Massive Attack's Blue Lines (33 1/3)
by Ian Bourland
I’m not a huge
Massive Attack fan, but I have always appreciated their music, and more often
like a lot of other bands coming from Bristol (Tricky, Portishead). It was
interesting to read about the kind of nominal “Bristol Sound” that Bourland
cited as more of a journalistic device to point to all of the music coming out
of this area in the 90s. I agree since many of these bands sounds quite
different. I really enjoyed this look at Blue Lines. Bourland
doesn’t really delve into the songs specifically but takes a more contextual
approach, looking at the environment and time period that led to the creation
of this album, examining how crews around Bristol set up sound systems,
eventually leading members of Massive Attack to one another. I also learned
that Neneh Cherry had a hand in helping with this album. I was reading this
book at the same time as Thurston Moore’s Sonic Life memoir, so it
was a weird coincidence that Neneh Cherry came up in both books, with both
books talking about Don Cherry and The Slits. Regardless, Bourland engaged in
considerable research to show how NY hip-hop culture (graffiti, sound systems)
from the 70s filtered through England in the 80s, and created something novel
and unique. I think this is apparent in Massive Attack’s work, since they are
not really the kind of boom-bap that was happening in the 80s and 90s, but more
relaxed and heady. I also really appreciated that Bourland not only looks into
the scenes and conditions that led to the creation of Massive Attack, but also
examines the lives of some of the participants, like Tricky and Cherry. While
this book is a little different from the kind of song by song analysis of some
33 1/3 books, I really appreciated Bourland’s extensive research and
exploration of this album and the factors that led to its creation.
No comments:
Post a Comment