Fontaines DC, Massive Attack and Young Fathers have announced the pre-order release of an exclusive, limited edition vinyl record in support of Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) emergency operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

*The 12” vinyl only release, features material from Fontaines DC, and Massive Attack/Young Fathers, and a ceasefire sleeve design by 3D of Massive Attack. 

The reverse sleeve of the 12” features words written on a hospital whiteboard in Gaza by Doctors Without Borders medic Dr Mahmoud Abu Nujaila – words which went viral on global social media - depicting the desperation of medical professionals and civilians in Gaza. Tragically, Dr Nujaila was killed in a strike a few weeks later.

"WHOEVER STAYS
UNTIL THE END
WILL TELL THE STORY,

WE DID WHAT WE COULD.
REMEMBER US"

Despite repeated deadly attacks on its staff, medics, surgeons, and aid conveys, Doctors Without Borders volunteers continue to offer critical support to the civilians of Gaza.

Fontaines DC, Massive Attack and Young Fathers have donated their music in full support of the incredible Doctors Without Borders staff working in Gaza today, as a statement for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the West Bank, and in solidarity with the Palestinian people living under a brutal military occupation.

Fontaines DC, Massive Attack & Young Fathers will donate 100% of the profits from this promotional venture to Médecins Sans Frontières (UK - charity number: 1026588) emergency operations in Gaza and the West Bank. The total donation is expected to be in excess of £150,000.

3D (Massive Attack) said: "The hourly scenes of horror in Gaza, with hospitals and schools bombed to dust and innocent civilians, journalists and doctors killed in unspeakable numbers has been made so much worse by more than ten weeks of abject political failure.
We're in awe of the Doctors Without Borders medics who place their lives on the line to help innocent civilians in Gaza. The ceasefire EP is a tribute to them, and their incredible ongoing work in truly indescribable circumstances. We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine”

Fontaines DC said: “Fontaines DC join millions across the world in demanding an immediate ceasefire and a permanent end to Israel's brutal occupation of Palestine. Since October, Doctors Without Borders have been on the ground in Gaza, where every human is an IDF target, risking their lives to give vital care to the thousands injured by Israel's indiscriminate attacks on the starving and defenceless. We feel utterly helpless in what we can do at this point however we do hope our small contribution to this record can raise some desperately needed funds for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza. Ceasefire Now. Free Palestine”

Natalie Roberts, MSF Executive Director said: “After more than two months of war, Israel’s unrelenting and indiscriminate strikes on Gaza have caused unprecedented and catastrophic levels of civilian harm. Nowhere is safe. Hospitals that are overflowing with the sick and wounded are coming under fire or being raided by Israeli forces, killing doctors, health workers, colleagues. Our teams continue to do what they can without even the basic guarantees of safety. We desperately want to do more, but for that we need an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
Huge thanks to Massive Attack, Fontaines DC and Young Fathers for all their support.”

*Copies have been packed using different combinations of coloured vinyl and sleeves. All orders are selected at random.

All 8 of the Mad Professor remixes included here are previously unreleased and include his dub mixes of 2 tracks not originally featured on "Mezzanine" but from the same period: "Metal Banshee" - a dub version of "Superpredators" which was a cover of Siouxie and the Banshee’s "Metal Postcard"; and Wire, a track they recorded for the soundtrack of the film Welcome to Sarajevo.

This release is a vinyl accompaniment to the 2CD deluxe version of "Mezzanine" which features these remixes + the original album remastered.

Sonically it doesn't pull any punches, with Mad Prof's iconic, dub-wise production decorating and galvanizing the original stems with a futurist / psychedelic mentality. Striding confidently into avant-dub territory, you can really get lost in these deep layers of bass & echo. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Metal Banshee (Mad Professor Mix 1)
Angel (Angel Dust)
Risingson (Setting Sun Dub 2)
Teardrop (Mazaruni Dub 1)

Side B
Inertia Creeps (Floating On Dubwise)
Exchange (Mountain Steppers Dub)
Wire (Leaping Dub)
Group Four (Security Forces Dub)

UMC are proud to announce this reissue of Massive Attack’s double platinum (UK) album featuring the original album re-mastered + an album of previously unreleased dub remixes by the Mad Professor. Widely hailed as their masterpiece, and voted 15 in Q Magazine’s 100 Greatest British Albums Ever (2000), Mezzanine saw the band move away from the ‘trip-hop’ sound they had helped define to embrace rock and electronica.

Mezzanine was remastered by Tim Young at Metropolis who has worked with the band for over twenty years. The Mad Professor remixes were originally intended to be released on a Mad Professor Mezzanine remix album – as the band had done with previous album Protection (No Protection) – yet in the end only a number of his remixes were issued as single b-sides.

All 8 of the Mad Professor remixes included here are previously unreleased and include his dub mixes of 2 tracks not originally featured on Mezzanine but from the same period – Metal Banshee – a dub version of Superpredators which was a cover of Siouxie and the Banshee’s Metal Postcard – and Wire, a track they recorded for the soundtrack of the film Welcome to Sarajevo.

Remastered Mezzanine + exclusive Mad Professor dub remixes from original Mezzanine sessions across 2CD Digipack. 4 colour outer, black to reverse / CDs black underside (not silver) / 3 x spot colour on face.

TRACK LISTING

Angel (2018 Remaster)
Risingson (2018 Remaster)
Teardrop (2018 Remaster)
Inertia Creeps (2018 Remaster)
Exchange (2018 Remaster)
Dissolved Girl (2018 Remaster)
Man Next Door (2018 Remaster)
Black Milk (2018 Remaster)
Mezzanine (2018 Remaster)
Group Four (2018 Remaster)
(exchange) (2018 Remaster)
Metal Banshee (mad Professor Mix 1)
Angel (angel Dust)
Risingson (setting Sun Dub 2)
Teardrop (mazaruni Dub 1)
Inertia Creeps (floating On Dubwise)
Exchange (mountain Steppers Dub)
Wire (leaping Dub)
Group Four (security Forces Dub)

Recorded in Neneh Cherry's nursery by a group of self-proclaimed "lazy Bristol Twats", 'Blue Lines" took the hip hop rulebook, ripped it up and used it for roaches. Generally considered the first trip hop album, though the term wasn't coined until several years later, "Blue Lines" was a runaway in the United Kingdom, though sales were limited elsewhere. A fusion of electronic music, hip hop, dub, '70s soul and reggae, the album established Massive Attack as one of the innovative British bands of the 1990s and the founder of trip hop's Bristol Sound. Shifting the 'dance-music' focus from the feet to the head, "Blue Lines" saw hip hop beats collide head on with lilting dub grooves, while dusty samples were dexterously chopped and scratched into fresh rhythms. While tracks like "Blue Lines", "Five Man Army" and "Daydreaming" feature free-flowing rhymes from Daddy G, 3D and Tricky in ATCQ style, Massive Attack approached the American-born hip hop movement from an underground British perspective, packing their innovative beats with elements of jazz-funk and dub. Elsewhere, reggae legend Horace Andy lent his unique voice to the revolutionary grooves of "One Love" and "Hymn Of The Big Wheel" (also featuring Neneh Cherry), while Shara Nelson's soulful vocal capped off album standout "Unfinished Sympathy" perfectly. Now back in press on pristine black wax, "Blue Lines" sounds every bit as good today as it did on its release 25 years ago - timeless.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Safe From Harm
A2. One Love
A3. Blue Lines
A4. Be Thankful For What You've Got
A5. Five Man Army
B1. Unfinished Sympathy
B2. Daydreaming
B3. Lately
B4. Hymn Of The Big Wheel

Three years after changing the musical landscape with the stoned and soulful majesty of "Blue Lines", Massive Attack returned to the airwaves and turntables with the afterhours cool of "Protection". A natural successor to their stratospheric debut (even down to the sleeve design), "Protection" finds the group in confident mode, continuing to fuse hip hop, reggae and soul, but adding elements of R&B and chilled out electronica. The LP opens in emotive fashion with Tracey Thorn collaboration "Protection", before the thumping bass and relaxed rhymes of "Karmacoma" begin to test your speakers. The infectious, undulating groove of "Weather Storm" is one of the finest sample flips ever, while the menacing piano and robust breakbeats of "Heat Miser" rival the introspective quality of anything on DJ Shadow's "Endtroducing". Peppered with irresistible melodies and irrepressible rhythms throughout, all the while maintaining a subtle melancholy, "Protection" is the perfect soundtrack to those lonely moments very late in the night.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Protection
A2. Karmacoma
A3. Three
A4. Weather Storm
A5. Spying Glass
B1. Better Things
B2. Euro Child
B3. Sly
B4. Heat Miser
B5. Light My Fire (Live)

Always in tune with soundsystem culture, Massive Attack followed their 1994 "Protection" LP with this brainmulching dub version, produced by the one and only Mad Professor. The project started when the group contacted Mad Professor to deliver a B-side remix for a forthcoming single. After the track was remixed, the band asked Mad Professor to listen to more of the album to explore the possibility of further remixes, the project soon becoming a track by track remix of almost the entire album. Mad Professor heavily edited the original material to form a slow, pulsating mix in which the beat is emphasized, reverb is extensively used and the occasional vocals (many of the tracks are almost entirely instrumental) fade in-and-out in typical dub fashion to create a hypnotic mix. "No Protection" was the most hyped album during dub music's revival in the mid 1990s, bewitching fans with its deep textures and unconventional fx. 

TRACK LISTING

Protection (Radiation Ruling The Nation)
Karmacoma (Bumper Ball Dub)
Three (Trinity Dub)
Weather Storm (Cool Monsoon)
Sly (Eternal Feedback)
Better Things (Moving Dub)
Spying Glass (I Spy)
Heat Miser (Backward Sucking)

Massive Attack finally returned in 1998 with 'Mezzanine', a record immediately announcing not only that the group was back, but that they'd recorded a set of songs just as singular and revelatory as on their debut, almost a decade back. It all begins with a stunning one-two-three-four punch: "Angel," "Risingson," "Teardrop," and "Inertia Creeps." Augmenting their samples and keyboards with a studio band, Massive Attack open with "Angel," a stark production featuring pointed beats and a distorted bassline that frames the vocal (by group regular Horace Andy) and a two-minute flame-out with raging guitars. "Risingson" is a dense, dark feature for Massive Attack themselves (on production as well as vocals), with a kitchen sink's worth of dubby effects and reverb. "Teardrop" introduces another genius collaboration - with Elizabeth Fraser from Cocteau Twins - from a production unit with a knack for recruiting gifted performers. The blend of earthy with ethereal shouldn't work at all, but Massive Attack pull it off in fine fashion. "Inertia Creeps" could well be the highlight, another feature for just the core threesome. With eerie atmospherics, fuzz-tone guitars, and a wealth of effects, the song could well be the best production from the best team of producers the electronic world had ever seen.

TRACK LISTING

1. Angel 6:20
2. Rising Son 4:59
3. Teardrop 5:28
4. Inertia Creeps 5:57
5. Exchange 4:11
6. Dissolved Girl 6:07
7. Man Next Door 5:56
8. Black Milk 6:22
9. Mezzanine 5:57
10. Group Four 8:12
11. (Exchange) 4:10