Read & Listen

Massive Attack - Splitting The Atom EP
[Virgin, 2009]

Massive Attack are back after six years of silence with not yet an album, but an EP that’s worth several albums. Splitting The Atom resembles a hard, serious book - you don’t get the essence all at once, but after the sevenths read. (I might be overrating here, but not from the first time, at least.) At first, you feel something abstract like “there’s something about it.” Sounds a bit like what they did before, but not quite. Then, when you grow closer, you find new levels, depth and detail. It’s probably best described as sex - with the first contact the general feel is created, and then, as the story unfolds, you pay more and more attention to detail and get into the process. Erotic relations are not incidental. Massive Attack has been, and remains, for me one of the sexiest artists ever. Not as much a “soundtrack for lovemaking” as the inner energy of music.

On Splitting The Atom, we celebrate the return of Daddy G (he was absent on 100th Window), and reappearance of old friends, Horace Andy and Tricky’s ex-girlfriend Martina Topley-Bird. Other contributors are Guy Garvey and Tunde Adebimpe (of TV On The Radio). The pace and darkness of the title track reminds a bit of Nick Cave (here we have Horace Andy and Daddy G). Smooth suavity continues with Tunde Adebimpe on Pray For Rain. Psyche featuring Martina is a dragging tenderness with hidden notes of mild hysteria. Beautiful melancholy is characteristic of all four tracks. Bulletproof Love with submerged rhythms and Guy Garvey’s vocals closes these 23 minutes.

To summarize, Massive Attack make a step to the new level. Previously they have caused quite a resonance in the head, and now their music is more like quiet steps. It wins you over one sound at a time, smoothly and softly. Not a stormy affair of youth, but a mature relationship, for a closed circle of initiated.

Read & Listen:
Massive Attack website
Splitting The Atom on YouTube