Poised for a fresh attack

The reconciled Massive Attack will perform their new album and classic pieces in Auckland next week. Photo / Supplied

If suffering for your art is a yardstick of success, no wonder Massive Attack have worldwide acclaim.

Their rise from Bristol's "Wild Bunch" collective, to Godfathers of trip-hop and recipients of an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music masks years of behind-the-scenes tussles, tensions and creative discord.

It's an irony not lost on Massive Attack's irascible ringleader, Robert Del Naja - aka 3-D. His steely determination and singular - sometimes myopic - vision of each Massive Attack album differing from its predecessor, down to the recording and production processes, has been the driving - and destabilising - force behind their success.

It even precipitated the departure of founding member Andy Vowles - aka Mushroom - after Del Naja insisted they supplant their hip-hop past for the gothic, post-punk vibe of Mezzanine.

Similarly, his desire to adopt a more experimental, psychedelic rock edge on 2003's 100th Window shattered the already fragile relationship with surviving member Grant Marshall, aka Daddy G, effectively leaving Del Naja to piece together the band's last album on his own.

"Yeah, there have been a lot of rows, bad feelings and physical confrontations, which became unbearable by the time we clashed heads over Mezzanine," acknowledges, Del Naja, sheepishly. "I felt we needed to take a different approach, but Mushroom didn't agree, so that's when we split with him. After that, me and G had to step-up to a different level, but I was disappointed with his contribution and he wasn't happy with my attitude, so we split from each other for a while too."

Despite Del Naja and Marshall's subsequent reconciliation in 2005, Massive Attack's new album, Heligoland, has been just as torturous, taking seven years to surface from their fall-out. It didn't help that, after virtually finishing the album in 2007, they subsequently abandoned most of their recordings.

"Yeah, we ditched a lot - with the exception of three or four pieces that we kept on the shelf, dusted down and rebuilt," he smiles, wryly. "It's because the previous incarnation of the album came to a grinding halt around October last year, in terms of its vibe, style and our desire. It felt like it wasn't going anywhere - that the record had run its course - after being broadcast on YouTube and played out on tour. It was like; 'OK, that's done, let's start afresh.'

So that's what we did, with the current line-up of tracks put together over the last eight months."

Typically though, starting afresh didn't come easy, with Del Naja and Marshall uncertain about the direction the album should take - until they teamed-up with Blur/Gorillaz frontman, Damon Albarn, who contributed to the dreamy Saturday Come Slow.

"We went into Damon's studio for a week and it was such a different environment and energy than we're used to. It influenced things a lot, because his approach is very different from ours. He's more instantaneous; he picks up lots of instruments, makes a lot of noise and chucks a lot of things at the computer, to see if they work," reveals Del Naja. "We had a week of doing that - being very spontaneous - and it was good for us, especially after all the touring we did last year. I think it gave the album a different mood, a lighter feel."

You can hear that lightness - especially after the darkness of Mezzanine and chilled despair of 100th Window - on the ethereal beauty of Paradise Circus, which features the haunting vocals of Hope Sandoval, and the sublime playfulness of Girl I Love You, featuring perennial contributor, Horace Andy. It's almost as majestic as Massive Attack's previously greatest works, Unfinished Sympathy and Teardrop. Along with elegiac opener Pray for Rain, a startling collaboration with TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe, it ensures Heligoland is a more diverse collection than their earlier albums.

"I think it does start and end somewhere entirely different," agrees Del Naja, nodding enthusiastically. "I was very keen to create a contrast between tracks, so you wouldn't know what's happening from one to the next. But even if there are tracks that echo a previous era, like Paradise Circus, it's still surrounded by something new.

"I hope people get the immediacy of the songs, because it's an album which you can understand quite quickly, as opposed to having to trawl through it, like in the past," he adds, seriously.

"As much as I like a good trawl myself, sometimes you want something that does it for you quick and I'm hoping it has that effect."

It does, especially with Babel and Psyche - their collaborations with fellow Bristol legend, Martina Topley-Bird - whose immediacy is as close to pop as Massive Attack will ever get. Elsewhere, their union with Elbow's singer Guy Garvey, on Flat Of The Blade, is a sparse, spooky trip, light years from his rocky orchestral sound.

"After circumnavigating each other for 10 years it was great finally docking - if I can describe it that way - with Martina," laughs Del Naja. "As for Guy, it was a lot of fun. When he came to the studio, we consumed three bottles of wine and pretty much recalculated the whole of the political system, before playing him some tracks.

"He actually chose the most unobvious track, which really surprised us," recalls Del Naja. "That song started off as a drum machine beat with tons of delay, like scattering ricochets. Then we started layering his vocals up and he put this strange, bluesy gospel mantra on it, like someone working in the cotton fields or a soldier slogging his way through the mud. It was really beautiful and had a strange Northern Soul feel to it which I was completely transfixed by."

Del Naja is hoping fans will be equally transfixed when it's performed live, along with the rest of their latest, beguiling collection - and a handful of classic cuts - next week in Auckland ...