''Eutopia'' is a 2020 EP by British

trip hop Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop ...

group Massive Attack, released on on the band's

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

account as a collection of three

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

s; as of , it remains unavailable on Music streaming services. The EP represents the band's first work in four years, following the 2016 releases of the ''

Ritual Spirit ''Ritual Spirit'' is an EP by British trip hop trio Massive Attack, released on 28 January 2016. It features trip hop artist Tricky for the first time since the release of ''Protection'' in 1994, and also features Scottish hip-hop group Young Fat ...

'' EP and the single " The Spoils". Recorded during the early months of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the three tracks feature spoken word passages from influential academics calling for action on

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

, tax havens and

universal basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of a ...

Background

During the spring of 2020, Robert "3D" Del Naja worked on a politically-themed audio-visual Massive Attack EP called ''“Eutopia”'', consisting of three tracks created across five cities during the COVID-19 global lockdown period, with documentary filmmaker Mark Donne, AI Art pioneer Mario Klingemann and vocal collaborations with

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

Young Fathers Young Fathers are a Scottish band based in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2014, they won the Mercury Prize for their album ''Dead''. History Formed in Edinburgh in 2008 by Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and Graham 'G' Hastings, the group starte ...

and US poet

Saul Williams Saul Stacey Williams (born February 29, 1972) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, musician, poet, writer, and actor. He is known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop, and for his lead roles in the 1998 independent film ''Slam'' ...

. The spirit of the EP was inspired by Thomas More's 16th century book ''

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...

'' to address the need for global change amid

. Each of the tracks of ''Eutopia'' discusses a political issuethe climate crisis, tax havens, and

accompanied with relevant commentary by public academics

Christiana Figueres Karen Christiana Figueres Olsen (born 7 August 1956) is a Costa Rican diplomat who has led national, international and multilateral policy negotiations. She was appointed Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFC ...

, Guy Standing, and Gabriel Zucman. Professor Standing of the

SOAS University of London SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...

said in an interview on the university website: "The collaboration began when Massive Attack contacted me after the pandemic hit, which was shortly after my new book came out in March. I think they had read or at least seen my earlier book, which is my analysis of the ethical and economic foundations of basic income."

Visuals

The visuals for the music videos were co-written and co-produced by Robert Del Naja and documentary filmmaker Mark Donne, using

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

manipulated by Mario Klingemann. He has previously collaborated with Massive Attack and filmmaker

Adam Curtis Adam Curtis (born 26 May 1955) is an English documentary filmmaker. Curtis began his career as a conventional documentary producer for the BBC throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The release of ''Pandora's Box (British TV series), ...

on the ''Mezzanine XXI'' show.'A rare interview with Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja on creating the most subversive live show of 2019', The Fader, 25 September 2019 https://www.thefader.com/2019/09/25/massive-attack-robert-del-naja-mezzanine-interview

Track listing

Personnel

Massive Attack *

Robert "3D" Del Naja Robert Del Naja (; born 21 January 1965), also known as 3D, is a British artist, musician, singer and songwriter. He emerged as a graffiti artist and member of the Bristol collective the Wild Bunch, and later as a founding member and sole consi ...

Additional musicians *Euan Dickinson – Sound Engineer *

**Franklin James Fisher– vocals **Ryan Mahan– bass guitar **Lee Tesche– guitar **Matt Tong– drums *

**Kayus Bankole **'G' Hastings **Alloysious Massaquoi Spoken word *

* Guy Standing * Gabriel Zucman Visuals *

Robert Del Naja Robert Del Naja (; born 21 January 1965), also known as 3D, is a British artist, musician, singer and songwriter. He emerged as a graffiti artist and member of the Bristol collective the Wild Bunch, and later as a founding member and sole consi ...

* Mark Donne * Mario Klingemann

References

{{authority control 2020 EPs Collaborative albums Concept albums Massive Attack EPs Self-released EPs Political music albums by English artists Climate change in music Albums about the COVID-19 pandemic