REVIEWS

MASSIVE ATTACK
100th Window [Virgin]

For their fourth full-length, Massive Attack explore the fragile tension of everyday life. Vocalists featured are mainstay Horace Andy, founding member 3-D, and veteran newcomer, Sinead O'Connor. This is a dark yet ethereal digital journey, full of depth and dissonance, more than their usual collage of soul, dub, beats and rhymes. Voices surround you in dark atmosphere, effected and delayed into echoing whispers, shards of sound, trails of a soul.

These are lullabies for a world falling apart, shattering into pieces, much like the glass figure on the cover, perhaps falling from the album's title, "100th Window." Digital pulses replace beats while heavy synths and Middle Eastern influenced strings pull at your emotions. Living somewhere between Pole, Radiohead and Sigur Ros, their new album is basically a platform for 3-D to showcase his talents as vocalist, arranger, and conceptualist. "100th Window" is also co-produced by Neil Davidge who helped flesh out "Mezzanine." Nine tracks at over 70-minutes, recommended!! – Pang Peow Yeong