Happy birthday to Robert Del Naja aka 3D, born 21st January 1965.
Ten songs, four official videos, one fan-made, one visualiser, four audio only, all prime examples of 3D's talent as a vocalist, producer, songwriter and remixer.
Some of these collaborations are new to me: I had no idea 3D had worked with Mike Patton of Faith No More on his Peeping Tom, or that he's produced a remix (all eleven minutes of it) for a reimagining of McCartney III.
And his work with Massive Attack alone is the stuff of legend, not just the music, but the activism and political drive, and the willingness to challenge conventions of live performance.
I stumbled across the video for Live With Me by Massive Attack featuring
Terry Callier for the first time in years. It was released as a single in 2006 with another new song, False Flags, to promote Massive Attack's 'best of' compilation Collected. Whilst Collected is not sequenced chronologically, Live With Me is tucked away as the final track and, generally speaking, it's ended up being a song that I've unfairly neglected over the years.
The video is directed by Jonathan Glazer, who previously directed their Karmacoma video in 1995 and was responsible for similarly striking visuals for The Universal by Blur and Street Spirit (Fade Out) by Radiohead around the same time. His debut feature film was the brilliant Sexy Beast in 2000. starring Ray Winstone and with a star turn from Ben Kingsley.
Live With Me is a snapshot of a lonely life, centred on a woman (Kirsty Shepherd), who stops at her local off licence to stack up on alcohol, downing a bottle of vodka at home, ending up back walking the streets before collapsing on a bench. The closing sequence cuts back and forth with scenes of the woman falling down a seemingly endless spiraling staircase.
It's a heartbreaking, compelling narrative, though one which slightly puts the music - Terry Callier's vocals, especially - somewhat at the back. If nothing else, the video convinced me to put Live With Me back on my playlist and retrospectively give it some of the attention that it deserves.
In the interests of balance, I also watched the video for False Flags. Ironically, although I bought the limited edition of Collection which included a second 'DualDisc' hybrid CD/DVD, I didn't have a DVD player at the time. I was also unable to play the DVD on my home PC, which a work colleague had built for me at a fraction of the cost in the early 2000s. So, I have no recollection of watching this video before, although I'm sure I have.
False Flags is directed by Paul Gore, whose work I'm far less familiar with but has included videos for Snow Patrol (Run), Amy Winehouse (In My Bed), New Order (Here To Stay) and Paloma Faith (Trouble With My Baby). The song itself was inspired by the civil unrest and rioting in Paris in late 2005 and comments on the state of the European Union. The video itself is, to quote 3D, "a still life portrait of someone were they’re forced to be
in a riot situation – throwing a petrol bomb. And it’s done in ultra
slow motion." The target of the Molotov cocktail is initially seen to be a car, but the latter moments of the video cut to a burning EU flag. Those final moments also include what initially sounds like some form of prayer, but is slowly revealed to be the phrase, "Where do we go from here?". It's actually a sample of Thom Yorke from the title track of Radiohead's 1995 album, The Bends.
False Flags featured as the opening track of Collected's bonus 'DualDisc' and was released as a standalone digital EP, with the similarly politically charged song, United Snakes. Both are incredible songs that, without having to look too far, sadly remain relevant a decade and a half later.
Side 1 of a mixtape, compiled in 1998 for my brother and his wife, probably as a Christmas/New Year gift.
The selection is essentially my 'favourites of 1998', with one or two in-year purchases thrown in for good measure. Two of the standout albums for 1998 were Like Weather and Solex vs. The Hitmeister, whilst UNKLE finally delivered their debut as an artist,Psyence Fiction, which had a impressive line-up of guests and almost - but didn't quite - live up to the hype. However, it delivered an outstanding video for Rabbit In Your Headlights and remix by 3D from Massive Attack.
Singles-wise, Cornershop's Sleep On The Left Side included a brace of great remixes from Ashley Beedle, plus the none-more-80s retrofit from Les Rythmes Digitales aka Stuart Price, back when he was masquerading as French DJ Jacques Lu Cont.
Opening track To Ulrike M. appeared on a Select magazine promo CD; the single itself featured remixes by Zero 7 and Tosca (aka Richard Dorfmeister & Rupert Huber), which I've still yet to hear. Every time I hear this track I remind myself that I need to track down a copy, then promptly forget. This has been going on for over two decades now.
Likewise, the Jungle Brothers remix is another that popped up on a promo CD in 1998, this time Melody Maker, and may well have been the first music I'd heard by Midfield General aka Skint label head Damian Harris. The line-up of remixers for the single is a snapshot of 1998: Stereo MCs, Natural Born Chillers, Da Beatminerz, Hardknox, even The Fugees.
A couple of songs were criminally relegated to B-side/EP status, namely Barry Adamson's cinematic cover of Da Juice's 1991 club track Hear The Angels and another track tucked away on the multi-format release of Mansun's Being A Girl. I wasn't a particular fan of Mansun, although I liked the lead track, but I bought one of the two CD singles specifically for Railings, written by and featuring a guest vocal from Howard Devoto. You may not be surprised to read that, in my opinion, it's Mansun's finest song.
Today's photo was taken in St. John's Lane, a side street in Gloucester that leads from the main shopping area and in a roundabout way eventually connects to the cathedral and garden, where I'll often spend a lunch break, when I'm working in the city. The main grafitti quotes Martin Luther King from a speech he gave in St. Louis on 22nd March 1964.
You'll have to zoom in to see it, but I was struck by the handwritten note stuck on the boarding to the left of it, which reads (sic) "If you are readin this, you and your vehicle? are being recorded on C.C.T.V." Judging by the hand prints and stains around the notice, this apparently was an irresistible invitation for some. I hope the C.C.T.V. captured their best side...
1) To Ulrike M. (Original Mix): Doris Days (1998)
2) Behind The Mask (The Orbital Remix): Yellow Magic Orchestra (1992)
3) Sleep On The Left Side (Paris) (Les Rythmes Digitales' Living By Numbers Mix By Stuart Price): Cornershop (1998)
4) Madam, Your Carriage Awaits: Bentley Rhythm Ace (1998)
5) Hear The Angels (Cover of Da Juice): Barry Adamson (1996)
6) Rabbit In Your Headlights (3D Mix-Reverse Light) (Remix By Robert Del Naja & Neil Davidge): UNKLE (1998)
7) Something: Leila ft. Luca Santucci (1998)
8) Brain (Midfield General Remix By Damian Harris): Jungle Brothers (1997)
Martina Topley-Bird is back, with a new album Forever I Wait released in September and co-produced with Robert Del Naja aka 3D from Massive Attack. Lots of media interest, including NME, reporting that this is Martina's first album in over a decade. That particular album, Some Place Simple, mainly featured reworkings of songs from her first two albums, so it's actually her first album of new material since 2007's The Blue God.
Like most, I first heard Martina on Tricky's groundbreaking single Aftermath but I am also a huge fan of her solo material. Her first album Quixotic was a patchwork of styles and producers, the sound of an artist finding their identity. The Blue God, produced by Danger Mouse, is a cohesive and outstanding album that I keep coming back to. Some Place Simple, released on Damon Albarn's Honest Jon's Records in 2010, stripped back the songs to great effect.
The lead single from Forever I Wait is Pure Heart, with a rumbling, sinister bassline and guitar chords typical of latter day Massive Attack, but of course it's Martina's voice that carries the song.
