Axe Attack 2 Album Songs

[Jule Kue]

MassiveAttack are an English trip hop collective formed in 1988 in Bristol by Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adrian "Tricky" Thaws, Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. The group currently consists of Del Naja, Thaws, and Marshall.

Massive Attack's awards include a Brit Award for Best British Dance Act, two MTV Europe Music Awards, and two Q Awards.[5][6] They have released five studio albums that have sold over 13 million copies worldwide.[7] Massive Attack support some political, human rights and environmental causes.

Deejays Daddy G, Andrew Vowles, musician and rapper Tricky, and graffiti artist-turned-rapper Robert Del Naja met as members of partying collective the Wild Bunch. One of the first homegrown soundsystems in the UK, the Wild Bunch became dominant on the Bristol club scene in the mid-1980s.[7]

In the 1990s, the members worked increasingly separately. Adrian "Tricky" Thaws left Massive Attack in 1995 and Andrew Vowles (Mushroom) left Massive Attack in late 1999. Despite having taken Del Naja's side and participating in a webcast as a duo the following year, Grant Marshall (Daddy G) took a personal break in 2001. Marshall rejoined the band for their following tour in 2003 and 2004,[13] and returned to a studio role in 2005. Thaws also rejoined Massive Attack in early 2016.

3D co-wrote Neneh Cherry's "Manchild",[15] which peaked at number 5 in the UK single chart.[16] Cameron McVey and Neneh Cherry helped them to record their first LP, Blue Lines, partly in their house, and the album was released in 1991 on Virgin Records.[17]

The album used vocalists including Horace Andy and Shara Nelson, a former Wild Bunch cohort.[18] MC's Tricky and Willie Wee, also once part of the Wild Bunch, featured, as well as Daddy G's voice on "Five Man Army". Neneh Cherry sang backing vocals on environmentalist anthem, "Hymn of the Big Wheel".[17]

That year they released "Unfinished Sympathy" as a single, a string-arranged track at Abbey Road studio, scored by Will Malone,[19] that went on to be voted the 10th greatest song of all time in a poll by The Guardian.[20]

The group temporarily shortened their name to "Massive" on the advice of McVey to avoid controversy relating to the Gulf War.[21] They returned to being "Massive Attack" for their next single, "Safe from Harm".

With McVey out of the picture, Massive Attack enlisted the production talents of former Wild Bunch Nellee Hooper to co-produce some songs on it, with Mushroom. Other tracks were co-produced by the Insects and 3D. A dub version, No Protection, was released the following year by Mad Professor. Protection won a Brit award for Best Dance Act.[22] The other collaborators on Protection were Marius de Vries, Craig Armstrong,[13] a Scottish classical pianist, and Tricky. Tricky's solo career was taking off at this time and he decided not to collaborate with Massive Attack after this.[9]

In 1995, Massive Attack started a label distributed by Virgin/EMI, Melankolic, and signed Craig Armstrong and a number of other artists such as Horace Andy, Lewis Parker, Alpha, Sunna, and Day One. The group espoused a non-interference philosophy that allowed the artists to make their albums in the way they wanted.[25]

The same year the Insects became unavailable for co-production and having parted ways with Nellee Hooper, the band were introduced to Neil Davidge,[26] a relatively unknown producer whose main claim to fame thus far had been an association with anonymous dance-pop outfit DNA. The first track they worked on was "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game", a cover version sung by Tracey Thorn for the Batman Forever soundtrack. Initially, Davidge was brought in as engineer, but soon became producer.[27]

The group increasingly fractured in the lead-up to the third album, Davidge having to co-produce the three producers' ideas separately. Mushroom was reported to be unhappy with the degree of the post-punk direction in which Del Naja, increasingly filling the production vacuum, was taking the band.[26]

In 1997, the group contributed to the film soundtrack of The Jackal, recording "Superpredators (Metal Postcard)", a song containing a sample of Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Mittageisen"[28] and "Dissolved Girl", a new song with vocals by Sarah Jay (that was later remixed for the next album), which was featured at the beginning of the 1999 film The Matrix, although it was not on the official soundtrack.

In 1997, Del Naja became the band's main producer in the recording sessions that made Mezzanine, Massive Attack's most commercially successful album,[30] selling nearly four million copies. It featured Neil Davidge as a sound engineer and co-producer, and Horace Andy and Elizabeth Fraser as the main guest vocalists. During recording, Angelo Bruschini became their permanent lead guitarist both in the studio and live.[29]

The lead single, after "Risingson", was "Teardrop", sung by Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins. The song was accompanied by a video directed by Walter Stern, of an animatronic singing fetus. Horace Andy sang on three songs, including "Angel". A track the band made for the film The Jackal, "Dissolved Girl", sung by Sarah Jay, was remixed for inclusion on the record.

Around this time, Del Naja, with Davidge decamped into Ridge Farm studio with friends and band members of Lupine Howl (made up of former members of the band Spiritualized, including Damon Reece, who went on to be Massive Attack's permanent drummer and one of two live drummers) towards a fourth Massive Attack LP, taking things even further into a rock direction.[11]

With Daddy G temporarily no longer involved in the studio, Davidge and Del Naja steered "LP4" on their own. Enlisting the vocals of Sinad O'Connor and Horace Andy, 100th Window was mastered in August 2002 and released in February 2003.[35]

Featuring no samples or cover versions, 100th Window was not as critically well-received in Britain as the other records, although the album received a warmer reception internationally, scoring a 75 out of 100 on review aggregation site Metacritic.[36]

The group collaborated with Mos Def on the track "I Against I", which appeared on the "Special Cases" single and the soundtrack for Blade II. "I Against I" is also notable as the only track from the 100th Window sessions that features a writing credit from Daddy G.

Also in 2003, Del Naja was arrested on allegations involving child pornography, which were reported widely in the media.[37] Del Naja was soon eliminated as a suspect[38] (although he was charged with ecstasy possession and unable to get a U.S. visa for a while) with Daddy G and fans offering their support. The arrest affected the beginning of the 100th Window tour schedule.

Afterwards, Del Naja and Davidge agreed to an offer from director Louis Leterrier to score the entire soundtrack for Danny the Dog, starring Jet Li. Dot Allison, who had sung with the band on the 100th Window tour, sang the end title track, "Aftersun". Del Naja and Davidge also scored the soundtrack for the Bullet Boy film, with Del Naja on the end title vocals.

In 2005, Daddy G started coming into the studio, although little came of the material. He decided to instead work with a production duo, Robot Club, in another studio, feeling that he would be more free to develop tracks in the way he wanted. Meanwhile, Del Naja and Davidge recorded with a number of different singers as well as creating a track named "Twilight", for UNKLE's War Stories album. Later that year, Massive Attack decided to release their contractually obliged compilation album Collected in 2006. They released it with a second disc, made up of previously released non-album songs and unreleased sketches.[35]

In February 2007, Massive Attack hosted a charity benefit for the Hoping Foundation, a charity for Palestinian children. In 2008, it was announced that Massive Attack were to curate the UK's Southbank Meltdown, a week-long event. It was suggested in interviews that this event would inspire Massive Attack back into action, having spent several years drifting towards the completion of their fifth studio album.[40]

Later that year, Del Naja and Daddy G headed to Damon Albarn's studios for some writing and jamming. Around this time, Davidge scored the soundtrack for a Paul McGuigan film, Push and in December, Del Naja completed the score for 44 Inch Chest with the Insects and Angelo Badalamenti.

Davidge and Del Naja got back together in 2009 with Daddy G to finish the fifth album, incorporating bits of the Albarn material. Later it was announced that the band were to headline the 2009 Bestival festival,[41] and soon after that they were to tour the UK and Europe. In May, Del Naja's instrumental "Herculaneum", featured in the film Gomorra, won an Italian award for Best Song. Later that month, Del Naja and Marshall picked up a special Ivor Novello award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.[42]

On 29 May 2009, Jonny Dollar died of cancer aged 45, survived by his wife and four children. Dollar was the programmer and hands-on producer behind Blue Lines, writing some of the melodies that were the basis for the string arrangements in "Unfinished Sympathy".[43]

On 25 August 2009 their new EP, Splitting the Atom, was announced. The other new tracks on the EP were Tunde Adebimpe's "Pray For Rain", Martina Topley-Bird's "Psyche" and Guy Garvey's "Bulletproof Love". The latter two tracks appear as remixes of the album versions.

The fifth album was released on 12 November 2009, called Heligoland, after the German archipelago of Heligoland, after a previous project called "Weather Underground" was abandoned.[7] Del Naja said "I think it's got definitely a more organic feel".[44] The opening track, "Pray For Rain" featured guest vocals of TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe. Damon Albarn, Martina Topley-Bird and Mazzy Star frontwoman Hope Sandoval also provide guest vocals on the album. Del Naja said in October 2010, to the Spinner website, that his plans were now for "unorthodox" releases of several EPs in 2011, rather than an album.[45]

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