Massive Attack return with powerful Tom Waits collab ‘Boots On The Ground’

Massive Attack and Tom Waits have teamed up to release a new joint single entitled ‘Boots On The Ground’ - a stark, pulls-no-punches protest song that comes accompanied by ‘The Fly’, an exclusive vinyl B-side spoken-word piece from Waits.

Speaking about the collaboration, the trip-hop legends - who last year headlined London day fest LIDO - have said: “It’s a career honour to collaborate with an artist of the magnitude, originality and integrity of Tom, but this track is arriving in an atmosphere of chaos.

“Across the western hemisphere, state authoritarianism and the militarisation of police forces are fusing again with neo-fascist politics. Seen within the American emergency, at home and overseas, this track contains pulses of callous impulse and abandoned mind.”

The track arrives just a few days on from the arrest of the group’s Robert Del Naja over the weekend, after he attended a pro-Palestine protest in London and, alongside hundreds of fellow demonstrators, peacefully held up a sign expressing support for the proscribed organisation Palestine Action. You can read his full statement on the arrest here. 

‘Boots On The Ground’ has also landed alongside an evocative film created by Massive Attack and US artist thefinaleye, which depicts the fallout of a six-year period (from the 2020 Black Lives Matter marches through to this year’s anti-ICE demonstrations) which has seen the largest public protests in US history. Supplementing the song and film will be a spoken-word piece written by novelist Omar El Akkad, due to be published tomorrow (Friday 17th April) via Massive Attack channels. 

Finally, ‘Boots On The Ground’ is the first of a series of incoming Massive Attack releases to adhere to a Spotify-excluding distribution policy; instead, you can check out the track and its film below.