Massive Attack

Massive Attack formed in Bristol in 1988, Robert '3D' Del Naja, Grant 'Daddy G' Marshall, and Andrew 'Mushroom' Vowles developing a sound that drew on hip-hop, soul, dub, and electronic music in ways that nobody had quite done before. They signed to Wild Bunch Records and released their debut album 'Blue Lines' (1991) — one of the most important British albums of the decade.

'Blue Lines' was a revelation. 'Unfinished Sympathy', 'Safe from Harm', and 'Teardrop' — the singles were extraordinary, each one a different approach to the same basic template: slow, heavy beats, layered samples, and guest vocalists who brought their own emotional register to the music. The album invented trip-hop as a genre, though Massive Attack always resisted the label.

'Protection' (1994), 'Mezzanine' (1998), and '100th Window' (2003) each pushed the sound further. 'Mezzanine' in particular — darker, more guitar-influenced, and featuring Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins on 'Teardrop' — is now considered one of the greatest British albums ever made. Del Naja has continued to record and perform, his political engagement as prominent as his musical vision.