Sinead O'Connor - She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty

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23rd September 2003

04:45

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Written and Arranged by Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge and Sinead O’ Connor

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

Engineered and Mixed by Lee Shephard

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Sinead O’ Connor

Love Is Ours, in the only version of it that was released, is a work in progress demo song that was ultimately abandonned before it could be completely finished after Massive Attack realised the song was'nt working out and would be inappropriate to include on 100th Window. It was thusly given (along with It's All Good) to Sinead to do with what she wanted. She would then ultimately release both songs as part of her career retrospective in 2003 with the unwieldy title "She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty".

Love Is Ours would have been a mre serious contender for inclusion on 100th Window than it's other counterpart It's All Good, seeing as that song was a cover and 100th Window was always intended to be a "no samples, no covers" album.

Love Is Ours have never once been played live neither by Massive Attack or Sinead O'Connor.

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Related Posts

1. It’s All Good
2. Special Cases
3. What Your Soul Sings

Tags: sinead o connor • work in progress • career retrospective • shadow of the almighty • raging heart

Sinead O'Connor - She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty

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23rd September 2003

05:09

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Written by Damien Dempsey

Produced by Sinead O'Connor and John Reynolds

Arranged by Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge and Sinead O'Connor

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Sinead O’ Connor

The existence of this song, It's All Good was first reported by the Irish music press back in October 2001. In the initial stages of recording what would eventually become 100th Window, Sinead suggested to Massive Attack the possibility of doing a cover version of song by Irish singer/songwriter Damien Dempsey's It's All Good, which had been a surprisng hit in Ireland the year before in 2000 and had effectively launched Damien Dempsey's career. Her appreciation for the original version was strong having stated before that it was "one of the best songs she's ever heard", and convinced Massive Attack to work with her on the song.

Massive Attack only recieved a arrangement credit for It's All Good. They apparently had no involvement with the production or mixing of the song.

It's All Good has never once been played live by Massive Attack. It may have been played live by Sinead O'Connor and the original composer of the song Damien Dempsey at a few special dates as a duet between the two when they toured together in 2004. If it was played live,it was almost certainly not the Massive Attack version of the song anyway and would have sounded more like the original Damien Dempsey version.

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Related Posts

1. Love Is Ours
2. A Prayer For England
3. Special Cases

Tags: sinead o connor • damien dempsey • irish singer songwriter • neil davidge • john reynolds

- Never Never Land

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website - either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

Global Underground 26: James Lavelle in Romania (Medway Vs Eva Coast To Coast Mix), - Never Never Land (Limited Edition) (Medway Vs Eva Coast To Coast Mix)

22nd September 2003

05:15

Medway Vs Eva Coast To Coast Mix - This is a remix of the original Invasion, that James Lavelle played live as part of his DJ sets after the release of 's Never Never Land. The remix was produced by two club DJ's known as Eva and Medway. It was eventually released as part of his Global Underground compilation mix that he played live in Bucharest, Romania and recorded for release. This release truncated the full length of the remix from over eight minutes to five minutes. The full version of the remix would not be released until a special edition of Never Never Land was released in late 2004, nearly a year after the regular edition of the album was released.

Written by James Lavelle, Richard File, Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge and Anthony Genn

Produced by James Lavelle and Richard File

Vocal Session Produced by Neil Davidge and Robert Del Naja

Vocal Session Engineered by Lee Shephard

Electric Guitar, Synth and Bass by Anthony Genn and Richard File

Programming by Richard File and Richard Flack

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Robert Del Naja

Backing Vocals: Anthony Genn and Richard File

Invasion was the offspring of 3D's and James Lavelle's long-running friendship. Lavelle who had long been a admirer of 3D's before becoming an actual friend, was the main man and instigator behind , not to mention the label boss of Mo'Wax and had wanted to do something creatively with 3D for several years. It had been hoped originally, during the production of 's debut album, Psyence Fiction, which already featured a glut of guest vocalists from Thom Yorke to Richard Ashcroft, that 3D would also lend his vocals to a song on that album. Unfortunately, he could not find the time what with being in the middle of producing Mezzanine and getting ready to tour it. Later on in 1998, he did find time to do a remix for one of the singles off that album called Rabbit In Your Headlights, but it would not be until the early part of 2003, just before Massive Attack were getting ready to tour and promote 100th Window that 3D found the time to go down to the recording studios in London and lay down his vocals for Invasion on Never Never Land, the album for 2003.

Keeping the connection with James Lavelle alive, would in the future provide remixs for Massive Attack's False Flags. 3D would also once again feature on the next album, which came out in 2007 called War Stories, on a song called Twilight.

Apart from his musical collaboration on Never Never Land with Invasion, 3D was also the artistic director for the promo video Eye For An Eye. Many of his drawings and figures common on many Massive Attack releases and his own Fitting In book were used in the video such as the Eurochild and Insect President. James Lavelle originally wanted 3D to contribute musically to the song Eye For An Eye as well, but 3D felt the song was good enough without him tampering with it.

Invasion has never been played live, neither by Massive Attack or U.N.K.L.E. While Lavelle's band have never never played it live, Invasion (and its remixes) has been played occassionly as part of James Lavelle's solo DJ sets.

James Lavelle on why he admires Massive Attack so much that he asked 3D to be apart of Invasion - "I first encountered them when I was a kid. I saw something on television called Bombing, which was the first British-made hip hop documentary, and it had 3-D on there. This is when they were still the Wild Bunch. That was my first ever encounter with them and it was reallt what got me wanting to DJ. The whole sound system thing was what I grew up on. There was the Wild Bunch and Smith & Mighty in Bristol and then Soul II Soul in London. That's what sparked it off, really. It was English as well: they were taking the American breaks and beats and doing something different with it. When I started making records and setting up the Mo'Wax label they were a big influence. More than anything else it was 3-D and his attention to detail about the artwork and design, the graffiti-orientated artwork with the contemporary design and music - all in the same package. It inspired the label...and making music. It's funny for me because now 3-D's one of my best friends, but I'd definitely say I look up to him" [Jockey Slut Magazine - Sometime in 2002]

DJ Eva on remixing Invasion - "It was my first remix. Medway came up with that great b-line, and I wanted to turn the mix on it's head a bit by having it go from a 4/4 to a breakbeat, We did everything over the phone and internet due to him being in Orlando and me in Seattle. I had a lot of creative input and ideas, and Medway worked his magic doing all the arranging and technical aspects" [Raves.com - June 2004]

Related Posts

1. Twilight
2. Protection
3. Home Of The Whale

Tags: james lavelle • unkle • richard file • twilight • never never land

100th Window

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website - either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

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29th Januray 2003

11:21

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Written by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

See 100th Window info section for further credit details by clicking here.

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Instrumental

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More than likely the untitled bassline was an idea of 3D's that might possibly have been originally inspired by his appreciation for the post-punk group Public Image Limited, who had ended their seminal 1979 Metal Box with the song "Radio 4", which was little more than a bassline with a few added effects. 3D's has expressed his love on a few occasions for the Metal Box album and may have possibly decided to end his own album 100th Window in a similiar way, albeit only as a hidden song that appears nowhere in the printed material of the album and can only be heard by listening on after Antistar comes to its abrupt ending i.e cannot be track-skipped to.As it is a hidden song also, it has no name, even though most Massive Atack fans generally refer to it as the bassline as that was what 3D initially refered to it on his post to the old The Raft message board when he was revealing the details on 100th Window back at the end of 2002.

The untitled bassline starts precisely 30 seconds after Antistar has ended. The exact timing information pretaining to the untitled bassline is that the song Antistar itself finishs at the 08:17 but the actual track 9 of 100th Window is 19:38 in length. Allowing for the 30 second gap, the untitled bassline starts at 08:47 and continues until track 9's length. Subtracting 19:38 from 08:47 leaves us with 11:21, which is how this length was reached up in the Duration section towards the top of this page.

The untitled bassline is a simple basic keyboard driven bassline that seemlessly loops itself every 10 seconds or so.

The untitled bassline, for obvious enough reasons has never once been played live. It was played back over each venue's PA system however, before the beginning of each show on the 2003 tour along with other samples from the album.

3D on the untitled bassline - "AFTER ANTISTAR THERE IS A 13 MINUTE LONG BASSLINE TO DO DINNER TO/SLEEP AT THE WHEEL TO/OR FUCK YOUR BRAINS OUT TO---IT NEATLY TAKES THE CD UP TO IT'S 74 MINUTE LIMIT" [The Raft Message Board – November 2002]

Neil Davidge on the untitled bassline - "Working on that was the point at which I hit the biggest depression I've had in my adult life. I never thought I'd say it, but I'm now happy with that bassline and the record [100th Window]" [Jockey Slut Magazine – February 2003]

Related Posts

1. Name Taken
2. Small Time Shot Away
3. Spying Glass

Tags: 100th window • public image limited • bassline • instrumental • radio 4

100th Window

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29th Januray 2003

08:17

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Written by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

See 100th Window info section for further credit details by clicking here.

For the Collected version of the song, additional credits are:

Remastered by Mike Marsh at the Exchange and Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering.

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Robert Del Naja

Probably the main inspiration behind the lyrical content of Antistar, came from 3D's favorite book at the time, "Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn, which is a damning portrayal of the cult of celebrity in modern times.

The band booked time at Sony Studios in London, UK during June 2002 along with a 50 piece orchestra to record each string part as individual tracks. To achieve the Eastern-influenced feel that Massive Attack wanted, each discrete track had to be edited, and individual notes had to be pitch-bent to precise quarter tones – an exhausting process that Neil Davidge had to complete entirely by ear. To finish the song, Massive Attack used a simple breakbeat rhythm that was programmed with a Korg Electribe drum machine.

Was for a time considered to be released as a single along with a Shynola produced video, to be packaged as a double A-side single along with Butterfly Caught. 3D mentioned that his idea behind the never produced video for Antistar would have been a reenactment of a scene from his favourite book, Geek Love by Katherine Dunn which had inspired Antistar in the first place.

Of the many sounds which were created by Massive Attack (instead of using outside sample sources as on previous albums) that are sampled on Antistar, is one of 3D hitting a Coke can with a stick.

This "Antistar" bears no relation to the other unreleased and unheard Massive Attack track also called Antistar which was a product of the 2001/2002 LP4 recording sessions with Lupine Howl. Massive Attack liked the name but decided to dump the original song. This is quite similar to the naming process behind Aftersun.

Antistar was first played live at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia on the 11th March 2003. It continued to be played throughout the entire duration of the 2003 tour. The violin sections of the song were played live on stage by violinist Lucy Wilkins. It was brought back intermediately for the first half leg of the 2004 tour sans a dedicated violinist. Instead, the strings for the song came from a sampler. It was dropped however from the setlist after the Heitere Open Air Festival in Zofingen, Switzerland on the 13th August 2004 and has not been played since.

3D on the initial recording of Antistar - “We started to work on Antistar, the way we normally worked, which was to start with very simple ideas rather than a lot of ideas. We'd start with a couple of guitar parts with a beat put to it, sound waves or keyboard parts and then I started writing the vocals on top of it” [Remix Magazine – April 2003]

3D on the idea behind Antistar taken from the book "Geek Love" – "Arturo, he's a fish boy who lives in a tank, who's got no limbs. People come for miles to listen to him enraptured. To be part of him they start to cut off bits of their limbs. This surgeon sets up in the square so people can have their limbs removed. You get this level of disciples - the most minimal are the people who've just done a finger, who sit at the back. The most extreme, who've had all their limbs cut off, are swaddled in bandages and sit at the front, rocking around and listening to every word he says. To me it's a perfect analogy for celebrity and religion. The cult of celebrity - people want to be stared at by the pop star like oxygen, like blood” [X-Rayed Magazine – May 2003]

Related Posts

1. It’s All Good
2. (Untitled)
3. One Day At A Time

Tags: lucy wilkins • cult of celebrity • 100th window • sony studios london • katherine dunn

100th Window

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29th Januray 2003

07:47

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Written by Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

See 100th Window info section for further credit details by clicking here.

For the Collected version of the song, additional credits are:

Remastered by Mike Marsh at the Exchange and Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering.

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Horace Andy

Horace Andy recorded his vocals for Name Taken during June 2002 making it the last song written for 100th Window. 3D was also determined to write a track for Horace Andy completely without the use of samples or relying on cover versions as they had done on many previous Horace Andy sung songs. This ethos fitted in nicely with 100th Window's “no sample” approach. There was also an intentional desire to make Horace Andy's vocals on this track and Everywhen not sound anything like what he sounded like normally in the past, in an attempt to move away from any hints of reggae on the album whatsoever.

This song along with Everywhen were the first Horace Andy sung tracks to be written entirely from scratch and not be cover versions of previous Horace Andy solo material or contain any samples since Hymn Of The Big Wheel on Blue Lines.

In early promo material released for 100th Window in print and online, the official lyrics for Name Taken included an extra line at the very end of the song which was "Where's The Scars?". This line is seemingly ommitted in the final version of the song, or is at least completely inaudible in the mix.

Name Taken was first played live at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia on the 11th March 2003.It continued to be played throughout the near entire duration of the 2003 tour. Its arrangement though during the first half of the tour differed from its arrangement during the second half of the tour, in an attempt to make the song more dynamic to perform on stage. It has not been played since the 2003 tour.

Neil Davidge on recording Horace Andy's vocals in Name Taken - “We had a simple melodic structure, D would write the lyrics and then I'd get Horace to sing round the one line constantly going round and round, recording different ways of singing that line. Then I constructed the song afterwards, choosing the lines that worked best and that seemed to flow naturally, which was a very abstract way of working” [Sound On Sound Magazine - April 2003]

3D on Horace Andy's vocals in Everywhen - "It was mad, trying to get Horace to sound like he wasn't a reggae singer for the first time," says 3D. "I felt we've done a lot of things with Horace that were a throwback to his history. He's got such a great voice you don't need to do that. I wanted to write some new stuff for him like I did on 'Hymn of the Big Wheel” [Exclaim.ca – January 2003]

Related Posts

1. Small Time Shot Away
2. Everywhen
3. What Your Soul Sings

Tags: neil davidge • everywhen • rod laver arena • 100th window • horace andy

100th Window

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website - either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

Janvier 2003, Fabric 12 - The Amalgamation Of Soundz

29th Januray 2003

07:57

Small Time Shoot' Em Up - This sped-up, more hectic alternative version of Small Time Shot Away, is more than likely a product of the 100th Window facsimile (also known as Version Point Five) project which 3D spoke of during the time around 100th Window’s release, which would have been the 100th Window songs represented as more simplified stripped back versions of the songs with arrangements taken from 2003 tour. This project failed to ever be fully completed and was never released however, evidently the new version of Small Time Shot Away (and also Everywhen) intended for this project were completed and released on Collected. This version is also notable as according to the Collected inner sleeve notes, Daddy G apparently contributed to writing this remix, which if true would be his first actual involvement in the creation process since I Against I in 2002.

This song also clearly features Damon Albarn on backing vocals, which while still in the original version of Small Time Shot Away (reduced to an electric warble during the chorus), his vocal contribution is far clearer throughout in this new mix.

Written by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

See 100th Window info section for further credit details by clicking here.

For the Collected version of the song, additional credits are:

Remastered by Mike Marsh at the Exchange and Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering.

While no direct sampling was used on any song from 100th Window, including Small Time Shot Away, the bassline of this song was inspired by the bassline from "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus, a song that coincidently or not was featured on 3D Nocturne Sessions CD that came out in early 2002, roughly around the same time Small Time Shot Away would have been written.

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Robert Del Naja

Backing Vocals: 2D (Damon Albarn)

At some time during the 100th Window recording sessions in 2002, Damon Albarn dropped in on 3D in the recording studio with the intention of showcaseing a song he had written for Horace Andy to sing, which had always been a big dream of his to do. One thing led to another and the song (which has never been named of) was quickly forgotten as the two good friends ended up having a long drunken night in the studio. In this time, (as 3D has always contested he works best when hungover), the vocals featuring the pair were recorded initially and the groundwork was laid on what would eventually become Small Time Shot Away.

Damon Albarn is not credited under his normally title in the 100th Window sleeve notes. Instead he goes under the name 2D, which is his pyseudom in his cartoon side-project of a band, Gorillaz. Massive Attack did not want to draw much attention to the fact Damon Albarn was a guest vocalist on the album so not only was he credited as such but also his vocals were reduced to a low hum electric warble during the chorus of the song, which most people listening would mistake as background noise.

The weird and randomly fluctuating keyboard sound on Small Time Shot Away was a product of Neil Davidge's thinking of making things sound like anything but what they are. He started with a single one bar chord and put it through several effects to make different textures of sound just from the one bar and then in the end, editing all those bits of music into a usable performance.

Small Time Shot Away has never once been played live, making it the only 100th Window song (disregarding the untitled hidden bassline song) to have never been performed live at some point.

Neil Davidge on the keyboards heard in Small Time Shot Away - "The reality of that is that it was just a single chord held on a Juno playing a sine wave doing an arpeggio, but I actually went through using Wave Mechanics' Speed plug-in to create different textures. It was just a one-bar loop but I love it when you take something, slow it down, take it up or down an octave and just keep pushing it until obviously it's unusable as sound — but always going right to the very edge before you come back” [Sound On Sound Magazine – April 2003]

3D on Small Time Shot Away – “MYSELF AND MR ALBARN CHASING IT DOWN IN THE SHORT HOURS [EVERYONE ELSE WAS LOOKING AT THE CLOCK HUMORLESSLY AS THE MOON WENT DOWN” [Collected PR – January 2006]

Related Posts

1. Name Taken
2. Everywhen
3. One Day At A Time

Tags: small time shoot em up • damon albarn • neil davidge • 100th window • bela lugosi's dead

100th Window

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29th Januray 2003

05:44

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Written by Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge and Sinead O’ Connor

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

See 100th Window info section for further credit details by clicking here.

For the Collected version of the song, additional credits are:

Remastered by Mike Marsh at the Exchange and Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering.

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Sinead O’ Connor

A Prayer For England in it's proto-form had an even more spikey and rough-edged bassline and guitar than what ended up in the finished song on 100th Window. It was a song that 3D felt would be best suited to Sinead's voice and asked her as a form of contrast with the power of the unfinished song to write her lyrics over of it as if they were a form of prayer. The subject matter Sinead would pick as her prayer was the controversial issue of child abuse either in homes or institutions. This was probably inspired by her own Irish Catholic upbringing, what with the stranglehold the Church had in Ireland up until the 1970's and the abuse that many children suffered at the hands of Irish clergy in schools.

A Prayer For England was mentioned by 3D on repeat occasions during interviews during 100th Window's release as being a likely contender for a single release. It would however never make as a single. It could be speculative to say that Massive Attack's management decided not to pursue it as single release owing to it's subject matter of child abuse and abduction in the light of 3D's arrest and questioning over child porn offenses in February 2003, which even though were totally proven false, might have made A Prayer For England too contentious of a song to release.

Contary to some believes, A Prayer For England was not inspired by the Soham Murders tragedies in the UK which claimed the lives of two young girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman which occured in August 2002. 100th Window would have been almost virtually finished at this stage in time.

A Prayer For England (along with What Your Soul Sings has only been played live four times in total. It’s first time been played was at The Academy in Glasgow, UK on 9th April 2003 and played then for the next three shows up until the Manchester Apollo show on the 24th April 2003. In the three days between this last show and the start of Massive Attack’s five night residency at the Brixton Academy in London,UK, it was publicly announced that due to health reasons (a dubious reason as it was latter revealed that Sinead had quit the music business entirely, latter of course to return to it a few years later) Sinead O’ Connor would be unable to tour for the entire remaining duration of the 2003 tour. Dot Allison would take over for Sinead’s vocals on tour substituting on Special Cases but not on A Prayer For England or What Your Soul Sings either for that matter and these two songs were never played live again.

3D on A Prayer For England - "It was one of the tracks we really wanted to steer her [Sinead O'Connor] towards, because it felt it was not something comfortably to work with because it was a bit rawer and hard-edged and it was alot rawer when it first started than it is now. It was very spikey and rough and she said 'what do you want me to do with this?'. And we said 'why don't you write a prayer over it.' And that's what she came up with, quite literally. And it was totally unexpected; the subject matter, but absolutely fucking amazing" [100th Window Interview Disc – December 2002]

3D on Sinead O'Connor choice of subject matter on A Prayer For England - "She's been so outspoken and when you're prepared to stand up and say things you become vulnerable. You're out there. You're available to be judged and criticised. She has a beautifully healthy anger and bitterness towards institutions - especially corrupt institutions - which I think a lot of people are beginning to feel. They're beginning to feel frustrated by this country, by the world, by the institutions that govern our lives." [Jockey Slut Magazine – February 2003]

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1. Love Is Ours
2. Special Cases
3. What Your Soul Sings

Tags: 100th window • sinead o connor • children of england • what your soul sings • special cases

100th Window

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website - either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

Butterfly Caught (Single Release), Collected, Chillout 04/The Ultimate Chillout (Paul Daley Remix), Dimitris Papaspyropoulos Presents: One Dream Closer (Paul Daley Remix), Club Island Summer 2003 (Paul Daley Beatless Remix)

16th June 2003

07:33

Paul Daley Remix - This version was mixed by one half of the now defunct dance band Leftfield. Included on all the UK single and promo releases.

Paul Daley Dub - An instrumental dub mix of the original Paul Daley remix. Included only on the vinyl release (both retail and promo), with one exception being a very rare CD-R promo.

Paul Daley Beatless Remix - As the name implies, the same Paul Daley remix but without any beats over the vocals. Not included on any single release or any Massive Attack release either. Only found on a dance compilation called 'Club Island Summer 2003'.

Octave One Remix - An deep dub remix by Detroit techno outfit, Octave One. Included on UK single and promo releases.

RJD2 Remix - An remix from the American hip hop producer, RJD2. Included on all single releases.

RJD2 Instrumental - An instrumental mix of the original Paul Daley remix exactly the same as the original remix sans vocals. Included only on the vinyl release (both retail and promo), with one exception being a very rare CD-R promo.

Jagz Kooner Remix - A remix from ex Sabres of Paradise and current member of The Aloof, Jagz Kooner. Included on all single releases.

Point Five - An alternative mix done by Alex Swift on behalf of Massive Attack. Features no vocals over a stripped down beat with strings in the background. Possibly this version would have been included on the mooted 100th Window facsimile version that never materialized.

Radio Edit - An truncated version of the song for radio playback. Unlike most radio edits, this edit features some additional elements like piano during the main chorus and quite different ending. Used in the promo video for Butterfly Caught. Included only only on promo releases and the japanese single release.

Written by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

See 100th Window info section for further credit details by clicking here.

For the Collected version of the song, additional credits are:

Remastered by Mike Marsh at the Exchange and Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering.

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Robert Del Naja

3D's voice serves not only as the vocals for the song but also in other ways that are not immediately obvious. The bassline of Butterfly Caught for instance is 3D's voice, but slowed down and worked upon. Nearly all the electronic sounding layers of that track are manipulated vocals.

The strings for the song were recorded by a 50 piece orchestra in June 2002 at Sony Studios in London, UK.

Butterfly Caught was for a time considered to be packaged as a double A-side single which would have included a Shynola produced video for Antistar and/or live footage from 2003 tour so far. None of this would ever happen.

On Collected, the song's duration is 05:08. It borrows most of its elements from the Radio Edit version for the song but its ending is more like the regular version, albeit trimed a bit down.

Butterfly Caught was first played live at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia on the 11th March 2003. It was played continuously during the first half of the tour but gradually saw less and less appearances live, until the end of the 2003 tour where it was omitted entirely. The violin sections of the song were played live on stage by violinist Lucy Wilkins. On many dates on the 2003 tour, when played, 3D would announce just before the song a dedication to someone called Nancy (presumably his girlfriend at the time). It did not feature at all during the 2004 tour. When the 2006 tour came around, Butterfly Caught was back on the setlist and was played as a constant throughout the tour until its end but this time without a dedicated violinist.

Neil Davidige on how the bassline was created - "We pitched it [3D's vocal] around, put it through Rectified and various other plug-ins to create that texture, and then edited that to create the bass line." [Sound On Sound Magazine - April 2003]

3D on the violin in Butterfly Caught - "What I like about the violin in Butterfly Caught is that it is so non-definable; it sounds both oriental and western at the same time, as though it originated in Istanbul, when the Bosporus was still the limit between East and West." [Humo Magazine - March 2003]

Related Posts

1. Special Cases
2. Inertia Creeps
3. Unfinished Sympathy

Tags: sabres of paradise • octave one • 100th window • paul daley • jagz kooner

100th Window

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website - either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

Special Cases (Single Release), Chill Two - Oriental Lounge

29th Januray 2003

05:09

Akufen Remix - A remix by Akufen AKA Marc Leclair, a Canadian musician whose music is often described as being minimal techno or microhouse. Included on all single releases.

Luomo's Casing - A remix by Finnish electronic musician Luomo AKA Vladislav Delay renowned for his glitch and ambient take on house music. Included only on the vinyl release (both retail and promo), with one exception being a very rare CD-R promo.

Radio Edit - An truncated version of the song for radio playback. Included on all single and promo releases.

Written by Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge and Sinead O’ Connor

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

See 100th Window info section for further credit details by clicking here.

For the Collected version of the song, additional credits are:

Remastered by Mike Marsh at the Exchange and Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering.

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Sinead O’ Connor

Special Cases was probably the easiet and quickest song recorded for 100th Window. In terms of message it was quite simple and direct, about looking and observing the fragility of world and how chaotic somethings are and finding someone among all this to trust and emphatize with. Many people interperate this message as reflecting upon the state of the world was at the time it was written in 2002 with the impending war in Iraq and the uncertainty surrounding it.

The strings for the song were recorded by a 50 piece orchestra in June 2002 at Sony Studios in London,UK.

Special Cases was the third song after What Your Soul Sings to be written during the 100th Window recording sessions in 2002.

When Special Cases was being made, it was earmarked from the beginning as being a potential single and would eventually end up being the first single release from 100th window and used to extensively promote the album. Before this though, 3D wished that A Prayer For England would be the first single release from 100th Window, however Virgin Records, wanted Special Cases to be the lead-off single, eventually persuadeing 3D to launch with Special Cases, leaving A Prayer For England as a possible second or third single release, that in hindsight would never happen.

Special Cases was first played live at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia on the 11th March 2003. It was played continuously during the first half of the tour but gradually saw less and less appearances live, until the end of the 2003 tour where it was omitted entirely. The violin sections of the song were played live on stage by violinist Lucy Wilkins. Sinead O' Connor herself only did live vocals on this song a total of four times at shows in Glasgow and Manchester,UK during April 2003. All other live renditions of Special Cases feature Dot Allison substituting for Sinead O' Connor's absense. It has not been played since the 2003 tour.

3D on the initial recording of Special Cases - “It was one of the easiest songs that happened on this album because it was very direct and simple and very quick and when we played it for Sinead she just went 'yeah i really love that i want to do something with that' and she just wrote a song really quickly and it all just happened over night compared to the other songs” [100th Window Interview Disc – December 2002]

3D on Special Cases - "It is about suddenly feeling happy and lucky that your with someone you can believe in and trust. It's that simple and direct” [100th Window Interview Disc – December 2002]

Related Posts

1. Love Is Ours
2. A Prayer For England
3. What Your Soul Sings

Tags: what your soul sings • a prayer for england • akufen • 100th window • sinead o connor