Heligoland (album)

Heligoland is the fifth normal studio album from the collaborative British music production threesome Massive Attack, named after a German archipelago of the same name. It had been officially released everywhere except North America by 8 February 2010 (US and Canada on 9 February 2010) – seven years after the release of their last non-soundtrack, standalone studio album, 100th Window.[1] It has been certified Gold in the United Kingdom.[2]

Heligoland
Studio album by
Released8 February 2010 (2010-02-08)
Recorded2005–2009
GenreElectronica, alternative rock, trip hop, alternative dance
Length52:31
LabelVirgin
ProducerNeil Davidge & Robert Del Naja
Massive Attack chronology
Collected
(2006)
Heligoland
(2010)
Singles from Heligoland
  1. "Splitting the Atom"
    Released: 4 October 2009

Personnel

The record has the singing of Horace Andy plus invited vocalists: Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio, Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz, Hope Sandoval of Hope Sandoval And The Warm Inventions and Mazzy Star, Guy Garvey of Elbow and Martina Topley-Bird,[3] as well as guitar playing by Adrian Utley of Portishead (on "Saturday Come Slow"), keys from Portishead collaborator John Baggott (most notably on "Atlas Air"), keys and synth bass from Damon Albarn ("Splitting the Atom" and "Flat of the Blade" respectively), guitar (various tracks) and bass ("Girl I Love You") by Neil Davidge and bass by Billy Fuller of Beak on various tracks.

The record features drumming from the late Jerry Fuchs and regular session and touring drummer Damon Reece. Dan Brown and Stew Jackson (Robot Club) co-wrote "Paradise Circus", played guitar on and co-wrote "Saturday Come Slow", and part-programmed and engineered those tracks. Tim Goldsworthy added an additional production (specific tracks unstated). Most tracks were mixed with Mark "Spike" Stent and then all were mastered with Tim Young at Metropolis Studios, as with previous records. Unlike previous records, there are no personal acknowledgements on the inlay. Neil Davidge co-produced all tracks with Robert Del Naja only[4] (except tracks 3, 7 and 9 where Grant Marshall was also involved), though Marshall has a co-write credit on every track. The album is dedicated to the Blue Lines co-producer, Jonny Dollar.

References

  1. "Heligoland". massiveattack.com. 2009-11-23. http://massiveattack.com/blog/2009/11/23/heligoland/. Retrieved 2009-11-24. 
  2. "Heligoland Certified Award". British Phonographic Industry. Archived from the original on 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2010-10-19. Note: User must define search parameters, i.e. "Massive Attack".
  3. "Massive Attack recruit Martina". BBC 6 Music. 2009-07-13. http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/news/20090713_martina.shtml. Retrieved 2009-07-28. 
  4. "Tripping Into Heligoland - Inside The Production Of Massive Attack's Latest Album". Emusician. 2009-02-19. http://emusician.com/interviews/feature/massive_attack_heligoland/index.html. Retrieved 2010-03-07.