reviews / 2009

MASSIVE ATTACK - Splitting The Atom Ep

Name: MASSIVE ATTACK – Splitting The Atom Ep
Item: Splitting The Atom Ep
Rating: 7
Author: Mattia Braida

2009 (Emi)

trip-hop

by Mattia Braida

"Splitting The Atom" is an Ep that anticipates the release of the new album by Massive Attack, due out in January. Four songs and not even twenty minutes of music are enough to confirm once again the sheer greatness of the Bristol outfit.

Blending the dark atmospheres of "100th Window" with the dub and ragga pulses of their early days, "Splitting The Atom" is a thoroughly distinctive back to the roots, filtered through sheer craftsmanship: the dark beat, the warm, soul-infused synth, the melody that carpets Horace Andy's falsetto - all elements perfectly blended to win over even the most skeptical of fans. Then again, it's not just a matter of experience: "Splitting The Atom" is a solid track, pretty much flawless in every respect.

The following "Pray For Rain", with its atypical pace, starts off sinister with a noir edge, slows down, speeds up towards a choral surge and then fades out mournfully. "Bulletproof Love" is the perfect example of how the Bristol duo leaves many a budding trip-hopper in the dust: a martial stride, threaded with plasticky underground dub, unwinds in circles, tracing sinuous lines.

The sun of the East peeks through on the closing "Psyche", featuring vocals from Martina Topley-Bird. Amid soft, muffled atmospheres, this delectable preview comes to a close.

Massive Attack, despite the years gone by since their last full-length effort, are more alive than ever.

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02/10/2009

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Mattia Braida, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition

Tracklist

1. Splitting the Atom
2. Pray for Rain
3. Psyche
4. Bulletproof Love

MASSIVE ATTACK on the web

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Official website

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Massive Attack

Bristol's wild bunch

Formed as an open collective (the "Wild Bunch"), Massive Attack helped launch trip-hop, or the "Bristol sound", turning New York hip-hop into a concentrate of soul, reggae-dub and electronics with smoky, cinematic atmospheres. An unsettling urban soundtrack, born of what Tricky called "pre-millennium tension"