Until a few weeks back, the only constant in their whole discography was 3D. The first one to run from the toxic and confrontational environment was Tricky, who was a member of the band until the phenomenal “Protection” in spite of what Wikipedia says. For the “Mezzanine” sessions they included live instrumentation; Mushroom wasn’t satisfied with the changes in sound they were experimenting with and, in spite of the album’s success, was the second one to go.
From that point on they were flirting with the idea of working separately and publishing everything under the Massive Attack moniker, but what ended up happening was the conflict between Daddy G and 3D kept the former out of “100th Window” and only semi involved in “Heligoland”, even though he’s credited as a composer in all of those songs.
In 2013 their name returned to the spotlight with unorthodox plans and good news: 1.- They were writing songs with Tricky; 2.- They were releasing EPs instead of an album and 3.- The first one was going to be the work of 3D and the second one Daddy G’s, each working with their own team. Then they disappeared for 3 years, Tricky released his most underwhelming album to date — “Skilled Mechanics” — and when the world was not looking, “Take It There”’s fantastic videoclip starring John Hawkes appeared all over the Internet:
Samples and Examples 