Better than No Protection? Massive Attack’s Mezzanine Remix Tapes
Plus Autechre live, Björk remixed and X Coast bending pitches
The one thing everyone can agree on when discussing late 1990s Massive attack is that no one, at the time, was agreeing on anything. Robert “3D” Del Naja famously wanted the band’s third album, Mezzanine, to embrace the post-punk sounds of Gang of Four and Siouxsie and the Banshees, prompting the soon-to-depart Andrew “Mushroom” Vowles to allegedly shout, “Are we a fucking punk band now?” during one of the album’s recording sessions.
All the same, you can only gape in bereft wonder at whatever in-group indecision led the band to abandon the Mad Professor dub remixes of their third album, which only came out in full in 2019 on stand-alone vinyl and as part of a wider 20th anniversary album re-release, under the title Massive Attack vs Mad Professor Part II (Mezzanine Remix Tapes ’98). The release didn’t exactly leap off the digital shelves either: many staunch Massive Attack fans still don’t know the Mezzanine Remix Tapes exist, even though the album is widely available on streaming.
Sure, a remix album might not sounds like the most vital project for any group. But it came on the back of No Protection, an album-length dub of Massive Attack’s second album Protection, which is regularly acclaimed as one of the greatest remix albums of all time and which - according to British dub master Mad Professor himself - is among the best-selling dub albums of all time, with more than one million sales to date. What’s more, Mezzanine was the height of Massive Attack’s commercial fame, selling 2.5m copies in the CD-rich late 90s.
When I asked Mad Professor about this, in 2023, he put the decision not to release the Mezzanine remixes down to “record company business”, conceding “I guess they had other things they were working on”. “But it was a missed opportunity,” he added. “I mean, they came out when it was supposed to come out. Yeah, it would have been great. But it didn't. I don't know why, you know, I don't have much to do with major labels. They just did what they had to do. I just delivered the tapes on time and then left it up to them.”
A missed opportunity it certainly was. Of the eight tracks on the album, five dripped their way onto the market over the years, via 12 inch and CD single releases, while Risingson (Setting Sun Dub 2) was apparently uploaded to the band’s MySpace in 2007. But this is an album that screams to be heard as a whole, a re-contextualisation of Mezzanine’s punky sounds that turns the bad vibes up to 11, creating one of the most fascinating dub-related records of the 1990s in the process.
No Protection works because it takes the ever-so-slightly too-clean vibes of Protection and scuffs them up a little, adding grit in the process. The Mezzanine Remix Tapes, on the other hand, gives unity to an album that feels slightly fractured, creating a parallel universe take on Massive Attack’s third record in which the bad feeling among its three members has been distilled down into a record of perfect repugnance, like trip hop with a splitting headache and rampant paranoia. In doing so, Mad Professor created a record that actually feels far more in line with the post-punk loathing of bands like Gang of Four that originally inspired Mezzanine.
This feeling of alternate time lines is evident from the Remix Tapes’ first breath. The album kicks off with Metal Banshee (Mad Professor Mix One), a remix of Superpredators (that itself was a reworked cover of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Metal Postcard), a track that doesn’t even appear on Mezzanine, being relegated to the 1997 film soundtrack The Jackal. And it is a pretty vile beast, dark trails of metallic guitar poking through distorted drum beats, anchored by a bass guitar that suggests the hellish downward motion of a slow train ride into the bowels of the earth, as Mad Professor pushes each sound into unpleasant shades of earthy grey. Massive Attack often get dismissed as pastel chill out merchants for hotel lobbies and mid-price spas. But there is absolutely nothing nice about Metal Banshee, the sound of itching jumpers, too-hot days and lingering distrust.
Angel (Angel Dust), which follows, ratchets up the claustrophobia, with uncomfortably tight echo effects creating the feeling of being trapped in a tiny chamber, unable to leave, as a serrated bass line worries your feet and a guitar buzzes around like an angry mosquito. Horace Andy’s vocal, typically one of the sweetest sounds in all of reggae, is worried down to menacing shards of sounds, which come across as positively diabolic, even when he is singing the word “love”. Legend has it that Angel started off as a cover of The Clash song Straight To Hell, a concept that had to be trashed when Andy refused to sing the word “hell” on religious grounds, forcing the band to work up a new song on the spot. If this is true, you can only wonder how the vocalist feels about featuring on a version of the song that pretty much plunges the listener straight into hell, far more effectively than any Clash cover would have done so.
Mad Professor pulls off the same trick on Teardrop (Mazaruni Dub One), a rework that illustrates how important context is to the Mezzanine Remix Tapes. Teardrop, with its dazzling Elizabeth Fraser vocal, is one of the most beautiful songs in the Massive Attack catalogue. But I am not entirely sure it fits on Mezzanine, being far removed from the post-punk guitar vibes of Angel and Risingson, which precede it. In chopping Fraser’s vocal to its nervy core, Mad Professor loses a great deal of the original song’s brilliance. On the other hand, the decision helps with the overall coherence of the album, with Mazaruni Dub One slotting perfectly onto the Mezzanine Remix Tapes, like a star football player who restrains his natural ball-playing tendencies for the good of the team. Plus, it is fascinating to hear Fraser’s vocal sound like it is struggling for once, entrapped by its environment rather than soaring above.
The title of Inertia Creeps (Floating On Dubwise), up next, sounds like an unpleasant joke. Because rarely does this album float less than on the Inertia Creeps remix: the song’s headache hard rhythm and digital bass line nod to dancehall - not something often heard in Massive Attack songs - while the subtle placement of guitar sounds around the mix makes it sounds like there is a party going on next door; it’s not a very good one, and you’re not invited anyway.
Heavy rock guitars are an intriguing ingredient of Mezzanine, as the group bends what might seem to be a distinctly un-Massive Attack instrument to their will. And it is fascinating to see what Mad Professor does with them on this remix album in general, and on Risingson (Setting Sun Dub 2) in particular. When I asked Mad Professor about working on the two Massive Attack remix albums he said that he loved No Protection, expanding. “Mezzanine was harder, more rock-y, whereas No Protection was more soulful.”
This is undoubtedly true. But Mad Professor’s work on Risingson (Setting Sun Dub 2) suggests he should work with rock elements more often, transforming the jagged edges of Risingson’s guitars into something like metallic putty, both sharp and strangely elastic in their sound, My Bloody Valentine gone dub. Nobody thinks of Massive Attack as a great guitar band; but I could listen to the downy, ever shifting guitars on the Setting Sun Dub 2 all day.
Exchange (Mountain Steppers Dub) sees Remix Tapes briefly come up for air, much as the original song momentarily drags Mezzanine into the sunshine. Mountain Steppers Dub is, perhaps, the most traditional song on Remix Tapes; even then, the jazzy double bass lines that Mad Professor brings to the fore in abaton pass with a more traditional reggae bass, is an unexpected and atypical delight.
Wire (Leaping Dub) is the other Remix Tapes song where the original doesn’t appear on Mezzanine itself, with Wire being released on the soundtrack to Michael Winterbottom’s film Welcome To Sarajevo. Sarah Jay, who sang on Wire as well as Mezzanine’s Dissolved Girl, told me when I interviewed her for DJ Magazine last year that she was “gutted” that Wire didn’t make Mezzanine. And yet you can understand the decision, given Wire’s racing beat and relatively upbeat sound. Mad Professor’s Leaping Dub keeps Wire’s breakbeat and slabs of guitar but slathers the mix in echo and reverb to add a welcome layer of chaos that the rather tidy original lacks, occasionally highlighting strands of guitar melody in a very charming manner.
You could dance to Wire (Leaping Dub). But you would be well advised to be back in your seat for Group Four (Security Forces Dub), an eight-minute dub epic that brings the album back to scorched reality with a bump, closing the Mezzanine Remix Tapes in a thick, toxic soup of guitars and echoing effects, with only a rolling bass guitar line to cling to as the song grinds to a halt.
I once asked Mad Professor what was the purpose of a good dub mix. “A dub mix is supposed to take you away from the original mix and create a different space, create a different vibration, create another language,” he answered.
This he has undoubtedly done on the Mezzanine Remix Tapes. Mezzanine felt like a big leap forward for Massive Attack and it proved highly influential. Bands as divergent as Sepultura and Simple Minds have covered Mezzanine songs and you can hear the album’s influence in everyone from The xx to The Weeknd. That may explain why Mezzanine itself doesn’t sound that unusual today: it predicted a musical future that came true.
The Mezzanine Remix Tapes, sitting on a record company shelf for the best part of two decades, didn’t - and couldn’t - really influence anyone. Even so, I struggle to think of many bands who could have come close to the Remix Tapes sound, a combination of free-thinking musicians, studio tension and a producer at the height of his game, who understood the possibilities of the source material. Remix Tapes isn’t better than Mezzanine, as such, to make a crude value judgement; but its parallel universe take on post punk is perhaps more unique, the sound of Wire’s fly struggling in a nightmare trap of honeyed and slightly rotting dub.
Autechre live
Autechre are among the least live-reviewable of all acts, given that their show changes ever time and you probably won’t recognise any of it anyway. I’ve seen them twice now: once in London at a Warp rave in 2008 (ish) and last night in Barcelona; and both times I was lucky enough to witness the Autechre I love, which is there more beat-friendly incarnation.
Their show last night was somewhere between the most extreme thing I’ve seen and actually quite palatable. It was in the dark - which, although they’ve been doing it for a while, is still pretty unusual for a live band - but you could still basically see, with the duo squirrelling away behind a row of massive screens. And the music, for all its obtuse edges, played out to a 4/4 pulse that you could tap your feet to. And, if I hadn’t been a Tuesday, I would probably have danced.
Musically, Aphex Twin at Sónar 2023 was probably the closest comparison - although his ultra-bright rave laser assault couldn’t have been more different from Autechre’s mole-hole aesthetics. But if Aphex was most notable for his extremity, last night’s gig was overwhelmingly enjoyable, which certainly wasn’t what I expected from an Autechre concert in 2024
Some listening
Björk and Rosalía - Oral (Olof Dreijer remix)
Björk and Rosalía is a dream duo. So, sad to say, I was a little disappointed when their collaboration Oral dropped in November, feeling it lacked a little spark. What the song needed, it turned out, was the input of Olof Dreijer, who has brought spark by the Kraftwerk-full, as well as a tribal house-ish beat and his trademark fluorescent synth trails. In doing so he has made the song into an honest-to-god anthem that should, in any honest world, EAT summer 2024 whole. It sounds totally triumphant.
You really can’t beat a good pitch bend, can you? And Marathon Man has one of the best, allied to a winning chord sequence. Honestly, I don’t even particularly like the rest of the song, whose beat sends me back to the Eye Q / Sven Väth / proto trance days, but the wobbling, bending, buckling synth lead is an absolute gem, reminiscent of the the moment you realise you’re going to vomit but you’ll probably feel better.
Iraina Mancini - Undo The Blue (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Re-Animation)
Over the past few weeks I have been lucky enough to interview both members of Beyond the Wizards Sleeve (Erol Alkan and Richard Norris), a duo responsible for some of my favourite ever remixes, particularly their boundlessly pastoral take on Midlake’s Roscoe. After a few years of inactivity, the Beyond team is back and once again remixing at their best. This take on Iraina Mancini’s Undo the Blue, for example, is crushingly classy, like a Parisian psychedelia of overcast skies, dilated pupils and inevitable heartbreak.
I was going to write a piece this week about how Cowboy Carter is basically Beyoncé goes KLF in its attitude to using and (brilliantly) abusing other people’s music, from The Beatles to Dolly Parton (although obviously Beyoncé got permission) and how fabulous it would be if more artists could, for example, change the lyrics to Jolene and use great big Beatles samples but then maybe it only works because Beyoncé is so good. And then I figured: lots and lots and lots of people are going to be writing about Beyoncé. And not many people are going to be writing about Mad Professor, so let me just say that Bodyguard sounds like Beyoncé does late-period Cardigans and is OH SO DELICIOUS for that.
The same basically applies to Vampire Weekend’s Only God Was Above Us: everyone has written about it and I don’t have that much to add. But it is a remarkable album, full of contrasting sounds and textures. So not only do you get songs that swing from shoegaze to trip hop and from Dido to jazz - see Connect - but you also have scratchy drums next to full orchestras and glitchy effects lying down with saxophone riffs. When guitar bands say they want to sound modern - something Ride, for example, have tried - this should be their model. Only God Was Above Us is brilliantly produced and perfectly 2024. I had real problems deciding what song to choose here as the whole album is really excellent and I almost went for the big closer, Hope, which has my musical moment in the year, when the BIG ultra-dramatic chords crash in four minutes in.
Things I’ve Done
I reviewed the new Ride album for Pitchfork and honestly it made me sad. There’s one fabulous song and a fair few tracks that sound bizarrely like New Order. “Nine years and three albums into their reunion, Ride refuse to pander to their classic sound. Their stance is frustratingly laudable - a creative obstinacy to be admired with a slightly heavy heart.”
The Libertines - All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade
Yes sir it’s 2004! I mean, it isn’t. But a new Libertines album certainly takes you back….. Look, I like the Libertines. And I know a lot of people ardently disagree. But I do. The latest album could have done with a bit more tension. But it has its moments. Anyway, I reviewed it for Pitchfork. “Stripped of their fraternal bad blood, the Libertines are just a band—and a decent one at that. But, as All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade chugs to its chummy finale, you do almost wish that someone would start burgling someone, if only to see what happens.”
What a pleasure it was to speak to Erol Alkan this week. He was sat in front of an exquisitely large record collection that made me very envious indeed. We spoke about the new remixes of his A Hold On Love, euphoric melancholy, the art of remixing and more. Part two is coming soon, when we discuss Nitsa's 30th anniversary.
The playlists
72 of you now follow my newest and the bestest playlist, with all the best new music from the last four years. You are officially excellent. 46 of you follow my slimmed down, newest and the bestest 2024 list, which very much does what it says on the tin. You are also great. Why not join these happy people?
Wow. Frankly a little worrying that I've listened to No Protection more times than I care to recall, yet hadn't the faintest inkling this record existed... ty!