{"id":32535,"date":"2018-02-09T12:07:07","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T12:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=32535"},"modified":"2018-03-23T23:00:53","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T23:00:53","slug":"the-wild-bunch-new-book-tells-the-story-of-massive-attack-trip-hop-and-the-influential-bristol-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2018\/02\/the-wild-bunch-new-book-tells-the-story-of-massive-attack-trip-hop-and-the-influential-bristol-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"THE WILD BUNCH – New Book Tells The Story Of Massive Attack, Trip Hop And The Influential ‘Bristol Scene’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h4>\n

Emerging from the Bristol Party scene of the late 1980s, Massive Attack<\/strong> have been hailed as one of the most original and influential groups the UK has produced.<\/h4>\n

Now a new book seeks to lift the lid on the band, their home city and the network of artists and collaborators that broke through alongside them.<\/h4>\n

Massive\u00a0Attack Out of the Comfort Zone\u00a0<\/i><\/strong>is the product of three years’ work by\u00a0French journalist\u00a0Melissa Chemam<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Her book is drawn from a long series of interviews with Massive mainman Robert “3D”\u00a0Del<\/strong> Naja<\/strong> and other key figures including\u00a0Tricky<\/strong>, producer Neil Davidge<\/strong>, bassist Sean Cook<\/strong>, and members of the bands Portishead<\/strong> and Alpha.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Overtly political and fiercely uncompromising, Massive Attack is as much a multimedia arts collective as a conventional band.<\/p>\n

Fearless in their support of causes like the plight of Palestinian refugees, inter-band rivalries mean members have often fought their biggest battles with each other.<\/p>\n

Tricky left early to forge a solo career, while\u00a0Andy “Mushroom” Vowles<\/strong>\u00a0rancorously quit in 1999 after growing disenchanted with the dark direction in which\u00a0<\/strong>Del Naja was taking the group.<\/p>\n

Here Chemam tells Matt Catchpole<\/strong>\u00a0how she went about generating the band’s mystqiue and why she feels Bristol’s history as a slave port is so important to shaping its music.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Massive Attack’s classic Trio – Daddy G, Mushroom and 3D<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bristol became a leading port in the slave trade in the 18th century, with thousands of Africans forced to make the difficult and dangerous journey to the Caribbean to face a life of servitude on plantations.<\/p>\n

Due to overcrowding and appalling conditions on board the ships, it’s thought that half of those trafficked failed to survive the voyage.<\/p>\n

It’s this grim history that forms the backdrop to Chemam’s book and she argues it’s been central to shaping the culture of the city, along with the more recent arrival of the “Windrush” generation of immigrants in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

“Bristol\u2019s past, its link with the Americas, the slave trade and the influx of newcomers from the Caribbean, Italy, Ireland and beyond, in the 1950s, was defining,” Chemam asserts.<\/p>\n

“We could say artists are connected to their birthplace and origins in many cases, it\u2019s true for The Beatles,<\/strong> as well as Nirvana,<\/strong> or Jean-Michel Basquiat.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“But in the case of Massive Attack, they put Bristol on the cultural map in a way few had done before then.\u00a0The very dynamic reggae and punk scenes of the 1970s obviously helped them in becoming so unique. And the birth of their first album,\u00a0Blue Lines<\/em><\/strong>, was very much nourished by a dynamic intended to bring these influences into their very new and British hip-hop style.”<\/p>\n

What makes Massive Attack so special, Chemam argues, is that they’re able to assimilate diverse influences and combine them to create something entirely fresh and original.<\/p>\n

“Not every Bristolian of the 1980s became Massive Attack! It is about finding alchemy between different elements, talent, a self-taught ethos, a vision and a good instinct,” she explains.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Massive