Massive Attack
Ritual Spirit

Reviewing the Massive Attack has become a challenging task, comparable to a real event. Sure, the Bristol group has never been distinguished for great prolificacy, however, after Mezzanine, the waiting times for new releases have lengthened, becoming extremely stretched. This has had repercussions on the music, which in 100th Window and the subsequent Heligoland became more evanescent, phantasmic. Impalpable, according to some critics.

Thus, the six years spent between the last work and this Ritual Spirit, released in 2016, should not be surprising. Ritual Spirit is not an album, but rather an EP of four tracks, seventeen minutes long. This aspect is important and undoubtedly influences our evaluation. While listening, we are troubled by some thoughts, which we can summarize in this way. Firstly, we feel a sense of disappointment because, after six years, one rightly expects material quantitatively superior to the four tracks in question. And then come the questions: what is the actual value of the EP, and what is the point of a new Massive Attack record today? Let's clear the air of doubts: the trio (or ex-trio, then solo project, and now duo) can no longer overturn contemporary electronics. This happened in the nineties, especially with Mezzanine, and perhaps will not happen in the future. However, something else can occur: Del Naja and company can decide to update their sound, appropriating the elements of the "dubstep era" and making them somehow personal. And this is what happens in Ritual Spirit, a work where trip-hop is present only in "Take It There" and almost entirely absent elsewhere.

Each piece features a prestigious guest, who embellishes the already excellent productions. It begins with the voice of Roots Manuva, lending his rhymes to the dark "Dead Editors", a track with a garage/2-step flavor that sets the record straight: here, we delve deep, offering visions, flashes, poetry on syncopated rhythms ("Conveying my/My swaying tie/Conveying my/That’s way inside", the rapper states, as if lamenting). In the title track, we get lost among synthetic basses, broken beat, and intriguing claps, accompanied by the voice of Azekel and by an unsettling video, where Kate Moss moves sinuously, swaying light bulbs that pierce the darkness (of the soul? Who can say). It is followed by "Voodoo Blood", distinguished by the chanting of Young Fathers ("Momma, stop giving me grief/Why does the blood always stick to your teeth?") and an unsettling video, in which Rosamund Pike is possessed by a mysterious metallic sphere (a homage to Possession by Andrzej Żuławski). It all ends with "Take It There", a blues roughened by too many cigarettes, in which 3D and Tricky lead us hand in hand into the hell of a junkie ("Where I’ve been it’s heavy, though", Tricky reminds us, and perhaps we should believe him).

Ritual Spirit ends abruptly, and we are left a bit dumbfounded, with a bitter taste and the urge to listen to it multiple times. And if the wait for a new album was betrayed, it matters little: we are facing the best Massive Attack since Mezzanine, a revitalized group that has finally found its balance and returned to producing first-class music.

It may be little, but for now, it can suffice.

Rating: 4.5