Massive Attack

Massive Attack are an English trip-hop trio formed in 1988 consisting of Robert ‘3-D’ Del Naja, Grant 'Daddy G' Marshall, and Adrian ‘Tricky’ Thaws. They are pioneers of the trip-hop genre and regarded as the first trip-hop group, with their debut album Blue Lines being the first trip-hop album.

Work with Gorillaz

Massive Attack have a song on their album 100th Window called Small Time Shot Away that features 2-D on very faint backing vocals. It and FM by Nathan Haines are known by fans for being the only songs where 2-D is credited as a featured artist. There is a remix of Small Time Shot Away called Small Time Shoot Em Up where 2-D's vocals can be heard more clearly.

Impact on Gorillaz

Massive Attack (and The Specials) are the key influence on Gorillaz music. Gorillaz’ genre bending trip hop sound was developed out of Albarn’s love for Massive Attack and their proclivity towards experimentation, which inspired a desire in Damon to begin working in hip-hop and other genres of music beyond Blur's Britpop, alt-rock sound. The first instance of this perhaps Blur's remix of the Massive Attack hit Angel in 1998. He used the band as an inspiration for the sounds he would explore in Gorillaz afterwards. Albarn has stated that the sound of Gorillaz’ self-titled album was meant to be a combination of Massive Attack and The Specials. Massive Attack’s influence on Gorillaz since their debut can also be heard through the band’s heavy use of spoken word sprechgesang and emphasis on guest artists. 2-D himself was even named after 3-D and shares some other similarities, like his gestures in Feel Good Inc’s music video resembling 3-D’s gestures on the video for Massive Attack’s Risingson. The radio effect that's used on 2-D's singing voice is the effect that 3-D used in the 90s. Conversely, Gorillaz was an influence on Massive Attack’s later works, such as their 2010 album Heligoland, which features Damon on the track Saturday Come Slow and on keyboards on the track Splitting The Atom.

Musical career

Massive Attack was founded in Bristol, England in 1988 after the main trio performed for some time as members of the party system collective The Wild Bunch (the UK’s first native party system and Bristol’s most popular club artists). They originally began as a production trio, producing Carlton Carthy’s Any Love as their first work together. They signed a record deal with Circa Records (who eventually became a part of EMI) in 1990 after Neneh Cherry discovered them and showed support. They released their debut album Blue Lines in 1991, and birthed a new genre called trip-hop. The band became known for their heavy use of sprechgesang vocals and many guest appearances from other artists (most notably Horace Andy and Shara Nelson). In 1994, the band released their second album Protection, which included better arrangements than its predecessor and gained greater impact. After this work, in 1997 Massive Attack entered the world of cinema for the first time, contributing the song Superpredators to the soundtrack of the film The Jackal. Protection was followed by the albums Mezzanine (1998), 100th Window (2003) and Heligoland (2010). After the 1990s, some members of Massive Attack (such as Mushroom, Horace Andy, Stephanie Dosen, and Shara Nelson) began to split from the group and today the group consists solely of 3-D, Daddy G, and Tricky.

Discography

• Blue Lines (1991)
• Protection (1994)
• Mezzanine (1998)
• 100th Window (2003)
• Heligoland (2010)

Trivia

• 2-D being credited instead of Albarn is due to a number of factors, such as Massive Attack’s influence on Gorillaz (who were at their most ‘in character’ at this phase), but might mostly be a pun noting the similarity between 2-D and 3-D’s stage names.
• 2-D was originally also going to do a duet with Massive Attack and Horace Andy that Damon Albarn wrote, but was eventually forgotten about.  

External Links

Massive Attack at Todomusica.org