What does the future sound like? It’s a question that comes to mind following Massive Attack’s uncompromisingly triumphant headline set on the opening night of Lido Festival. For a group approaching their third decade, they remain resolutely focused on presenting their vision of the future in glorious – and terrifying – widescreen. And all that time on from their formation, they still have a sound that’s entirely their own.
The festival has been curated by the band, and seems to be an effort to connect some of the musical dots they bring together. From the synth stylings of the main support Air to the dubbed out bass of Mad Professor, there are strands of Massive Attack’s sound to be found everywhere – admittedly to mixed results. Richard Russell’s ensemble project Everything Is Recorded opens proceedings, with a frustratingly piecemeal approach. Covers of Curtis Mayfield and Gil Scott-Heron are joyous, but the hazy transitions between tracks and slightly jarring use of samples lends everything an incomplete air. Tirzah feels of a piece with this too, appearing alone on the main stage other than her collaborator Mica Levi. She performs several cuts from her latest album trip9love…??? as the sun breaks through the clouds, which feel slightly lost in the mid-afternoon chatter.
The afore-mentioned Air are clearly the act on everyone’s minds as the sun begins to set, drawing the largest crowd so far. The French art pop band are still on their triumphant Moon Safari tour following the iconic album’s 25th anniversary last year, and they play the album almost in full, followed by a selection of other hits. Effortlessly cool, dressed all in white, they are the visual epitome of their space-age sound – it’s truly remarkable the response they get from the crowd, given that they play an almost fully instrumental set of tracks that soundtracked many a chillout room in the 90s.
The main event however, in every sense, is Massive Attack. For all the Britpop revivalism, it’s curious how such a future-facing band have been somewhat forgotten amongst that nostalgia. A band in only the loosest sense of the word – perhaps much more of a collective, or a particularly clever art project – their gorgeous, foreboding, genreless classics feel just as unique in 2025 as they did decades earlier.
Besides their music, though, their other constant throughout their career has been tireless political campaigning. In fact, they feel stuck in time in that sense, reminiscent of an era when huge bands were lobbying against the Iraq war. Their focus today is solely on Gaza, and before they take to the stage they hand the microphone to a Palestine solidarity group. From there on out, Massive Attack make their own statement, channelling their anger into staggering on-stage visuals and visceral sound. They make it clear that their politics are inseparable from their music, and it feels impossible to separate the two.
To the music, then – a procession of classics drawn predominantly from Mezzanine and Blue Lines. Opener ‘Risingson’ sets the tone for the evening: chest-rattling dub bass, metallic guitar lines and a chorus of dystopian synths and glitchy drum machines. Bandleaders Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall trade vocal duties, before welcoming a host of guests, including Horace Andy, and Liz Fraser for a spell-binding rendition of ‘Teardrop’.
The only break from the droning, abstract sonic landscape is for the breath-taking ‘Unfinished Sympathy’, an transcendent slice of R&B, with soaring live vocals from Deborah Miller. The band almost feel like they’re reminding you that they can do simple beauty as well as churning complexity – they just choose not to.
In all, it’s a thrilling, exhausting proposition. Massive Attack present to you their vision of the future, just as urgent and awe-inspiring as it was almost 30 years ago, but not without uncomfortable and confronting truths about the world we live in, too. Many musicians happily adopt political stances when it’s fashionable, but very few live out their beliefs in the way Massive Attack do. It’s hard not to feel that they still, really, stand alone in that regard, unable and unwilling to compromise in any way. In 2025, that is a staggering achievement.
featured image: Sophia J Carey
