SoundBites: Massive Attack, Tami Neilson, Prince

Massive Attack

Massive Attack are back with a new EP featuring some major collaborations.

Ritual Spirit features four tracks, with guest spots from Tricky, Roots Manuva, Young Fathers and newcomer Azekel, and precedes a second new EP and album later this year.

A video for Take it There with Tricky has been released (see below).

It's Tricky's first appearance on a Massive Attack release since Protection in 1994. Massive Attack's heyday was in the 1990s with that album as well as Blue Lines and Mezzanine, and they last released an album in 2010 - Heligoland.

The EP follows the launch of Massive Attack's Fantom app, a music player that shapes songs using variables including location, movement, time of day, heartbeat and your device's camera.

APRA Silver Scroll and multiple Tui Award winner Tami Neilson is set to hit the road with her dynamite brand of country music for a national tour. Neilson, who released the album Don't Be Afraid last year, will kick things off this weekend at the Marlborough Food & Wine Festival before gigs in Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington, as well as Masterton, Paekakariki and the Auckland City Limits and Womad festivals in March. See www.tamineilson.com for show dates.

Revisit a classic

Prince

Are you ready for an impromptu royal visit? With the Great Purple One, the artist formerly known as TAFKAP, set to play in New Zealand this month, many fans will be revisiting one of his most popular albums, Purple Rain.

The record - 32 years old this year - accompanied the movie of the same name but made a much bigger splash in the pond of cultural history, with its hits When Doves Cry, Let's Go Crazy and, of course, the title track with its amazing closing guitar solo.

Of course, this is just one of Prince's dozens of albums - he released his 38th and 39th just a few months ago - and there are gems to be found throughout his career (1999, Sign 'o' the Times, 7 and more), but this has to be the go-to album for a nostalgia fix.