Listen - Massive Attack 'Paradise Circus'

By B on Dec 20 2009, 06:00AM

Massive Attack - "Paradise Circus"

Massive Attack are always there. I have had a few conversations about Massive Attack in recent months. Plus their songs have turned up unexpectedly at club nights and in DJ mixes. All this, even before they had properly announced the early-2010 release of Heligoland, their next album. The group may never been far from consciousness – influencing many acts since Blues Lines in 1991 – but they did seem to lose favour with a couple of lukewarm records in the past ten years.

Now we have “Paradise Circus,” the first taste of what the group is up to on Heligoland. The headline fact about this is that Hope Sandoval is on vocals. This might be the first time the former Mazzy Star vocalist has been recorded in an intimate, close-mic’d way. The vapourtrail of reverb that usually comes with her voice is notably absent here. She is right up in your speakers, pressing against your ears – not stuck at the back of a church or tossed down a well somewhere. It’s gratifying to hear just how familiar her voice still is – a beautiful whisp of a thing, delicate without being fragile.

If that’s the first surprise – Sandoval at her most intimate – the second is the slight re-tooling of the familiar Massive Attack sounds. The core group of Massive Attack these days is Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall. And they still clearly draw on some abiding interests – reggae basslines and the clatter of wooden percussion. They use handclaps here, though, in a way that leavens their trademark “thick,” viscous sound of bass rumbles, string arrangements and synths. This relative lightness will probably be described as a new “organic” or "acoustic" sound – and you know what people mean by that, although it’s wrong here (there’s still lots of digital manipulation going on, if you listen closely). It’s probably more correct to say that this is the most like a live band that Massive Attack has ever sounded. This would make an easy translation to stage setting. Except for the string arrangement that consumes the outro. But we could just punch that through the sampler, right?

Elsewhere on the new album, due out in February, the band have invited collaborations with: Tim Goldsworthy (DFA), Damon Albarn (Blur & Gorillaz), Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio), as well as stalwart guest Horace Andy and former Tricky sidekick, Martina Topley-Bird.

Massive Attack have worked with filmmaker Toby Dye on a controversial clip to accompany this first release from Heligoland. It won’t be embedded here, as it’s undeniably pornographic, absolutely unsafe for work and probably unsafe for most domestic environments too. Send your parents to the shops, close the door. Turn up the bass. Features generous servings of an old woman talking about having sex (taboo #1), plus some live snakes in mouths (taboo #2) and thick blue eyeliner (taboo #3). See it here. A synopsis from the press release for those who can’t click on the link, either for reasons of environment or fortitude:

“In unblinking close-up a little old lady looks straight down the lens of the camera as she describes the fuck of her life from nearly forty years ago. Inter-cut with her frank confession is actual footage of the intimate moments she describes; for this senior citizen is none other than the star of one of the most infamous pornographic films ever made, 1973’s The Devil In Miss Jones.”

The comments section of the clip is already split between lovers and haters. What can’t be denied is that it gives the song a different, darker dimension. It shifts it closer to Massive Attack at their most unsettling.

And, now, while we wait for Heligoland to be released or leaked or released via an official leak, we can revisit some of the group's earlier glories. It's easy to forget just how many great singles Massive Attack has had...

“Teardrop”