This Thursday, Massive Attack dropped their enigmatic new EP: Ritual Spirit. It’s a new four track EP that takes the group to experimental new heights with a more diverse electronic/garage sound, seeing collaborations with the likes of Young Fathers and Roots Manuva. This all arrived ahead of their Monday night set at the Brighton Dome, an event that sold out in around an hour way back in October. Outside the venue, tickets were changing hands for around £100, expectation was exceptionally high as the band return to many cities that they have seldom touched in years. In fact, they haven’t toured the UK this extensively since 2009 in anticipation of 2010’s Heligoland. So what could you expect from Massive Attack? It seemed that throughout the tour, no two set-lists were the same and hits such as ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ were no longer nailed on to be expected.
Arriving inside the Dome, it was quickly noticeable how the age range of a Massive Attack gig contrasts so obviously with the general demographic at Brighton shows. Gone were the charity shop dwelling students and in were the sophisticated chin strokers. It took a brief second to take into account what a fantastic venue the Dome is; huge ceilings protruded upwards, the vast concert hall appeared more like a Roman theatre and the general foyer area actually sold cakes and snacks. This was interesting; swapping cans of warm Tuborg for double chocolate cake felt nothing less than an exclusive luxury.
The Edinburgh group, Young Fathers were set to warm the stage for Massive Attack and in light of their 2014 Mercury winning album DEAD, I was exceptionally keen to see what they had to offer. The immediacy of their drum intro severed the silence, casting stark white lighting down from the ceiling upon the three empty microphones for Massaquoi, Bankole and Hastings – the theatrics were set in place for the front-men to arrive onstage. Colliding through songs in a juggernaut-esque manner, the likes of ‘Get Up’, ‘Shame’ and ‘Queen Is Dead’ are so powerfully relentless and left-field, they leave your ears ringing and yourself caught in some uptight angst. The music is exceptionally confrontational, the drummer remains upright at all times, slipping in movement with the music. His tribal style gives an honest, cathartic, militaristic feel to every element of the songs. Young Fathers are a band who utilise fierce imagery and lighting to every advantage – it is a skewed and twisted, distortion of R&B, hip-hop and soul. What a downright mesmerising start to the night.
Massive Attack take to the stage at around 9pm, the lights of the Dome are dropped to reveal a stage using dim, red lights that eclipse through smoke. The stage is laden with enough instruments to make GAK look like the average Joe’s practice room. What is churned out from the dirge of light is the hypnotic, pulsating ‘Battle Box 001’. Sounding like something that does not only mirror miserable weather but genuinely like something that brings on the booming thunderstorms, vocals shimmer side by side with distinct percussion to genuinely make the heart tremble. ‘United Snakes’ follows with rumbling hints of electronica and glooming vocal lines before taking a leap back to 1998’s Mezzanine, showcasing the first from that era with ‘Risingson’. The repetitive hypnotism of ‘toy like people make me boy like’ takes the set to darker depths with its haunting synth lines and trip-hop, down tempo. ‘Paradise Circus’ drifts in a similar fashion, all the while casting political messages regarding the current Syrian refugee crisis upon a vast LED backdrop. Stirring images appear and whilst falling in vein with the set, you cannot help but get the sense it detracts from the music. The frequency as to which the backdrop is utilised to purvey powerful imagery, slogans and Google search results eventually gets tiresome, acting more as distraction than a supporter of the message.
Nevertheless, the world is rectified as ‘Karmacoma’ comes to fruition – the slow, dub pummels through mile high speaker systems as flutes whistle through, providing some grasp of an optimistic tangent. The gushing green light billowing out from all angles supervises the music acting as a perfect accompaniment. The likes of ‘Girl I Love You’ and ‘Angel’ stand out as some of the best of the set. Volume is maximised as Horace Andy emerges, pumping his distinct voice powerfully through the song, dragging the distinct reggae and dub influences back into the set. The guitar sings loud, especially within ‘Angel’ where it gives it’s apocalyptic swan song.
Ultimately, however, did the set live up to all the hype? Yes and no. It was a set that was exceptionally frustrating at some points as it just did not sound loud enough. Voices were easily audible, muttering and commentating along and in turn, the likes of ‘Teardrop’ fell flaccid causing far less than splash, more like a slight ripple in an ocean. The promised sonic-bliss of Massive Attack’s trip-hop/dub dystopia never came true and you got the slight itch that you were leaving the Dome slightly out of pocket. Songs such as ‘Inertia Creeps’ and the aforementioned ‘Angel’ did reach expectation causing nothing short of a spectacle, it was just the vast majority felt slightly lagging. In a similar fashion, the sold out venue never quite felt sold out, empty seats were vast throughout the venue leaving atmospheric pockets that were not filled.
New songs were debuted throughout however and in particular, the stand out of the bunch was ‘Voodoo In My Blood’, the track with Young Fathers. The three front-men returned to the stage with the powerful energy they displayed earlier in the night and took the audience as their victims once more. ‘Take It There’ acted a sombre, piano led affair fronted with Daddy G – it is a track that would sit nicely alongside Radiohead’s ‘A Wolf At The Door’, a sadistic sounding cuss is balanced alongside the ever growing melancholiness hidden in the piano line.
To call the night a disappointment would be hugely unfair. It acted more as unfinished business, a set that never quite pushed past lukewarm, reaching the high expectations that were set. Massive Attack have returned with their first new music in around six years so maybe we should just take this as a warm up act for what is planned for the future. The group already have another new EP pencilled in for this spring with a full album to follow later this year. For this reason, we should be more than excited that the group are back again.
Tom Churchill
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