Massive Attack live in Melbourne 2010 (review)

Venue: Sidney Myer Music Bowl

Being inside the Sidney Myer Music Bowl this evening is a pleasure in itself beyond the concert about to take place. It’s a breathtakingly warm, still night deep in the lower seating of the arena making it impossible to entertain a care in the world. The stunning Martina Topley-Bird is on stage cruising through her solo set under a single spotlight, while demonstrating a sunny disposition with occasional smiles and waves between verses. This is her live solo debut in Melbourne, and her first tour with Massive Attack after she recently entered their inner circle following many years of association through her work with ex-Massive rapper Tricky.



Her part in the main show tonight is to be rarely matched despite Massive Attack’s knack for picking great singers. The list of guest vocalists on this band’s work is, well massive, and so it’s down to Martina, along with Jamaican/Brit legend Horace Andy and soul diva Deborah Miller to fill in for those various, equally unique singers. The core of Massive Attack has (almost) always been Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall. The pair’s friendship is well known to be as fragile as some of their music, so it’s with great interest I watch their on-stage chemistry/lack-of as the show unfolds.

 

A few late arriving fans are taking their seats just as the stage darkens and five musicians file on. Ominous synthesised strings are soon being punctuated by loud drum bursts at the same time the blackness is interrupted by narrow red beams of light. Del Naja and Marshall finally appear on stage in silhouette and park themselves behind a table containing keyboards and a laptop. Once settled in, the music suddenly roars into life and Del Naja’s smoky voice raps out the words to United Snakes – a bonus track from new album Heliogoland’s import only edition. There’s a problem though, 3D can’t be heard at all over the dirgey, thrashing synths and drums. Luckily, it turns out that his raspy singing simply can’t compete with the unusually cacophonous (for Massive Attack) music. Things improve by the second track Babel when Martina returns for what will be the first of several vocal duties for her tonight. The new songs, such as Babel, don’t dominate the set tonight as much as expected. The band had even given away with all tickets sold, a copy of Heligoland, presumably so fans would have time to ingest the latest brooding set – a grower for certain - in time for this tour.

 

Instead, commercial highlight Mezzanine (1998) gets a thorough riffling tonight, possibly due to the current album’s overabundance of guest singers. With that said, it’s once again up to Martina to step up and this time, take on Mezzanine single Teardrop. Elizabeth Fraser’s vocal on the original song is such an incredible feat of raw emotion; Martina wisely wasn’t about trying to match it. Instead the song was completely rearranged as a dub reggae piece, perfectly fitting Topley-Bird’s voice. The sight of her silhouetted against a giant graphic of an eye, pouring everything she had into this song is utterly staggering. The performance passes all too soon, but will surely stay with everybody here tonight for a long time to come.



I have to say I’m so much more impressed with Horace Andy as a live singer than on the recordings. The shadowy figures scattered around the stage all but vanish as Horace, sporting a bright red hat appears, hands aloft to perform Angel and Girl I Love You under blinding white lights. The band’s guest singers aside, Grant “Daddy G” Marshall is one very bright star in this show. On Risingson he commands the audience’s attention with his guttural half sung/rapping technique and ‘rude-boy’ dancing. Del Naja’s moment to shine comes in Inertia Creeps – his whisper in stark contrast with Marshall’s booming delivery. A slightly less welcome star of Massive Attack’s current show is the endless feed of slogans, headlines, facts and quotes in huge neon letters flickering up on the huge screen. Underworld use similar seizure-inducing visuals in their show, and although spectacular in colour and movement, Massive Attack’s music is far less suited to this kind of pace. Besides that, it’s a bit wanky in a U2 kind of way.

As the show’s end draws near - and we’re reminded via the screens, how much the war in Iraq has cost - the audience fill up the spaces between the seats and the stage to dance, just as Massive Attack’s final surprise is unleashed – One Deborah Miller. You don’t get pipes like hers from working in mines. This soulful diva of grand proportions gives the roof a tickle with heart-stopping renditions of Unfinished Sympathy and Safe From Harm off Blue Lines. Miller is enjoying her moment too; it’s a long wait for her to do only two songs. The finale Karmacoma is, although a welcome visit to the Protection album, a little flat following on from Miller’s grand styling. Nobody seems to mind though and we take our cue to shower the band with love as the song ends. All hatchets between Massive Attack seem buried as Marshall grabs Del Naja’s hand and holding it up yells, “this is my man, D - give it up!” Grant holds steady on stage as the applause builds; he looks to be reminding himself of why he rejoined the band last year, and what he’s missed.



After this tour Massive Attack will probably fly back to Bristol and hide away in their rooms for another six or seven years with the curtains drawn. But if that’s what it takes for them to share a stage and pull off a show like the one seen tonight, may they never be disturbed.



lEIGh5



 

SIDNEY MYER MUSIC BOWL SETLIST, 20/03/10:

UNITED SNAKES

BABEL

RISINGSON

GIRL I LOVE YOU

PSYCHE

FUTURE PROOF

INVADE ME

TEARDROP

MEZZANINE

ANGEL

SAFE FROM HARM

INERTIACREEPS

SPLITTING THE ATOM

UNFINISHED SYMPATHY

ATLAS AIR

KARMACOMA

photos by me and Fruitbat

Massive Attack - Heligoland (album review)

Massive Attack it has to be said take their sweet time in serving up any product at all, so when an album does arrive it's something of an event. The band so far in their 20 year career have never fully escaped the shadow cast by debut album Blue Lines and are it seems destined to have all subsequent works compared to it. The thing is, all Massive Attack albums are largely blueprint in formula and why shouldn't they be? The recipe's good and nearly always works, and with only five albums in their cannon, you could hardly say they're flogging a tired old nag.

Despite long periods of inactivity, there's still something of an old friend factor to Massive Attack so the time spent listening to their new set was  to be a fairly comfortable experience, surely?. There would be some familiar tales, told by voices reminding me of good times with perhaps some new learned wisdom thrown in...? Well, no. In fact Heligoland actually comes across more like a total stranger. I find myself having to tease information out of the music rather than the expected easy flow of long-time acquaintances. On the upside to this, repeated listens show Heliogoland to be quite a strong contender for slightly sinister new best mate. A great companion to stand with in the 7-11 at 4am, bleary eyed and pretending you're in an American indie film about to pull out a shotgun and say something deadly cool.



So it's a little unfamiliar, but like all Massive Attack albums, there needs to be a bit of environment set-up to really appreciate it. Candles... well if that's your thing, but low light for sure and maybe a jostick and something in the room that hums, such as a fan. The first thing you'll notice about Heliogoland is by half way through the ten tracks, the mood and tempo are set at lucid and are not likely to change. And change they do not, but like thoughts during lucid sleep, so much is revealed if you just allow it to happen. Opening track Pray For Rain begins by layering live drumming with morose strings which eventually turn into popping electronic blips sung over with an increasingly urgent robotic chant until finally a flourish of gentle falsetto 'aaahhh's' come in as the music mimics a breaking drought. This song hails the welcome return of Grant "Daddy G" Marshall who hasn't sung on a Massive album since 1998's Mezzanine. The vocal duties on the rest of the album include the usual long list of guests, Tricky's ex-vocalist Martina Topley-Bird appears on Babel and Psyche - and naturally, it's a perfect fit. Her lazily half sung parts automatically trigger thoughts of Tricky's earlier work, which was always a heavier extension of Massive Attack's.



Regular guest Horace Andy also returns here sounding better than ever on Girl I Love You, backed with a tremendous live horn section. The single, Splitting The Atom, is the most immediate track here, boasting ice cold strings and a hip hop beat suggesting perhaps a Gorillaz influence resulting from Damon Albarn's contribution to the track. However, it's the combined effort of Albarn, Grant Marshall, Robert Delnaja and Elbow's Guy Garvey on Flat Of The Blade that stands out the most. Garvey sings ominously "...I'm not good in a crowd/I've got skills I can't speak of/things that'll chase me to the grave..." over a rising string melody and occasional horn blasts. All the best elements of the album come together on this track, and if you like 'em dark and brooding, it's guaranteed to please. That said, there is a warmth to Heliogoland that was missing from 2003 album 100th Window. The use of live instruments or rather the choice to not bury the live instruments in the mix is a huge benefit to the album overall. There's a good variety of vocalists and collaborators on offer, each given room to breathe and make their individual stamp on the songs which in the past had always served Massive Attack well. Core founding member Robert "3D" Delnaja is still lurking in the corridor, chain smoking and rasping away, only this time he's paused at the door and allowed his guest ensemble to shoulder a good deal of the work. Heligoland ultimately is a grower of an album, if not just for it's detached mood then for it's striking contrast to most popular music currently on offer. Grab it and let it grow, you won't be disappointed.



LEIGH SALTER

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