Listen: Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja co-produces Martina Topley-Bird’s new EP, Pure Heart

Robert “3D” Del Naja of Massive Attack has co-produced longtime collaborator Martina Topley-Bird‘s new EP Pure Heart, which is out now.

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Del Naja and Topley-Bird have worked together previously, with the latter singing on Massive Attack‘s 2010 album Heligoland. Elsewhere, the pair are linked through Bristol’s music scene with Topley-Bird appearing on fellow trip hop pioneer Tricky‘s early albums Maxinquaye (1995), Pre-Millennium Tension (1996) and Angels With Dirty Faces (1998).

The three-track Pure Heart EP precedes Topley-Bird‘s fourth album, Forever I Wait, which will be released on September 10. The EP tracks “Pure Heart“, “Hunt” and “Rain” all appear on the album’s tracklist.

Topley-Bird said the record is “a trip through my psyche, switching through different states and frequencies of emotions and reflections”.

“‘Pure Heart‘, with its echoes of The Cure, is the ode to my young teens, the time when I first really got into music in a devotional and tribal sense. It speaks of fears and desires, represents all new beginnings and states the quiet determination to follow the muse where it will lead. ‘Hunt‘ is the reckoning that must take place after the journey has begun, a commentary on power and the powerful, earning the peaceful resolution that comes with ‘Rain‘.

“This EP is a complete journey, a preview of sort, of the complete album with ‘Pure Heart‘ and ‘Rain‘ framing the beginning and the end.”

Forever I Wait is the singer-songwriter’s first album since 2010’s Some Place Simple and is her first self-produced and curated piece of work to date.