but does have a official MySpace where you listen to selected tracks from the Peeping Tom album, which is where the link below will take you.
Debbie is the voice behind the electronic music band Oom, who hail from Brighton, UK and claim their mix of styles to be that of Bjork, Massive Attack and Nine Inch Nails. She is the vocalist of Massive Attack's Joy Luck Club, which appeared on Collected in 2006. Oom is a relatively new band and have just released their debut album "Dead Analogue". Their official website is in the process of being upgraded to promote their new album and for the moment their MySpace page is being used as a placeholder until their official is back onn it's feet. The link below will take you to Debbie Clare's official MySpace page here.
The memorable voice of Nigerian (but based in London, U.K) singer Nicolette Suwoton provided her vocals to both Three and Sly off of Protection. Her music, although falling broadly into the field of electronica, is characterised by myriad influences, including, jazz, classical, blues, folk, and African. This has resulted in a highly individualistic sound due in part to the extremely diverse variety of music her father played and taught her as a child. Known for her distinctive sensual, childlike voice, she has been described as "Billie Holliday on acid". Besides Massive Attack she has also worked with a few other noted artists in the electronia field, such as Plaid, Alec Empire and 4 Hero. In 1999 she set up her own record label, Early Records, to release interesting, quirky pop anthems. It is her own record label's website which also serves as her official page, which is where the link below will take you.
Neneh Cherry was many links to the early days of Massive Attack. For instance, she commissioned 3D to co-write "Manchild" on her Raw Like Sushi album and co-wrote Blue Lines' Hymn Of The Big Wheel and unknowst to many also did backing vocals as well on that song. She recruited Mushroom to appear in her popular Buffalo Stance promo video; in the song she exclaims "Looking good hanging with the Wild Bunch!". Her husband Cameron "Booga Bear" McVey was the group's first manager and one of the main catalysts for Blue Lines. As of know, she is involved in a new musical project/band called Cirkus, along with Cameron, her husband. Their first album is called "Laylow" and was released in 2007. As Neneh Cherry has no official website devoted just to herself, the official website promoting Neneh Cherry's Cirkus will do just as well.
Developing a unique fusion of dub, soul and hip hop on the streets of Bristol in the late eighties along with other soundsystems such as The Wild Bunch, Smith & Mighty began to make a name for themselves with production credits such as Massive Attack's debut vinyl only single Any Love in 1988. This gives Smith And Mighty a unique place in Massive Attack's history - as being their first ever collaborators really. Smith and Mighty do not have an official website except for the one operated by their record label K7. The website is designed completely in Flash, so you must have Macromedia Flash installed on your computer before attempting to view the site. You will then need to navigate to the particular page about Smith and Mighty once you get to the K7 main page, as it cannot be directly linked to.
