Massive Attack

Massive Attack are a British trip hop group. Their name comes from an '80s warehouse party they were fond of going to. Founded in approximately 1988 by DJ's Grantley Marshall, Andrew Vowles and MC Robert Del Naja in Bristol, England, UK, they signed to Circa records in 1990, an imprint of Virgin records that would be later bought by EMI, to release 6 studio albums and a "Best Of". The trio were together prior to the formation of this band, as part of The Wild Bunch. With the release of their debut album Blue Lines in 1991, Massive Attack were critically acclaimed for their fusion of jazz, hip hop, rock, and soul elements into a style that journalists in the mid-nineties dubbed trip hop. Grantley Marshall has expressed intense dislike of the term 'trip-hop' and it is perhaps not as favoured and respected a term in the United Kingdom as it is in other parts of the world. With the release of later studio albums Protection in 1994, Mezzanine in 1998, and Robert Del Naja's effectively solo 100th Window in 2003, Massive's sound had a greater degree of post-punk guitar texture and soundtrack-like electronica integrated into it. Andrew Vowles reluctantly left Massive Attack in 1999. To all intents and purposes, Grantley Marshall temporarily left, in a studio capacity, between 2001-2004. The group also started a record label, Melankolic, in 1995, as an imprint of Virgin [EMI], that folded in 2001. Over the decades, the Bristol collective have collaborated with Madonna, David Bowie, Neneh Cherry, [1] Mos Def and [2] Sinéad O'Connor among many others. Horace Andy has featured on every one of their studio albums.