Review of Massive Attack - No Protection
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(This may not be actual album art)
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The nineties have been the all time high point of silly genre names, and trip-hop may be the silliest of them all. But Massive Attack really did invent a whole new musical style, manipulating hip-hop boom and reggae throb into their own slow-motion funk noir, inspiring a slew of lesser imitators.
Blue Lines, Massive Attack's first album, was released to critical praise and even governed a place in the Top 40 Charts, no small accomplishment for a British techno unit in 1991. For their second album, these English trip-hop pioneers released Protection, which went surprisingly overlooked, although group members (Mushroom, Daddy-G, and 3-D) made their most majestic statement on Protection, with colossal beats and supreme guest vocals.
English trip-hop pioneers handed over their overlooked sophomore effort to a dubwise elder like The Mad Professor, and he lights this sucker's fuse. The Massive Attack's songs are restructured as seething collages: sparks of melody, twisted snakes of base, flying saucers of synthesizers are all adrift in an echoing galaxy. Massive Attack alum Tricky Kid (a.k.a. Tricky) makes an exhilarating cameo on the album's single "Karmacoma," but it is Everything But the Girl's singer Tracy Thorn who steals the show, elevating the eight minute title track to new heights of techno soul with her wistful vocals. No Protection represents two of the new millennium's most under appreciated trends: dub's second coming and musician's waving good-bye to the integrity of their product.
Released Date: 1994
Circa Records
Germany
Tracks:
Radiation Ruling the Nation (Protection)
Bumper Ball Dub (Karmacoma)
Trinity Dub (Three)
Cool Monsoon (Weather Storm)
Eternal Feedback (Shy)
Moving Dub (Better Things)
I Spy (Spying Glass)
Backward Sucking (Heat Miser)
Waterproof first aid kit or biohazard bag with federal first aid equipment checklist.
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