Massive Attack are a trip hop band from Bristol, England. They have released 4 studio albums, 2 movie soundtracks, 1 remix album, and a greatest hits collection. Their music style has been acclaimed for combining elements of jazz music, hip-hop, rock, and soul; lately darker, subtler forms of electronic music have been dominant influences.

Massive Attack are constant collaborators and have worked with a diverse mix of artists, from Sinead O’Connor to reggae star Horace Andy to Madonna. Their work has also been used in many feature films and TV shows, including The Matrix, The Insider, The West Wing and House. They also have a financial stake in a small night club, Tube (formerly Nocturne, a private members club that they jointly owned), in their hometown of Bristol.
The roots of Massive Attack start in 1983 as the Wild Bunch, a DJ sound system and collective based in England’s Bristol. They were known for their broad taste in music, blending reggae with classic Rhythm and blues and even some punk grooves. 2 of the Wild Bunch, Grant “Daddy G” Marshall and Andrew “Mushroom” Vowles split off to form Massive Attack with local graffiti artist Robert “3D” del Naja in 1987. A series of well-received singles followed, but the first Massive Attack album, Blue Lines, was a revelation. At the time of its release in 1992, down tempo electronica and house were the province of Soul To Soul (Keep On Movin’) and their dangerously overused but catchy slack-hop beat. Massive Attack, true to their name, came out of nowhere and razed all before them. There was nothing else like it. Credit must be given to producer Nellee Hooper, in some respects the 4th man of the group, since he used his experience producing the first Soul To Soul album to take this new rhythmic style to a different level with the Massive Attack boys, effectively inventing trip hop in the process. Dubby, soulful and funky, trip hop became an essential sound for the down tempo cognoscenti. A mini music revolution had begun, with the likes of Portishead, Beth Orton, the Sneaker Pimps and former Massive Attack member Tricky all starting successful creative careers in the trip hop world. Sensitive to the cultural zeitgeist of the time in England, the boys briefly changed their name after their debut release to ‘Massive’ during the first Iraq war. This did not play well in America however, and their first tour here proved a failure. Three years later they came back with Protection, another essential purchase, featuring Everything But The Girl’s Tracey Thorn on the stunning opening track. The entire album was then re-mixed by the Mad Professor and released as No Protection. Tracey Thorn’s voice was hard to beat, but they managed it with their third release Mezzanine, recruiting the Cocteau Twins’ inimitable Elizabeth Fraser, and turning “Teardrop” into the best single the Twins’ never released. By the time Massive Attack released their 4th album 100th Window in 2003, it was effectively a solo debut for 3D, since Mushroom and Daddy G had left due to creative differences and family duties respectively. Their most recent work, Danny The Dog, takes them into soundtrack territory, leaving time for frequent remixing requests from any1 with an ear for an elegant and sexy beat.
( Nicholas Baker )

Bjork is hard to pin down and trace. Pointing to her pre-solo incarnations as a jazz singer, a Crass Records punk and an international pop star with the Sugarcubes only shows a fraction of her depth. Since her Debut in 1993, she has created a symbiosis between academic music and pop with her hands holding a score by Karlheinz Stockhausen while her feet dance to the faceless sounds of rave culture. Masterfully, her music never flies out into obscurity or stoops to obviousness. Working with producers and remixers such as Nellee Hooper, Howie B., Alec Empire and Plaid, she consistently changes strategies, keeping her sound contemporary, gently nudging at the edges of the mainstream. While she takes these adventurous turns through her career, her versatile voice is unmistakable. She displays wide emotional range from the contained rage of “Army of Me” to the explosive joy of “It’s Oh So Quiet” to the ethereal bliss of “All Is Full of Love.” All her music is a unique well of superlative perfection.
- Marc Kate

Originally gaining recognition for their down-tempo cocktail funk of “Modular Mix” and “Casanova 70″ on the French SourceLab compilations of 1997, Air released their full-length debut the following year. An incredibly ambitious and successful melange of Serge Gainsbourg by way of Vangelis, Moon Safari is awash in strings, vocoders, analog synths, fluttering electro pulses and soulful backbeats. Everything from the rare groove of “La Femme D’Argent” to the Euro-pop of “Kelly, Watch the Stars!” is vaguely familiar, but never so successfully arranged until this point. Live, they are prone to wearing white jumpsuits while strategically placed fans blow wind through their hair, and there is no shortage of body-popping electro-funk. In the end, you are left with perfect road trip music — assuming you’re driving to the moon.
- Jon Pruett

Coming out of the post-Portishead boom of female-led trip-hop acts, Morcheeba joined the party in 1996. Inspired more by pop music than moody atmospherics, they snared American ears with “Trigger Hippie.” While not completely straying from the “dark beats + spy themes = Trip-Hop” formula on 1998’s sophomore outing, Big Calm, Morcheeba made the wise move to turn the spotlight towards the sultry whisperings of singer Sky Edwards and the exceptional guitar of Ross Godfrey. The resulting funk-fueled fire of 2000’s Fragments Of Freedom may not have been a huge success, but it paved the way for the group’s more cohesive 2002 effort, Charango. 2005’s The Antidote relies on a sound that is more orchestrated pop than synthetic dance music.
- Jon Pruett