★★★½
After six years of silence, British trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack made a discreet return with the release of their own smartphone app, Fantom, in late January.
The app contained snippets of four new songs, which have now been revealed in their entirety on this EP, Ritual Spirit. Produced by founding member Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja, Ritual Spirit provides a brief but satisfying update on how things have progressed since 2010’s Heligoland. Throbbing club EDM is smeared against dreamlike meditations, and the familiar moody grooves of yore seep throughout, but there’s a restlessness that’s heightened by the EP’s varied guests.
Emerging from a haze of electronic blips, Roots Manuva spins lyrical webs around shuddering bass and ghostly echoes on ‘Dead Editors’. Tribal drums, oscillating guitar and hand claps dance around the soulful croon of Azekel on the title track, which floats by with the fragility of butterfly wings. Young Fathers’ airtight lyrical flow bridges the generational gap on ‘Voodoo In My Blood’, before ‘Take It There’ hails the climactic curtain call. It’s Massive Attack at their most unmistakable and intoxicating.
The only real drawback is that the EP is painfully short. The good news is there’s another on the way, followed by an album later this year. This is just the beginning.
