Massive Attack have teased the existence of this album for a few years. The story goes that Mad Professor’s dub mixes of the Protection album (No Protection) did so well that the band commissioned a similar counterpart for their next album, the critical and commercial smash Mezzanine. For whatever reason, the full album never came out. Some of the tracks were included on the highly-collectable 12” singles released in support of the Mezzanine album more than 20 years ago, but at least a few of them remained unheard or unreleased, and are now being served up in full for the first time ever. It’s remarkable what Mad Pro manages to accomplish using just the core elements of a track. He takes a pure razor and tape approach in “Risingson (Setting Sun Dub 2),” subtly rearranging the song’s parts, juxtaposing disparate loops on top of one another, delaying the hell out of the track’s snare like it’s in bopping around inside a centrifuge for all eternity. By contrast, he constructs an entirely new groove for “Angel (Angel Dust),” detaching the tune from its original manifestation as brooding doom metal lovers rock. The “Teardrop” dub recycles little from the original besides specters of a chord progression, a bastardization of the bassline and tiny snatches of vocals (Liz Fraser dubwise = I can now die happily). There are also dubs of “Inertia Creeps,” “Exchange,” “Group Four” (this one’s insanely deep) and non-album cuts “Wire” and “Superpredators” (itself a rework of Siouxsie & The Banshees’ “Metal Postcard”). In lieu of a new Massive Attack album anywhere in sight, this is the next best thing (truth be told, probably way better), and if No Protection changed your life like it did mine, it’s essential. 8 tracks in total, comes on limited edition fuchsia colored vinyl, with original artwork by Aidan Hughes (he did the KMFDM covers) and additional design by Robert Del Naja, highly recommended.

• pink translucent colored vinyl
• first-ever official release of Mad Professor's full Mezzanine remix album
• printed inner sleeve
• limited edition
• music label: Virgin 2019

reviewed by him downstairs 08/2019