It's a vibe.
The Massives have history with amazing guest vocalists (Elizabeth Fraser from Cocteau Twins, Sinead O'Connor, Hope Sandoval, Martina Topley-Bird, Tricky, Damon Albarn from Blur, reggae great Horace Andy, Tunde Adebimpe from TV on the Radio, etc.) after losing their original singer from the "Blue Lines" era, but IMO their greatest vocal contributions have come from Tracey Thorn of Everything But the Girl/Marine Girls fame. (Marine Girls are a total discovery, BTW).
Kind of a typically incredible Massive Attack puzzle assembly: the hi-hat/bass/"wah" guitar are all sampled from the intro of James Brown's "The Payback," with a completely new song/melody written by Tracey (in which gender roles are reversed, amazing) ladled over the top of that.
More medicine than music.
Feb 7, 2025
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One of my all time favorites. Has been hitting especially hard lately. Me and jhrabovsky were very Inspired by this album this year.
Jan 19, 2024
Mar 14, 2024
Things You Should Leave Alone is sooo solid and a shining example of what a trip hop album should be— moody, sexy, sometimes desperate, but also sometimes insouciant. Sick beats. Trip Hop is one of the things I hold in the highest regard, take deathly seriously, I “do not play” about it. I discovered Puracane semi recently (small discography, toured with Depeche Mode once) and was just enchanted by this album. My favorite track is 14 Nights. There’s also a cover of Summertime Rolls by Jane’s Addiction which is fun and makes sense kinda
Mar 3, 2025
Top Recs from @coreydubrowa
Hey tyler hopefully this doesn’t violate some PI.FYI golden rule
But after nearly two years of writing, editing and arguing, my book about the EP is coming out in May and can be preordered here:
https://hozacrecords.com/product/aifl/
The book is about the origins, history and cultural impact of the EP since these little objects first started coming out in the 50s.
Over 50 of my music biz friends then helped me shape the list and review the top 200 ever released, according to us (ha).
For those of you who are into this kind of geekery/snobbery, I can’t wait to hear what you think. A labor of love, as all books are! ❤️
Mar 27, 2024
“Songs Of a Lost World” coming to a goth listening station near you Nov 1 🖤
The fr FW Me Friday the 13th the world was looking for
Sep 14, 2024
I will fail to explain just how much this band meant to me in the 90s.
So I will borrow from AV Club who did a fine job of distilling it:
“Unwound is the best band of the ’90s. Not just because of how prolific, consistent, and uncompromising it was, but because of how perfectly Unwound nested in a unique space between some of the most vital forms of music that decade: punk, post-rock, indie rock, post-hardcore, slow-core, and experimental noise. That jumble of subgenres doesn’t say much; in fact, it falls far short of what Unwound truly synthesized and stood for. Unwound stood for Unwound. But in a decade where most bands were either stridently earnest or stridently ironic, Unwound wasn’t stridently anything. It was only itself. In one sense Unwound was the quietest band of the ’90s, skulking around like a nerdy terror cell. In another sense it was the loudest, sculpting raw noise into contorted visions of inner turmoil and frustration.”
R.I.P. Vern Rumsey.
This is their finest song, from their finest album.
I really can’t say enough about the sheer bloody minded genius of this group. 🖤
Mar 23, 2024