Design Context

Research into existing album artwork for Massive Attack

Description[edit]

• A man is in the corridor, holding a gun in one hand and a plastic bag with something in it on the other. He's walking backwards and pointing the gun at everything he sees, in a clear state of paranoia and distress. He's sweating and mumbling under his breath, desperately attempting to memorise the room numbers for reasons unknown. At several points he is menaced by two mysterious, identical twin girls (in homage to the 1980 film The Shining), who, at one point, hold up the missing letter 'k' from another tenant's typewriter. And at one point he glimpses a double of himself, pointing a gun at him.
• A man with long, unkempt hair and beard is sitting in his room (actor Olegar Fedoro resembling Charles Manson), staring directly into the camera and speaking in a dazed manner. "I am a... dangerous person," he announces at one point. Later: "All those guys I killed... nothing personal." (He bears a strong resemblance to the man with the gun from the corridor, although it is unclear if they are actually intended to be the same person.) At the video's end he tells the camera, "I want to be free... and I am free." (These three lines are all Charles Manson quotes.)
• A man in one of the rooms is covered with oil among cameras and mirrors, apparently performing some sort of bizarre artwork. The oil comes from his navel, apparently, and his finger goes impossibly deep into it to extract the oil.
• A middle-aged man with a moustache is in a room with two women dressed in red satin robes. He asks "Who's gonna be a bad girl, then?". One of the women answers apathetically, "I am".
• A man (who resembles the protagonist of Eraserhead) is seen with a typewriter, writing "Karmacoma" over and over again on a sheet of paper, though the letter 'k' does not appear. When the man in the corridor realises the two girls have the 'k', it immediately cuts back to the man with the typewriter, who does not look at another man who appears in his room, burning sheets of paper.
• A boy watches TV news in which the journalist covers his half face with his hand. The boy repeats what he sees. As this is happening, a woman dressed in campy, old-fashioned clothing is talking on the phone about the boy.
• A man plays golf in the corridor.
• A man attempts to drown a miniature copy of himself in a bathtub.

Censorship[edit]

• The man with the moustache stands on top of a mattress and sticks his tongue out. He has a big pointed piercing in his tongue.
• The actress that accompanies the band is resting her head on 3D's shoulder. She then lifts her head, looks straight into the camera and blood spills from one of her nostrils.
• The man with the gun passes along another version of himself, the second man points the gun at the first. Cut to a different angle, where the first man is alone and pointing the gun where the second man was a second before.
• The man covered in oil is shown with his index finger stuck inside his stomach. He slowly removes it until it's all out, without leaving a wound or a hole of any kind.