Massive Attack - 'mezzanine'

I still love the song though, only slightly only slightly less than I used to. The rest of the album I've not listened to since 98 or whenever it was: an interesting-on-paper-or-perhaps-not-even-that stab at marrying trip-hop and post-punk, but somehow already very much an artefact of its (Serious) times.

That said, I think the band has done some wonderful music, "protection" and "blue lines" the most memorable - and this albumn did them (musically at least) no shame.

is the assumption then that there is an antiabortion message inherent in the song and the video?

you've got to back that up with something

xpost:
100th window is not dull at all. the album which caught best the dark and dense atmosphere in the beginning of last year before bush started his war. it's all about textures.

I love love love the first track on 100th Window but then the rest of the album is a bit like a repeated, slightly less convincing re-iteration of that first track.

If you only count the last album, then yes, I fully agree. But up until Mezzanine: classique. I don't think Mezzanine holds up as well as the previous ones, strangely/maybe because of the punk influence being a bit too overt. Or at least that's what my addled brain makes of it. :-)

I like 100th Window; I never find the right time to listen to it, however, and as soon as I do, I'm sure it'll be one of my favourites.

Too bad. Your loss, man!

I've several Massive Attack live bootlegs that I play pretty often. They did a great extended Group Four when Mezzanine was current, very potent.

Too bad. Your loss, man!

-- latebloomer (posercore24...), October 2nd, 2004 8:35 PM.

I realise that texture is an extremely important factor in music, but if an artist concentrates solely on texture at the expense of other elements the music can slip very easily into self-indulgence in my opinion. That's all.

best alex in mainhattan post ever!

The parrot's dead now, and I haven't played the album in years.

I love the first two as well. 100th Window is OK, but haven't listened to it much. Mezzanine may be darker, but I don't quite get the goth thing! It surprises me that the general feeling is that it's not up to scratch. I tend to think the first few tracks are the worst (overexposure most likely).

The first four tracks of Mezzanine are fucking incredible, really atmospheric and powerful and dynamic too, but after that I switch off completely.

to describe MA as 'dire and embarassing' makes no sense to me. Ronan's complaint seems to boil down to taking offence to them being labelled as dance music when you can't dance to it. if that's true then i agree it is stupid but you can hardly blame the band for this. one man's 90s is another man's heaven. one man's boring is another man's hypnotic/mesmeric/sublime/dreamnoize...

oh shit, that's tonight? oh well.

I saw them on what most have been their previous tour and, like Kraftwerk live (and then some), it was much more impressive than I might have imagined. I want to say when I saw them the guest vocalists (like Fraser) appeared and disappeared as needed.

Wait, Liz is touring??? Oh brother, I'll be in the corner crying.

― Johnny Grottan from the Skeks Pistols (Leee)

Saw them do this in London and definitely had moist eyes during Teardrop, appropriately.

so gutted to have missed this during their European tour

Also saw this last Saturday. Group Four was all time live with Liz. Holy shit guys

This was as good as something of this sort could be, imo. They sounded great, and despite the facile Banksyness of the visual/textual content it had a lot of poignant moments, like when Liz sang "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" against a backdrop of war footage - I choked up. The Bauhaus cover was fabulous and exhilarating.

Wait Liz is singing Risingson?

Nope.

Yeah just checked the setlist, she does a Pete Seeger cover then. It’s fucking awesome they’re doing covers of some of the samples within the album.

Is Bela Lugosi’s Dead sampled in Mezzanine?

despite the facile Banksyness of the visual/textual content

Well, Banksy IS in the band

This was super good

feel like I short-changed Horace Andy who probably never needs the shout out, but deserves it

I... am not really sure whether I liked this or not. something wasn't totally clicking, and I'm not sure what -- it wasn't the visual (heavy-handed but I was more or less expecting it to be), I don't think it was the arrangements (although it was a bit disappointing dissolved girl was playback, and I... wouldn't necessarily have put "levels" on the setlist). the energy felt 75% maybe?

really what is the deal with the "levels" bit? does it make any sense at all in the context of the show

Katherine yeah, it didn't really hit for me either.

xp I assumed it was some sort of commentary on tim bergling's death, maybe?

Maybe just hard to live up to the imaginative world that the original audio conjures

yeah

If I’m lucky, I’ll see them with Liz Fraser tomorrow. She’s been performing with them a few times on this tour, apparently they do a mean Song to the Siren now

oh WHAT - they're doing Song to the Siren now? I saw them in SF years ago pre-pandemic and that was NOT on the playlist!

Apparently they do. We’ll see tonight.

They did. Very stripped down, only Fraser and a guitarist. Fraser was great in general on the four or five songs she was on. They brought on Young Fathers too, for a few songs (which may have been Young Fathers’ songs, actually, I’m not sure. Good show overall, they seemed in decent shape. Heavy on Adam Curtisesque graphics, on which I guess ymmv. But I think it worked pretty well.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/global-art-banksy/

If it’s really him, he’s a far better musician than artist.

does “Banksy” have anything to do with the tourist trap “Banksy Museums” that infest major tourist destinations?

BanksDOYOUSEE!?

I got dragged to one of those museums in Amsterdam, and it was crowded and laaaaaame.

Nathan Barley had his kitsch bang to rights 20 years ago

the only official Banksy museum is Banksy's Black Country Museum which is mostly just big murals of pints of mild

figures he’s a real ale guy

If I’m lucky, I’ll see them with Liz Fraser tomorrow. She’s been performing with them a few times on this tour, apparently they do a mean Song to the Siren now

― Mule, Wednesday, 12 June 2024 11:15 (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

Seeing Teardrop live with Liz had me in floods

tl;dr version of that article is that the Reuters writers decided he's chums with Robert Del Naja but, as previously reported some years ago, he was Rob Gunningham. Banky has since changed his name to a more generic one

https://i.postimg.cc/tJZ98k8H/IMG-7045.jpg

never been a huge fan of Traedrop

Teardrop even

never been a huge fan of Traedrop

thx for the heads up

xps, not just chums as in, hangs out with on occasion; Del Naja is alleged to have actively traveled with and helped Banksy tag buildings miles from the Ukrainian warfront.

yup. I also get frustrated with long form coverage that doesn’t acknowledge that it’s basically an artist studio model at this point. Few high end artists are traveling before a show to set up the gallery, and I think it’s probable that some of the stencil work was “installed” by others, like del naja

article also doesn’t acknowledge Banksy’s art is crap

No need to stress the obvious

didn't people figure this out ten years ago

In the same way that every Banky picture is the same, every few months we must rediscover the closely guarded secret of who Banky is

Banksy should have people bid on revealing his identity. And then he should give the highest bidder a mirror that says "do you see?!" on it.

wonder if this is the prime time to sell a little Banky booklet I was given what must have been 20 years ago. looks like there’s some ebay potential

like what “identity” is there left? his parents’ names? current mailing address?

Put it through a shredder first and you'll probably get about 20 times as much xp

they announced an arena tour here in two months with pretty expensive tickets. i'm a bit surprised and confused because i wouldn't have thought they're big enough for that here, especially at such short notice, i'd like to go but idk if i can justify the price

i looked up what they're playing recently and they've been covering seo taiji??? idk what they're up to at all

I'd go just to hear this (if they're still doing it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGCk-_cz00U

doesn't seem like they're still doing that one

is "here" Australia ufo? I was surprised at the big venues too

there's no info on the touring party - I see that Liz Frazer has been guesting at recent shows, I guess I am a little intrigued by that but seeing her sing in a vibe-free room in Homebush isn't really the dream

last time they did two shows to 6k a night on the opera house steps, 50 steps from buses and 8 mins harbour stroll from trains, or an amble from dinner or drinks or a picnic

I really doubt that 21,000 ppl are going to want to pay $180 each to go to a sport shed in the middle of nowhere, sixteen years later

(sixteen years of no or low-profile activity later, I mean)

yeah, australia

liz fraser and horace andy have been consistently part of the touring lineup since 2019 when they did the mezzanine anniversary tour, i expect they'll both be there again since they're part of the recent shows too