Reinvention. If I had to pick one, unifying word to sum up Massive Attack’s discography so far, that would be it. I can think of few other bands with a profile as big as theirs who continue to take such dramatic risks with their music and design. This is a band who actively seek to defy expectations and challenge preconceptions.

The trajectory of their career could have turned out very differently. A lesser band would have coasted on from their early success, happily returning to the well time after time, pumping out diluted facsimiles of their winning formula in an endless stream of soundtracks and chill-out compilations. But not this band. This band took the sound that made them superstars, and flooded it with darkness and distortion. When that brought them even greater success, they stripped it all back for a deliberately obtuse and personal album infused with ice cold electronica. And now seven years later, nearly 20 years after their debut, they give us Heligoland, an album almost unrecognizably different to anything they’ve done before.

Heligoland is the soundtrack to a haunted circus. From the nightmarish clown face on the cover to the fractured carnival music beats, the album takes you on a journey from one dark sideshow exhibition to the next. It is at times dirty, distorted and arrhythmic. The pace of the album ranges from glacial slowness to brisk quicksteps without warning. From the first track, it draws you in to its eerie soundscapes, and you never know what’s around the corner. It might sound like an unpleasant experience, but it’s not. Not at all. The darkness is balanced by moments of incredible beauty and bliss. The songs quickly get under your skin, but in a way that makes you want to keep revisiting. It’s experimental, challenging, hypnotic and ultimately a deeply rewarding album.

Given the diversity of the songs, and the collaborative nature of the production, Heligoland sounds remarkably cohesive. There is more live instrumentation used here than ever before. Rumbling bass lines, live drums, handclaps, piano, frantically plucked acoustic guitar and most surprisingly— horns. There are still electronic elements, but they’ve never sounded more like a traditional “band” as they do here.

While they have always had a revolving cast of guests singers, this album contains no less than 6 individuals sharing vocal duties. Horace Andy returns on a track that might be his best collaboration with the band yet. Girl I Love You is a completely different type of song for Andy, and he sounds incredible, going round after round with a thunderous horn section. Elsewhere Tunde Adebimpe appears, as does Martina Topley Bird, Hope Sandoval, Guy Garvey and Damon Albarn, who puts in his most emotional performance in years.

There are also numerous musical guests appearing. In addition to the return of long-time producer Neil Davidge, there is Portishead’s Adrian Utley and John Bagott on guitar and keys respectively. Beak’s Billy Fuller on bass duties, and the late Jerry Fuchs fills in on drums. DFA records co-founder Tim Goldsworthy is also credited with additional production.

The album is dedicated to Blue Lines co-producer, Jonny Dollar, who sadly died last year.

The focus of the design is entirely on 3D’s paintings. His artwork has been featured liberally throughout their back catalogue, but never used as much or as prominently as it is here. The cover art is rather disturbing, yet strangely comical: a stencil-painted visage that could very well belong to Daddy G. He’s given a harlequin style tattoo over one eye while the other eye appears to be damaged or missing. His face is smeared with smudged clown lips, and above his head rests a greyscale rainbow, replete with drips of paint. The monocrhome image is made all the more striking with the bright, textured, orange background.

The cover image itself has banned band from appearing in advertising on the London Underground. According to 3D “They won’t allow anything on the Tube that looks like street art … They want us to remove all drips and fuzz.” It’s a bizarre act of censorship, and seems like a hasty and misguided knee-jerk response. It is interesting that the British street-art movement that 3D had such a strong hand in building over 20 years ago still creates such controversy, and that the very public debate over the distinction between art and vandalism continues.

Throughout the rest of the sleeve, all the hallmarks of 3D’s styles and themes are on display. The stencils. The layered textures of aerosol and acrylic paint. There’s the fascination with anatomy and the human form. The machinery of the body. We’re shown hearts, lungs and skulls in unflinchingly real form. There’s the sense of being exposed and laid bare. It’s startlingly honest. There are some notable differences in this new work though, most striking of which are the lurid colours and stark contrasts. There’s something quite post-apocalytpic about is all too. Vivid and nuclear. Rough and raw. It’s the punk side of Massive Attack and it all reflects the sound and mood of the music perfectly.

Tom Hingston returns to his role and designer, and essentially allows 3D’s artwork to live and beathe, unecumbered by any other design elements beyond typography. The typography itself appears to be another bespoke font, based on OCR. It’s set with massive, seemingly random spacing, and in most cases takes up the entire length of the artwork. Another smashing success in what has proven to be one of the great music and design creative partnerships of all time.

There’s something truly special about this album. It’s a specialness that might not be fully appreciated for a while— but it’s there. I feel like this is the album the band has always wanted to make. Despite the fact that it’s had such a tortured and protracted birthing process, there’s a looseness to it, and while they have never made a dishonest or inadequate album, they sound most comfortable and at ease in these songs.

I’ve really enjoyed revisitng these albums, and building up to a context for this new one. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as me, and that you give Heligoland the time it really deserves to sink in and inhabit your head for a while.

I can’t wait to see and hear what they come up with next.

Blue Lines
Protection
Mezzanine
100th Window

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