REVIEW: Massive Attack - Heligoland

Massive Attack
Heligoland
Virgin Records
Out Now

1. "Pray for Rain" (vocals by Tunde Adebimpe) – 6:43
2. "Babel" (vocals by Martina Topley-Bird) – 5:18
3. "Splitting the Atom" (vocals by Grant Marshall, Horace Andy and Robert Del Naja) – 5:15
4. "Girl I Love You" (vocals by Horace Andy) – 5:26
5. "Psyche" (vocals by Martina Topley-Bird) – 3:23
6. "Flat of the Blade" (vocals by Guy Garvey) – 5:29
7. "Paradise Circus" (vocals by Hope Sandoval) – 4:58
8. "Rush Minute" (vocals by Robert Del Naja) – 4:48
9. "Saturday Come Slow" (vocals by Damon Albarn) – 3:42
10. "Atlas Air" (vocals by Robert Del Naja) – 7:47

Massive Attack have always imbued their music with a sense of dread. Through numerous stylistic shifts and varying approaches, their albums are unified in that they all feel like the product of a world about to collapse under the weight of it's own problems. Heligoland (their first full length release since 2003's '100th Window') is steely-eyed even by their standards.

What is most immediately notable is the sparseness of it all. Gone are the lush arrangements of their mid 90s work, and instead the spotlight shifts to rhythm and vocal.

Fortunately the group have always chosen their collaborators wisely, and TV On The Radio's Tunde Adebimpe, Horace Andy and Martina Topley-Bird all turn in suitably focussed, understated performances on the earlier tracks.

However, taken in combination, these minimalist choices (along with the bleak, dystopian subject matter) result in a rather alienating listening experience with little to return to.

It is only in the later tracks, beginning with 'Paradise Circus', and a beautiful and hypnotic performance from Hope Sandoval that the darkness is finally tempered with warmth and an emotional core.

Likewise, Damon Albarn turns in a surprisingly affecting vocal on 'Saturday Come Slow'. It is no coincidence that these are the album's stand-out tracks, or that this balance between unsettling grit and resilient hope has provided the group's most enduring songs throughout their career.

It is a balance that is rarely struck on Heligoland, and consequently fans of Massive Attack's early work may find the first 25 minutes or so unrewarding.

Nonetheless, this is a worthy and challenging addition to the discography of one of England's most experimental and pioneering groups.

-Michael

Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions new album - available worldwide this Tuesday

You can also download the new song 'Blanchard' as part of the most recent episode of Insomnia Cafe (Insomnia Friday #6)


The delicious dichotomy between darkness and light, the space between inspiration and the manifestation of thought, is where Hope Sandoval’s music and lyrics catch fire. Through The Devil Softly, her second album with Warm Inventions partner Colm Ó Cíosóig (My Bloody Valentine), is a rich brocade of pastoral meditations that resonate with the kind of restrained yet provocative intimacy that only these two artists can provide. Well known for their reticence in the media, they’ve once again chosen to pour out their hearts and minds on record.

It’s been eight years since the release of the critically acclaimed Bavarian Fruit Bread, but Colm and Hope aren’t ones to adhere to traditional timetables and conventions. “Time is vibrations for us,” he says. “We didn’t feel like [this album] was ready until it was ready.” In the meantime, however, neither artist has been creatively idle. Hope has collaborated with Devendra Banhart, Air, Bert Jansch, Death In Vegas, and is due to appear on Massive Attack’s forthcoming album. And yes, a new Mazzy Star record is on the horizon. (“It’s almost finished,” says Hope, “but when it will be coming out, I don’t know.”) Meanwhile, 2009 saw the reunion of My Bloody Valentine for a select group of live shows, kicking off with an incendiary performance at this year’s Coachella Festival.

“It’s like the opposite ends of the spectrum,” says Cíosóig of the difference between MBV and his work with Sandoval. “I play very held back, but there’s a tension to it.”

Written and recorded over the past two years in both Northern California and the Wicklow Mountains of southeast Ireland, Through The Devil Softly sees Sandoval and Ó Cíosóig sharing production and engineering credits, with Dave Trumfio (Wilco, The Rentals) and Jim Putnam of the Radar Brothers assisting in the mix. Other guests of note include Mazzy Star keyboardist Suki Ewers and cellist Ji Young Moon, who provides the solo on the sublime “Thinking Like That.” But the album’s most broad brush addition comes courtesy of Ireland’s Dirt Blue Gene, the group who tracked the recordings with Sandoval and Ó Cíosóig, and will accompany them on their upcoming tour. While the simplicity of “Lady Jessica and Sam” and the bucolic beauty of “Fall Aside” represent one facet of the record, Dirt Blue Gene help inject an undulating, sultry swagger into songs like “Trouble” and “For The Rest Of Your Life” that compliments the album’s more delicate passages. Elsewhere, autoharps, vibraphones, slide guitars, and crystalline bell chimes flicker across the tape heads like shadows, used so sparingly at times that their sound is barely audible above Hope’s hushed inflection. On “There’s A Willow,” her verses are carried on the back of a simple, singular cymbal, cresting and falling like ocean waves. Meandering guitar and harmonica parts waltz together like old lovers, while the distant knocking of a solitary woodblock and the tapping of a tom provide the only cadence. “I merely standing on holes in the ground. If I fall, well they’ll never know I’m found,” she coos on “Banchard.” Later she muses, “I play death in the space of my life. That’s how I feel, and I never think it twice,” and you’re left to wonder if she’s ruminating on her own taciturn nature. As with the album’s title, the words are not there to be explained. They’re to be felt and interpreted. The mystery is magnetic.

“We just make music for ourselves,” says Colm. “We don’t really pay attention to what’s going on in the big world when it comes to pop music or anything.”

Anyone whose seen Sandoval perform live, either with Mazzy Star or the Warm Inventions, can attest to that intimacy. Often shrouded in low light, she rarely communicates with the crowd outside the boundaries of a song. “I go into myself, close myself off,” says Hope of her relationship with audiences. “But I do know that they’re there.”

Rife with lush sonics and textures, Through The Devil Softly is a deliberate body of work that gently solicits your patience, and like the cover photograph, it’s creators reveal very little so that the art can reveal so much.

PLAYLIST: Insomnia Friday #6

The sixth and final edition of Insomnia Fridays will be available on our usual iTunes page later today.
Here’s the full playlist, and clickable links to each artist’s website.

If you have enjoyed this series - 6 ad-free, sponsor-free shows over the course of 8 weeks, please consider making a small donation (using the button on the top right of this page) towards helping us buy necessary equipment, server space and our own dotcom domain.

Songs played:

Satan's Pilgrims - Wylde Time

Wheedle's Groove - H.O.E. (from the new album 'Kearney Barton')
Amy Speace - Blue Horizon (from the new album 'The Killer In Me')

Sarah Fimm - Mary Jane (from the new album 'White Birds')
Scott Siders - Looking To Land (from 'et cetera, et cetera')
Am I A Ghost - Number 9 train

Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - Blanchard (from the forthcoming album 'Through The Devil Softly'

theme/background music: Lee Barry - A Place No One Knows
Ernie Payne - Joanne's Theme

Visit our iTunes page and download this episode at: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=208833379

Download iTunes for free at http://www.apple.com/itunes

Send feedback to: insomniacafepodcast@gmail.com

Hope Sandoval returns with new album

Surprise!

Fans were beginning to doubt whether or not it would ever happen, but much to their collective delight, it has been announced that Mazzy Star's elusive and iconic vocalist Hope Sandoval will return along with The Warm Inventions this September for a new album and tour.

Her first release since 2001's 'Bavarian Fruit Bread', titled 'Through The Devil Softly' was recorded in Northern California and Wicklow County, Ireland and will be released on September 15th from Nettwerk records. Hope has also confirmed that a fourth Mazzy Star album is still in the works.

Two Irish tour dates in support of the release have already been confirmed, with more to follow.

First single 'Blanchard' will be released on August 4th, and can also be previewed here.

Stay tuned to HopeSandoval.com for all the latest news.

Release Details:

Through The Devil Softly
September 15, 2009
Nettwerk Records

1. Blanchard
2. Wild Roses
3. For The Rest Of Your Life
4. Lady Jessica and Sam
5. Sets The Blaze
6. Thinking Like That
7. There's A Willow
8. Trouble
9. Fall Aside
10. Blue Bird
11. Satellite