Massive Attack
Out of the Comfort Zone
Melissa Chemam
Having read it
★★★★☆
An interesting read about a band that isn’t really a band! Some fantastic insights (especially the bits that talk about Bristol) and compelling comments, certainly from Robert Del Naja – I could relate to quite a few of his attitudes to the world, its politics and views and his own creativity.
Massive Attack have achieved a lot, but as is alluded to, they’ve always got plenty to say and discuss through their music and art; it got a bit broad in places, but in some ways that did help give context and really delve into the world(s) they all inhabit and share with other contributors and artists and musicians.
Good to read the odd section about Portishead and Banksy and how those have helped, and been helped by, Massive Attack and its members through the years; plus its second chapter about the history of Bristol is brilliant. Simple, yet intriguing and gives a great bit of context to the story – brilliant.
A good passage
With the success of Mezzanine in 1998, the influence of Massive Attack on British culture became bigger than ever. When asked if the band opened doors in the West Country and Bristol, 3D humbly answered: ‘I don’t feel that we’re responsible for that, but we’re not gonna deny that we did open the window and a few doors in Bristol. We’re all different in our own way – the only thing that really associates all the different artists in Bristol is the fact that we all take our time when we work on musical projects.’
A second good passage
Mezzanine proved that the band were not only an electronic or hip-hop act, and that electronic music and hip-hop could master an instrumental approach to music and reach the top of the charts as well as the general audience’s heart. Many musicians and critics had thought the band would simply not recover from their creative and personal differences. Instead, their conflicts have nourished their work and forced them to push themselves higher. This third album was considered their best and the band had never been more radiant on stage. Freedom and slowness seemed key to their creativity.
A third good passage
In an interview he gave in Naples, Italy in September 2003, Robert defined his music not as ‘dark’, like most newspapers, but as mirroring our world. ‘The world in general is getting darker,’ he stated. ‘With the amount of surveillance we’re under, the new American corporate century we’re about to enter, it’s a very frightening place. Media organisations are allowed to monopolise, they can own newspapers, radio and TV stations and all have political interests. It’s dangerous especially if you’re trying to put something out that’s not just a hair product, a T-shirt or a chocolate bar, you’re trying to do something creative. And that goes for writers, musicians, artists, filmmakers... It’s gonna get much, much harder. The whole idea of our music getting darker is ridiculous. The issue is the media in general. The media’s selling you a lifestyle, when the world is in a precarious position.’
However, inspired by the city he was interviewed in and where his family is from, 3D started to get into this attitude to life that was enjoy it while it lasts. Like Southern Italians, living under the shadow of Vesuvius and the fact that it could erupt unexpectedly. And he emerged from these difficulties with an enhanced instinct of living in the moment. A lesson hardly learned, in a few months that might very well be the hardest in his life, but also the most eloquent.