| Heligoland | ||||
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| Studio album by Massive Attack | ||||
| Released | 8 February 2010 | |||
| Recorded | 2005–2009 | |||
| Genre | Electronica | |||
| Length | 52:31 | |||
| Label | Virgin | |||
| Professional reviews | ||||
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| Massive Attack chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Heligoland | ||||
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Heligoland is the fifth regular studio album from the collaborative British music production duo Massive Attack, entitled after the German archipelago of the same name. It had been officially released everywhere except North America by 8 February 2010 (US and Canada on 9 February 2010) – seven years after the release of their previous non-soundtrack, standalone studio album, 100th Window.[11]
Contents |
The record features the singing of perennial choice Horace Andy plus the following invited vocalists: Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio, Damon Albarn of Gorillaz, Hope Sandoval of Hope Sandoval And The Warm Inventions and Mazzy Star, Guy Garvey of Elbow and Martina Topley-Bird,[12] as well as guitar playing by Adrian Utley of Portishead (on "Saturday Come Slow"), keys from Portishead collaborator John Baggott (most notably on "Atlas Air"), keys and synth bass from Damon Albarn ("Splitting the Atom" and "Flat of the Blade" respectively), guitar (various tracks) and bass ("Girl I Love You") by Neil Davidge and bass by Billy Fuller of Beak> on various tracks.
The record features drumming from the late Jerry Fuchs. This is in addition to the work of regular session and touring drummer Damon Reece. Long-time session guitar collaborator, Angelo Bruschini did not contribute this time round. Dan Brown and Stew Jackson (Robot Club) co-wrote "Paradise Circus", played guitar on and co-wrote "Saturday Come Slow", and part-programmed and engineered those tracks. Tim Goldsworthy contributed additional production (specific tracks unstated). Most tracks were mixed with Mark "Spike" Stent and then all were mastered with Tim Young at Metropolis Studios, as with previous records. Unlike previous records, there are no personal acknowledgements on the inlay. Overall, Neil Davidge co-produced all Heligoland's tracks with Robert Del Naja only[13] (except 3, 7 and 9 where Grant Marshall was also involved - essentially only co-producing the songs he initiated), though Marshall has a co-write credit on every track. The album is dedicated to the memory of acclaimed Blue Lines co-producer, Jonny Dollar.
The album release was preceded on 4 October 2009 by an EP, Splitting the Atom. During its gestation, the album was often referred to in the media as "LP5" (a reference to this being their fifth studio album — excluding Danny the Dog) or "Weather Underground" (Robert Del Naja's early working title and underdog metaphor for the record).[14]
The artwork, as with every Massive Attack album since No Protection, is a collaboration between Tom Hingston and Del Naja, this time based on Del Naja's paintings. Transport for London insisted the cover image featured on advertising posters displayed on The Tube be altered so as to not resemble "street art", in line with their policy to not encourage graffiti, which they were.[15]
Many other guest vocalists recorded sessions during the duo's post-100th Window era but are not featured on the album, including: Jhelisa (Anderson - also recorded for 100th Window and was not included at all on either album), Stephanie Dosen and Yolanda (Quartey of Phantom Limb - effectively Robot Club's band); and, mostly during the pre-Collected part of the era - Mike Patton, Aku and Akwetey Orraca-Tetteh of Dragons of Zynth, Elizabeth Fraser, Terry Callier, Fredo Viola, Debbie Clare, Beth Orton and Dot Allison. Mos Def and Leslie Feist were named as artists scheduled for recording sessions back in 2004.[16] Backing tracks from Grant Marshall's side of Massive Attack's writing (mainly facilitated by and done with Robot Club) are known to have been sent to Alice Russell, and prepared for Sharon Jones[17], Patti Smith and David Bowie during the era but collaboration did not come to fruition, nor did talks with Tom Waits or Tricky, in terms of featuring as guest vocalists on the record. Post-punks Mark Stewart and Keith Levine were pictured inside Del Naja's 100 Suns studio in 2009, but played no part on the album. Despite online suggestions to the contrary, no recording sessions with Sia ever took place.
From the new songs that were played during previous tours many were not included on the record, including those nicknamed as "All I Want", "Marooned", "Red Light", "Kingpin", "Hartcliffe Star", "Marakesh" (a 2008 track featuring Stephanie Dosen which, whilst perhaps politically similar, bore no musical relation to a later song also provisionally entitled "Marakesh" that became "Atlas Air") and "Dobro".
"I think it's got definitely a more organic feel[18]," says Del Naja of Heligoland. "100th Window was very much about this amalgamation of everything joining, and eventually the process was so extreme that you couldn't tell if there was a string part if it was electronic or natural. [There were] lots of organic parts that ended up sounding very electronic. It became a whole world of different processes, and we wanted to do something a bit different because we've had that experience so we wanted to do something else."
Five unconventional low-budget film vignettes (for "Saturday Come Slow", "Flat of the Blade", "Paradise Circus" and two for "Splitting the Atom") have been released online in promotion of Heligoland so far.
The Deluxe Edition of Heligoland available digitally features bonus tracks (remixes and "False Flags" B-side, "United Snakes"). There is also a deluxe vinyl edition release.[19] Heligoland Remixed (amounting to the same as the Deluxe Edition's bonus tracks, except for "United Snakes" being replaced by a second Gui Boratto dub remix) has been uploaded for listening on the duo's Facebook page. The standard edition is available in a number of different coloured covers.
In late 2009, Marshall appeared to suggest in an interview that there would be an equivalent remix album of Heligoland by Burial. However, to date, there has not been any concrete confirmation given publicly that Burial is actually working on a remix album of Heligoland or any remixes of any of its tracks, or that he has even been supplied with remix parts, or that he has actually agreed to remix material or that he has even been contacted regarding the idea, only that it is the duo's aspiration that it will someday happen.[20]
The announced release date of May 2010 for the follow-up EP intended to feature excluded Heligoland-era tracks now appears to have been delayed to at least June or July 2010, according to Marshall.[21] Daddy G has said the record will probably amount to four tracks. Examples of potential contenders for tracks to be considered for inclusion are: "Invade Me" (the new addition to the 2010 tour setlist which was excluded from Heligoland at the last moment), "Red Light" (which will feature if it can be finished satisfactorily), "Hartcliffe Star" or "All I Want" (which would ensure a Daddy G vocal featured) and logically, a song by another vocalist, such as, for example, the as-yet-unnamed second collaboration with Hope Sandoval, or even one of the numerous unheard Jhelisa tracks. "Dobro" has also been mentioned as a possibility. The tracklisting is still undecided at this time though so it could just as easily instead feature other songs not previously mooted in interviews at all, by one or more of the many other aforementioned unused vocalists recorded during the Heligoland-era. As was the case in autumn 2009 with the album itself, the duo must interweave their touring and studio schedules in order to finish the planned post-Heligoland record by their own deadline.
The following songs were first known by their working titles as they were originally performed live. They appear on the album under final names:
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart[23] | 8 |
| Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)[23] | 1 |
| Belgian Albums Chart (Wallonia)[23] | 2 |
| Danish Albums Chart [24] | 6 |
| Dutch Albums Chart[23] | 5 |
| French Albums Chart[25] | 2 |
| French Digital Albums Chart[25] | 1 |
| German Albums Chart [26] | 4 |
| Irish Albums Chart[27] | 9 |
| Italian Album Chart[28] | 7 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart[23] | 7 |
| Polish Albums Chart[29] | 12 |
| Spanish Albums Chart[30] | 13 |
| Swedish Albums Chart[31] | 17 |
| Swiss Albums Chart[23] | 2 |
| UK Albums Chart[32] | 6 |
| U.S. Billboard 200[33] | 46 |
| Preceded by Hope for Haiti Now by Various artists |
French Digital Albums Chart number-one album February 14, 2010 |
Succeeded by xx by The xx |
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Template:Infobox album Heligoland is the fifth normal studio album from the collaborative British music production threesome Massive Attack, named after a German archipelago of the same name. It had been officially released everywhere except North America by 8 February 2010 (US and Canada on 9 February 2010) – seven years after the release of their last non-soundtrack, standalone studio album, 100th Window.[1] It has been certified Gold in the United Kingdom.[2]
The record has the singing of Horace Andy plus invited vocalists: Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio, Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz, Hope Sandoval of Hope Sandoval And The Warm Inventions and Mazzy Star, Guy Garvey of Elbow and Martina Topley-Bird,[3] as well as guitar playing by Adrian Utley of Portishead (on "Saturday Come Slow"), keys from Portishead collaborator John Baggott (most notably on "Atlas Air"), keys and synth bass from Damon Albarn ("Splitting the Atom" and "Flat of the Blade" respectively), guitar (various tracks) and bass ("Girl I Love You") by Neil Davidge and bass by Billy Fuller of Beak> on various tracks.
The record features drumming from the late Jerry Fuchs and regular session and touring drummer Damon Reece. Dan Brown and Stew Jackson (Robot Club) co-wrote "Paradise Circus", played guitar on and co-wrote "Saturday Come Slow", and part-programmed and engineered those tracks. Tim Goldsworthy added an additional production (specific tracks unstated). Most tracks were mixed with Mark "Spike" Stent and then all were mastered with Tim Young at Metropolis Studios, as with previous records. Unlike previous records, there are no personal acknowledgements on the inlay. Neil Davidge co-produced all tracks with Robert Del Naja only[4] (except tracks 3, 7 and 9 where Grant Marshall was also involved), though Marshall has a co-write credit on every track. The album is dedicated to the Blue Lines co-producer, Jonny Dollar.
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