More about: Massive Attack

The world in which Massive Attack's Mezzanine was conceived was the promise of a shiny new millennium dawned. But this new millennium was preceded by the inimitable 1990’s, a time punctuated by New Labour, Britpop, the dream of Euro 96 and the rise of the internet – the people never had it so good! That is until the tail end of the decade, which was overshadowed by the conspiracy weaving death of princess Diana and wars in Iraq and Kosovo.

Sounding like it was recorded in an expansive warehouse once used for illegal raves, Mezzanine has become an album that would characterize not only the end of the 90’s but the following 25 years.

The first two Massive Attack albums were naive and somewhat blissful. Drawing primarily on the music that permeated Bristol at the time - dub reggae, hip-hop and soul, both Blue Lines and Protection were The Wild Bunch crew just enjoying themselves and making records and while Mezzanine became more about the business.

Tricky was pursuing a more than admirable solo career. Nellee Hooper focussed more on production and setting out his own path in the music business. This left Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall and Andrew Vowels to continue the path of success the group had already stomped out.

In interviews the trio spoke about creative differences and the change in atmosphere surrounding the group. Vowels being the most vocal in regard to preferring the earlier work and wanted the group to keep things more laid back. But it was Del Naja, embroiled in an unhealthy mix of paranoia and anxiety, that want to turn towards an angstier more post-punk approach.

This would show in the samples that feature on the record. The Velvet Underground, The Cure and Ultravox would be notable inclusions. But also, an unlicenced Manfred Mann sample for the song Black Milk landed the group into trouble having to settle a £100,000 lawsuit and have never played the song live. Instead, the group play an alternate version, Black Melt.

The group were in a period of adjustment. Having to move away from being the Massive Attack Soundsystem to Massive Attack the live band. The group played around 100 shows to promote the album and were seemingly together at all times.

This contributed to the fatigue they felt working together. Opting primarily to do interviews separately otherwise verbal fights would break out when it comes to who did what or even more trivial matters such as the merits of Puff Daddy.

On the album you have Grant Marshall still doing what he’s always kind of done. He’s mentioned in the past how he still likes to use turntables as a way to bring something in that can completely change the focus of a track. His lyrics similarly act as vocal samples, never intruding but more punctuating the verses of Del Naja. Then you have Vowels, providing drum loops, bass sequences and messing around with computers. And finally, Del Naja who along with focusing on lyrics also works as a kind of co-producer with Neil Davidge.

"The album certainly feels prophetic of the world today, but I’m not going to suggest Massive Attack are sonic soothsayers..."

Neil Davidge began working with the group around 1996 and was pivotal to how the sound of the album was shaped. Messing around with a harpsichord progression, Vowels added a beat, and the early workings of the iconic Teardrop were underway. The now mythical tale of Madonna wanting to feature on the song is well known, but it was just another of the many creative rifts for Vowels who, initially wanting a soul singer, was overruled, and Liz Fraser was brought in.

The album in of itself is twisted, while sounding complete there were many pitfalls forcing the hand of the group. Aside from the Teardrop feature, there was also the reworking of Horace Andy’s Angel which was only added as a compromise after the skylarking stalwart refused to sing on a cover of The Clash’s Straight To Hell as it would compromise his Rastafarian faith to sing the word ‘hell’. According to a promo interview, the simplicity of Angel became Vowel’s favourite song on the album.

Elsewhere the album is mystified by themes of isolation. Inertia Creeps is a foggy fugue state of a song along with Risingson which in an interview with Dazed and Confused, Del Naja describes as “the idea that you’ve been up all night really caning it. You’re not up where you were the night before but you’re not down either, you’re really spacey. Daylight is creeping in through the curtains and blinds and you’re trying to hide it all out but people are going to work, buses are running”.

Through remixes and B-sides, it feels as though the album exists in a parallel universe. With the Mad Professor dub, Back She Comes, or the Underdog mix of Rising Son and the offcuts Superpredator and Reflection shows another side but equally mutant version of the same album.

For the 20th anniversary of the album those left in the group, Del Naja and Daddy G, toured the album along with filmmaker Adam Curtis. Behind the group as they played was a Curtis film that showed all the key moments of recent history – 9/11, the death of Saddam Hussein, Colonel Gadhafi and Osama Bin Laden, the 2008 financial crisis, royal weddings, Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. It’s safe to say that the group are aware of how pertinent the sound of the album has been as a soundtrack for the last quarter century.

The album certainly feels prophetic of the world today, but I’m not going to suggest Massive Attack are sonic soothsayers. That said, during the recording of the song Mezzanine, it was said that a large box of bibles turned up out of nowhere, encased with a note that read ‘read these and your life will be enlightened’.

"The sound of Mezzanine seems to linger in the consciousness of society, as if it were a soundtrack for how the world turned out."

Having the album synthesised into DNA, for as gimmicky as it may seem, just adds to the strange dystopia of what art has become. Having an album in a spray paint can seems no more far-fetched than spending thousands of pounds on Non-Fungible Tokens or gambling with cryptocurrency.

Was Mezzanine reflecting the world it was created in or did the tense atmosphere arise through creative friction? Perhaps Robert Del Naja was struggling with too many personal conflicts and the rest was collateral damage? The sound of Mezzanine seems to linger in the consciousness of society, as if it were a soundtrack for how the world turned out. Sometimes dulled down to just that one song. But always pertinent when listened from start to finish. Every avenue, whether the remixes or the B-Sides, adds another twisted turn into this mind warping masterpiece.

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More about: Massive Attack