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Track List
01) Pray for Rain
02) Babel
03) Splitting the Atom
04) Girl I Love You
05) Psyche
06) Flat of the Blade
07) Paradise Circus
08) Rush Minute
09) Saturday Come Slow
10) Atlas Air
11) Paradise Circus (Gui Boratto remix)
12) Fatalism (Ryuichi Sakamoto & Yukihiro Takaha
13) Girl I Love You (She Is Danger remix)
14) Paradise Circus (Breakage's Tight Rope remix
15) United Snakes
16) Pray for Rain (Tim Goldsworthy remix)
01) Pray for Rain
02) Babel
03) Splitting the Atom
04) Girl I Love You
05) Psyche
06) Flat of the Blade
07) Paradise Circus
08) Rush Minute
09) Saturday Come Slow
10) Atlas Air
11) Paradise Circus (Gui Boratto remix)
12) Fatalism (Ryuichi Sakamoto & Yukihiro Takaha
13) Girl I Love You (She Is Danger remix)
14) Paradise Circus (Breakage's Tight Rope remix
15) United Snakes
16) Pray for Rain (Tim Goldsworthy remix)
6:43
5:19
5:16
5:26
3:24
5:30
4:57
4:50
3:43
7:51
8:07
4:54
5:00
4:44
9:44
7:24
Data Complete
80%
Total Rating
80%Total Rating
(3 users)
Back Cover
CD Art
3D Case
3D Thumb
3D Flat
3D Face
3D Spine
First Released
2010
Trip Hop
Trippy
Electronic
---
Medium
Album
0 copies
Album Description
Available in:
Heligoland is the fifth regular studio album from the collaborative British music production duo Massive Attack, named after a German archipelago of the same name. It had been officially released everywhere except North America by 8 February 2010 (US and Canada on 9 February 2010) - seven years after the release of their previous non-soundtrack, standalone studio album, 100th Window. It has been certified Gold in the United Kingdom.
The record features the singing of Horace Andy plus invited vocalists: Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio, Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz, Hope Sandoval of Hope Sandoval And The Warm Inventions and Mazzy Star, Guy Garvey of Elbow and Martina Topley-Bird, as well as guitar playing by Adrian Utley of Portishead (on "Saturday Come Slow"), keys from Portishead collaborator John Baggott (most notably on "Atlas Air"), keys and synth bass from Damon Albarn ("Splitting the Atom" and "Flat of the Blade" respectively), guitar (various tracks) and bass ("Girl I Love You") by Neil Davidge and bass by Billy Fuller of Beak on various tracks.
The record features drumming from the late Jerry Fuchs and regular session and touring drummer Damon Reece. Dan Brown and Stew Jackson (Robot Club) co-wrote "Paradise Circus", played guitar on and co-wrote "Saturday Come Slow", and part-programmed and engineered those tracks. Tim Goldsworthy contributed additional production (specific tracks unstated). Most tracks were mixed with Mark "Spike" Stent and then all were mastered with Tim Young at Metropolis Studios, as with previous records. Unlike previous records, there are no personal acknowledgements on the inlay. Neil Davidge co-produced all tracks with Robert Del Naja only (except tracks 3, 7 and 9 where Grant Marshall was also involved), though Marshall has a co-write credit on every track. The album is dedicated to the memory of Blue Lines co-producer, Jonny Dollar.
The album release was preceded on 4 October 2009 by an EP, Splitting the Atom. During its gestation, the album was often referred to in the media as "LP5" (a reference to this being their fifth studio album - excluding Danny the Dog) or "Weather Underground" (Robert Del Naja's early working title and underdog metaphor for the record).
The artwork, as with every Massive Attack album since Protection, is a collaboration between Tom Hingston and Del Naja, this time based on Del Naja's paintings. Transport for London, in line with their policy to not encourage graffiti, insisted the cover image featured on advertising posters displayed on the Tube be altered so as to not resemble "street art", obliging the artists to remove drips and fuzz from the original image.
Many other guest vocalists recorded sessions during the duo's post-100th Window era but are not featured on the album, including: Stephanie Dosen, Yolanda (Quartey of Phantom Limb - effectively Robot Club's band) and Jhelisa (Anderson, not in the studio but via supplied backing tracks - had previously studio-recorded in 2002 for, but not included on, 100th Window); and, mostly during the pre-Collected time - Mike Patton, Aku and Akwetey Orraca-Tetteh of Dragons of Zynth, Elizabeth Fraser, Terry Callier, Fredo Viola, Debbie Clare, Beth Orton and Dot Allison. Mos Def and Leslie Feist were named as artists scheduled for recording sessions back in 2004. Backing tracks from Grant Marshall's side of Massive Attack's writing (mainly facilitated by and done with Robot Club) are known to have been sent to Alice Russell, and prepared for Sharon Jones, Patti Smith and David Bowie during the era but collaboration did not come to fruition, nor did talks with Tom Waits or Tricky, in terms of featuring as guest vocalists on the record. Post-punks Mark Stewart and Keith Levene were pictured inside Del Naja's 100 Suns studio in 2009, but played no part on the album.
"I think it's got definitely a more organic feel, " says Del Naja of Heligoland. "100th Window was very much about this amalgamation of everything joining, and eventually the process was so extreme that you couldn't tell if there was a string part if it was electronic or natural. lots of organic parts that ended up sounding very electronic. It became a whole world of different processes, and we wanted to do something a bit different because we've had that experience so we wanted to do something else."
User Album Review
Startling as this may be to thirtysomethings who grew up in prescribed awe of Massive Attack, but a whole new generation has arisen in the 12 years since their last pivotal album, Mezzanine, a generation to whom the Bristol duo are at best peripheral. So while an army of griping fans and sniping critics will argue that Heligoland doesn’t match their early triumphs, or break as much new ground, there will be younger listeners who hear it as something entirely new and recognise it for the gloomily, beguiling beauty it is.
Well, perhaps not entirely new. There are echoes throughout ”“ of Radiohead, Portishead, even the crunching drums and soaring strings of Timbaland ”“ which might make you think Massive Attack have finally become derivative, until you remember that they actually invented these strange, spooked sounds 20 years ago, only to see them plundered since. They’ve added new sonic flourishes ”“ fidgety TV on the Radio guitars, some skittering Warp Records beats ”“ but the emperors are mostly wearing their old clothes, though more stylishly than in years.
Another minor point: Heligoland could well be Massive Attack’s most consistent album. There are no songs as dazzlingly, blindingly perfect as Unfinished Sympathy, or Teardrop (although the gorgeous, satiny melancholy of Paradise Circus comes desperately close), but nor are there as many lesser tracks hiding in their shadows. The folksy, flimsy Psyche is forgettable, but every other song works its way stealthily and irrevocably under your skin, with that trademark combination of understatement and sonic richness.
Just listen to the gothic magnificence of the opening Pray For Rain, with its death-rattle percussion, mournful organ and mesmeric Tunde Adebimpe vocal, or the creeping, narcotic groove of the closing Atlas Air. In between there are songs as sleepily, dreamily rambling as Splitting the Atom (a return to the ghostly vocal interplay and dubby terrain of Risingson) or as pared down and single-minded as Rush Minute, with its relentlessly lapping waves of bubbling bass and rippling guitars.
Massive Attack spent their first 12 years as breathtaking pioneers, while 99.9% of their rivals might manage ten minutes of such inspiration. They may never be as original again, but as long as they make albums as rich, textured and seductive as Heligoland they will remain one of our most fascinating, extraordinary bands.
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User Comments
Available in:
Heligoland is the fifth regular studio album from the collaborative British music production duo Massive Attack, named after a German archipelago of the same name. It had been officially released everywhere except North America by 8 February 2010 (US and Canada on 9 February 2010) - seven years after the release of their previous non-soundtrack, standalone studio album, 100th Window. It has been certified Gold in the United Kingdom.
The record features the singing of Horace Andy plus invited vocalists: Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio, Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz, Hope Sandoval of Hope Sandoval And The Warm Inventions and Mazzy Star, Guy Garvey of Elbow and Martina Topley-Bird, as well as guitar playing by Adrian Utley of Portishead (on "Saturday Come Slow"), keys from Portishead collaborator John Baggott (most notably on "Atlas Air"), keys and synth bass from Damon Albarn ("Splitting the Atom" and "Flat of the Blade" respectively), guitar (various tracks) and bass ("Girl I Love You") by Neil Davidge and bass by Billy Fuller of Beak on various tracks.
The record features drumming from the late Jerry Fuchs and regular session and touring drummer Damon Reece. Dan Brown and Stew Jackson (Robot Club) co-wrote "Paradise Circus", played guitar on and co-wrote "Saturday Come Slow", and part-programmed and engineered those tracks. Tim Goldsworthy contributed additional production (specific tracks unstated). Most tracks were mixed with Mark "Spike" Stent and then all were mastered with Tim Young at Metropolis Studios, as with previous records. Unlike previous records, there are no personal acknowledgements on the inlay. Neil Davidge co-produced all tracks with Robert Del Naja only (except tracks 3, 7 and 9 where Grant Marshall was also involved), though Marshall has a co-write credit on every track. The album is dedicated to the memory of Blue Lines co-producer, Jonny Dollar.
The album release was preceded on 4 October 2009 by an EP, Splitting the Atom. During its gestation, the album was often referred to in the media as "LP5" (a reference to this being their fifth studio album - excluding Danny the Dog) or "Weather Underground" (Robert Del Naja's early working title and underdog metaphor for the record).
The artwork, as with every Massive Attack album since Protection, is a collaboration between Tom Hingston and Del Naja, this time based on Del Naja's paintings. Transport for London, in line with their policy to not encourage graffiti, insisted the cover image featured on advertising posters displayed on the Tube be altered so as to not resemble "street art", obliging the artists to remove drips and fuzz from the original image.
Many other guest vocalists recorded sessions during the duo's post-100th Window era but are not featured on the album, including: Stephanie Dosen, Yolanda (Quartey of Phantom Limb - effectively Robot Club's band) and Jhelisa (Anderson, not in the studio but via supplied backing tracks - had previously studio-recorded in 2002 for, but not included on, 100th Window); and, mostly during the pre-Collected time - Mike Patton, Aku and Akwetey Orraca-Tetteh of Dragons of Zynth, Elizabeth Fraser, Terry Callier, Fredo Viola, Debbie Clare, Beth Orton and Dot Allison. Mos Def and Leslie Feist were named as artists scheduled for recording sessions back in 2004. Backing tracks from Grant Marshall's side of Massive Attack's writing (mainly facilitated by and done with Robot Club) are known to have been sent to Alice Russell, and prepared for Sharon Jones, Patti Smith and David Bowie during the era but collaboration did not come to fruition, nor did talks with Tom Waits or Tricky, in terms of featuring as guest vocalists on the record. Post-punks Mark Stewart and Keith Levene were pictured inside Del Naja's 100 Suns studio in 2009, but played no part on the album.
"I think it's got definitely a more organic feel, " says Del Naja of Heligoland. "100th Window was very much about this amalgamation of everything joining, and eventually the process was so extreme that you couldn't tell if there was a string part if it was electronic or natural. lots of organic parts that ended up sounding very electronic. It became a whole world of different processes, and we wanted to do something a bit different because we've had that experience so we wanted to do something else."
User Album Review
Startling as this may be to thirtysomethings who grew up in prescribed awe of Massive Attack, but a whole new generation has arisen in the 12 years since their last pivotal album, Mezzanine, a generation to whom the Bristol duo are at best peripheral. So while an army of griping fans and sniping critics will argue that Heligoland doesn’t match their early triumphs, or break as much new ground, there will be younger listeners who hear it as something entirely new and recognise it for the gloomily, beguiling beauty it is.
Well, perhaps not entirely new. There are echoes throughout ”“ of Radiohead, Portishead, even the crunching drums and soaring strings of Timbaland ”“ which might make you think Massive Attack have finally become derivative, until you remember that they actually invented these strange, spooked sounds 20 years ago, only to see them plundered since. They’ve added new sonic flourishes ”“ fidgety TV on the Radio guitars, some skittering Warp Records beats ”“ but the emperors are mostly wearing their old clothes, though more stylishly than in years.
Another minor point: Heligoland could well be Massive Attack’s most consistent album. There are no songs as dazzlingly, blindingly perfect as Unfinished Sympathy, or Teardrop (although the gorgeous, satiny melancholy of Paradise Circus comes desperately close), but nor are there as many lesser tracks hiding in their shadows. The folksy, flimsy Psyche is forgettable, but every other song works its way stealthily and irrevocably under your skin, with that trademark combination of understatement and sonic richness.
Just listen to the gothic magnificence of the opening Pray For Rain, with its death-rattle percussion, mournful organ and mesmeric Tunde Adebimpe vocal, or the creeping, narcotic groove of the closing Atlas Air. In between there are songs as sleepily, dreamily rambling as Splitting the Atom (a return to the ghostly vocal interplay and dubby terrain of Risingson) or as pared down and single-minded as Rush Minute, with its relentlessly lapping waves of bubbling bass and rippling guitars.
Massive Attack spent their first 12 years as breathtaking pioneers, while 99.9% of their rivals might manage ten minutes of such inspiration. They may never be as original again, but as long as they make albums as rich, textured and seductive as Heligoland they will remain one of our most fascinating, extraordinary bands.
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