Massive Attack: Don’t Call It a Concert
Massive Attack close alone, on the first Monday night of September, this long edition of the Todays Festival. It is without a doubt the most relevant and most appealing moment of the rich program of the Turin event, but also an important second chance for those who did not have the chance to see them in Mantua last July and have been waiting for a return of the Bristol band for at least five years now.
Defining what Massive Attack are doing on this tour as a “concert” is perhaps a bit reductive. It’s a synecdoche: a part to describe the whole. The music played live is just a biological component of a rich and complex ecosystem that manifests itself over the course of an hour and forty minutes or so, but probably requires days, if not weeks or even months, to be grasped in its entirety. The concept itself is impressive and is divided into so many contents, all intertwined with each other, that a precious piece of advice to give to those who in the future will have the intention (and good taste) to take part in this collective ritual comes spontaneously: go with an open mind. As much as possible, arriving under the Massive Attack stage without preconceptions, ideas, expectations or spoilers is the best thing you can do. Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall will then fill in the gaps.
The circle opens with “In My Mind” by Gigi D’Agostino – who according to rumours is hanging around the concert area – and one might think it was a tribute to the host city, which is home to the DJ and record producer, but no.
The choice is very thoughtful and has accompanied the show throughout the tour. It also proves to be extremely effective in introducing one of the key points of the story: the mind, its power and the risks of its control. The now famous images of Elon Musk’s Neuralink experiment on a nine-year-old macaque that controls the commands of a video game with his mind scroll across the LED walls. Thus begins an electrifying journey between two worlds that dangerously mix: the real one and the one that gathers its many opposites. In this mix we find conspiracy theories, technological drifts, fascism, individualism, suspicion, manipulation, oppression, but above all the wars underway in Gaza and Ukraine. These are all key themes of the evening that amplify the multilateral message conveyed by Massive Attack’s music.
The Many Voices of Massive Attack
The irresistible “Risingson” is the climbing plant with which the English band enters the setlist and insinuates itself into the limbic system of the thousands of people who flocked to Todays. The evening is studded with illustrious guests who have enriched the career of our guys over the years and the first in order of appearance is Horace Andy, with a splendid “Girl I Love You” which is just the appetizer of his real moment as protagonist, arriving with “Angel” late in the setlist. Then comes the one who is perhaps the most anticipated artist on stage, Elizabeth Fraser, who was the angelic voice of the Cocteau Twins before starting a series of iconic collaborations among which “Mezzanine” stands out, the third album by Massive Attack, as well as one of the most relevant fragments of the music of the Nineties. Elizabeth introduces herself with the soft “Black Milk”, but will return without surprise for the unmissable “Teardrop” – one of the most memorable extrasensory experiences – and “Group Four”.
Among Elizabeth’s appearances we also find the Young Fathers, authors of a sensational segment, composed of the triptych “Gone”, “Minipoppa” and “Voodoo in My Blood”.
How many other musical projects come to mind, among those capable of taking another entire band on tour (among the most interesting in the world of alternative hip-hop, what’s more), not as an opening act but as a featuring? Three songs, one after the other, every night of the tour. This is the level of dedication of the three Scots, who in just fifteen minutes manage to leave an indelible mark on the show. Let’s not forget Deborah Miller, who has the golden task of taking us back to 1991, the date of the release of “Blue Lines”. From the debut of Massive Attack she interprets “Safe From Harm” and “Unfinished Sympathy”, contrasting her power with the sweetness of Elizabeth Fraser.
Beyond space and time
Even when there are no other supporting singers on stage, as in “Take It There”, “Inertia Creeps” or “Karmacoma”, passing through the cover of “ROckwrok” by Ultravox capable of making everyone go wild, Massive Attack do not let go of their grip on their audience. The shot is sensational and the two drums make all the difference. The circle closes and it is once again “In My Mind” that spreads through the Parco della Confluenza. Even if the dream of seeing Gigi D’Ag go on stage fades, when the LED wall shows the last images there is a sense of completion and satisfaction that leaves you almost speechless. The sensation of hearing something unheard of is missing, but not something new. And it is natural to ask: but how do Del Naja and Marshall manage to always be so current? Their role in the history of trip-hop is not enough to answer this question. In their world, the electric and the electronic come together in the lush vortex of a musical embrace that has no terms of comparison.
The sound and inventiveness of Massive Attack are certainly supported by the pervasive visuals, the powerful messages and the quality of the mixing – practically impeccable from start to finish – but they stand on a discography that, although formally stuck in 2010, does not remain crystallized in a decade that is musically too far away to be current and too close to enjoy revivals.
Indeed, the fulcrum of the evening remains “Mezzanine” which, once again, proves to be one of those very rare albums capable of reflecting with blatant precision its time and the context of its creation, managing to be perpetually contemporary. The Bristol of the Nineties is just a backdrop, while the music of Massive Attack remains out of space and time.
