No Protection

Although variously labeled as hip-hop, trip-hop and soul, the distinctive sound forged by Massive Attack often resembles a more innovative take on the lover's rock style of reggae that launched the careers of Caron Wheeler and Maxi Priest. (Massive Attack in turn put themselves on the map as a group with tunes voiced by old-time reggae crooner Horace Andy). Viewed in that light, it seems a natural decision for the group to invoke the time-honoured Jamaican tradition of the dub album, a group of tracks (taken in this case from their critically acclaimed PROTECTION) reworked by a mixing board auteur like Mad Professor.
A second generation digital offspring of original dub pioneers like King Tubby and Lee "Scratch" Perry, the professor's concoctions bear only a distant relationship to the analogue dub which emanated from Tubby's reel-to-reel and echo-chamber set-up. While spiritually akin to '70s dub, the sound here is transformed by Mad Prof's digital production values, the acid house aesthetics of 1990s London, and of course unmistakable Massive Attack elements--like the fragments of Tracey Thorn's torch song vocal that reverberate throughout.|

Protection was widely considered a disappointing follow-up to Massive Attack's groundbreaking debut, Blue Lines. Where their debut bent all of the conventional hip-hop, dub reggae, and soul rules, Protection essentially delivered more of the same. Perhaps that's the reason why Mad Professor's remix of the album, No Protection, was welcomed with open arms by both Massive Attack fans and critics. Mad Professor has returned the group to their experimental, cut-and-paste dub reggae and hip-hop roots. He has gutted the songs -- twisting and reassembling the vocal tracks, giving the songs deeper, fuller grooves and an eerily seductive atmosphere. In other words, he has made Protection into a more daring and fulfilling album with his remixes. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine