What an album, their debut album. Released on their Wild Bunch label April 8th 1991, it was regarded as being the first trip hop album.
I love the tracks that were chosen to be sampled, and how the samples were worked. Sampling is ‘the reuse of a portion of a sound recording in another recording. They comprise elements such as rhythm, melody, speech, sounds, or entire bars of music, and may be layered, equalised, sped up or slowed down, repitched, looped or otherwise manipulated’ – thanks Wikipedia.
Three tunes that were sampled are:
Five Man Army Dub by Lewin Bones Lock released in 1982:
Lowrell – Mellow Mellow from 1979. I used to dance across the floor to this in my local nightclub. Used in the track Lately:
And William DeVaughn Be Thankfull for What You’ve Got, relased 1974:
30 years later Massive Attack release the Eutopia EP. Featured are three videos comprised of visuals, music and spoken word/teachings. The topics covered are tax havens, climate emergency and the ever increasing gap between the rich and the poor: