Massive Attack’s Fifth Album Salutes The Past.

The wait is over. After seven years of teasing, Bristol legends Massive Attack have finally returned with a new album, Heligoland, and a newfound sense of unity. Founding member Grant Marshall, a.k.a. G, is back onboard, joining fellow writer/producer Robert Del Naja, a.k.a. D, and a host of guest musicians and vocalists, some of whom have been collaborating with the group since the beginning. Listening to the finished product is like taking a crash course in Massive Attack’s rich, twenty-year history. "It feels like we’ve been making Heligoland since we started our first album," says Del Naja. "It’s been an inevitable trajectory."

Massive Attack’s last LP, 100th Window, was a dense electronic record full of futuristic synths and programmed beats. After falling out with both Marshall and the group’s other founding member, Andrew Vowles (a.k.a. Mushroom), Del Naja completed the album mostly alone. "100th Window was about intricacies and layers," he says. "It was governed by machinery and computers. Everything was crafted in that world."

100th Window drew mixed reactions from fans and critics, many of whom thought Del Naja had strayed too far from the ideas that made Massive Attack special to begin with. When Marshall and Del Naja reunited and began to think about the follow-up, they both knew it was time to get back-to-basics. But progress was slow. The pair recorded an album’s worth of material, then shelved it. "We were at a bit of a loss as to where to begin," says Marshall  -  "where the starting point was going to be, the start of Heligoland."

The breakthrough came when the pair visited Blur/Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn at his studio and collaborated on several new tracks. "That was a great starting point," says Marshall: "a great springboard to work from. Damon is a complete genius. Once we’d started those sessions, there was no looking back."

"We went to Damon’s studio in November [2008]," adds Del Naja, "and then went to see Tim Goldsworthy [of D.F.A.] in New York. The work we did in those two periods, combined with getting our shit together in Bristol, all those combinations of people and energy started to create something which felt like it was real."

2009 was spent working feverishly on the semi-completed album, with Del Naja and Marshall each taking responsibility for certain sections. "If and when we needed each other’s input, we’d ask," says Marshall. "There was a spiritual awareness that was going on, but not necessarily a physical awareness. Tracks could be started, initiated and finished by each one of us."

Del Naja elaborates: "G has more of a DJ-orientated attitude to things. He’s sometimes quite aloof in that sense, because he is not going to be in the studio hour by hour, minute by minute in the same way I might be, or Mushroom might have been. G will come in with ideas and leave again."

As Heligoland neared completion, the duo enlisted the help of a number of singers to add flavour to the tracks. Although vocals have always featured prominently on Massive Attack’s albums, in the past they have usually come from just one or two external sources. This time around, Del Naja and Marshall wanted to use as many different singers as possible. Their collaborators on Heligoland include Albarn, Hope Sandoval (from Mazzy Star), Guy Garvey (of Elbow) and Tunde Adebimpe (from TV On The Radio), all of whom brought something new to the table.

"Everyone who came in seemed to point to a different track than you would expect them to," says Del Naja, "and often we’d try and orienteer people towards different things so we weren’t doing the obvious thing you might expect from that person. Like when Guy came in, he started this kind of vocal mantra, almost a white blues gospel thing, which was really bizarre. With Guy, maybe from an outside perspective, he might be expected to work on something very beautiful and soulful  -  more what you’d expect from Elbow  -  but it was a completely different approach he took, which made it really intriguing.

In addition to the new voices, a number of old friends contributed to the Heligoland sessions. Jamaican vocalist Horace Andy, who has appeared on every Massive Attack album so far, contributes to two tracks; and fellow Bristol musician Adrian Utley, of Portishead, plays bass. Heligoland also marks the first appearance of Martina Topley-Bird on a Massive Attack album. The singer, who is best known for her work with Tricky, has been an integral part of the Bristol scene since the 90s, and has toured with Massive Attack  -  but until now, she has resisted recording with the group.

In a sense, Heligoland feels like a return to Massive Attack’s roots  -  it’s crammed with sounds and structures that will remind listeners of the group’s seminal debut, Blue Lines, as well as 1998’s dark and dusty Mezzanine album. The club-oriented complexity of 100th Window is gone. "The idea of this record was to make it very apparent what was what," says Del Naja. "In terms of production, it was about simplifying everything and stripping it back."

But Heligoland is more than a retread of old ground. Amidst the classic Massive Attack atmospheres, there are new emotions at play. "This album is more upbeat than our previous records," says Del Naja, "and it’s more communal. There are more personalities. I think the different recording locations  -  Bristol, New York, London  -  give it a different feel, as well."

Perhaps most strikingly, the group sounds at ease for the first time since their early days. With Heligoland, Del Naja and Marshall seem to have found the flow they were missing for most of the last decade. "I think the interesting thing about this record, as opposed to the last two in particular, is that there wasn’t a central conflict that defined the relationships in the studio, or the nature of the album and its mood," says Del Naja.

Marhsall agrees. "We had our ups and downs making this album," he says, "but it was an amicable procedure. The actual atmosphere now is great."

Heligoland is out now on EMI Music.  Massive Attack play Riverstage 23 March.

By Dan Stapleton

ENDS