Robert “3D” Del Naja of Massive Attack has co-produced longtime collaborator Martina Topley-Bird‘s new EP ‘Pure Heart’, which is out now.
Del Naja and Topley-Bird have worked together previously, with the latter singing on Massive Attack’s 2010 album ‘Heligoland’. Elsewhere, the pair are linked through Bristol’s music scene with Topley-Bird appearing on fellow trip hop pioneer Tricky’s early albums ‘Maxinquaye’ (1995), ‘Pre-Millennium Tension’ (1996) and ‘Angels with Dirty Faces’ (1998).
The three-track ‘Pure Heart’ EP precedes Topley-Bird’s fourth album, ‘Forever I Wait‘, which is released on September 10. EP track ‘Pure Heart’, ‘Hunt’ and ‘Rain’ all appear on the album’s tracklist.
Topley-Bird said the record is “a trip through my psyche, switching through different states and frequencies of emotions and reflections”.
“‘Pure Heart’, with its echoes of The Cure, is the ode to my young teens, the time when I first really got into music in a devotional and tribal sense. It speaks of fears and desires, represents all new beginnings and states the quiet determination to follow the muse where it will lead. ‘Hunt’ is the reckoning that must take place after the journey has begun, a commentary on power and the powerful, earning the peaceful resolution that comes with ‘Rain.’
“I never imagined I would end up with four of D’s (Robert del Naja) productions on my record. The lyrics for the three songs on this digital release were penned by my partner while I looked for the right music to set them to. These three songs –’Pure Heart’ representing something I needed to say, ‘Hunt’ being something I needed to own and ‘Rain’ was something I needed to grow into – pillared the entire record and constituted its own body of work.
“This EP is a complete journey, a preview of sort, of the complete album with ‘Pure Heart’ and ‘Rain’ framing the beginning and the end.”
‘Forever I Wait’ is the singer-songwriter’s first album since 2010’s ‘Some Place Simple’ and is her first self-produced and curated piece of work to date.
Topley-Bird toured extensively with Massive Attack between 2009 and 2016.
In other news, Massive Attack have been announced as a headliner for Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona next summer.
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