{"id":382542,"date":"2026-04-16T13:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T13:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/382542\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T13:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T13:41:15","slug":"massive-attack-and-tom-waits-meet-an-atmosphere-of-chaos-on-the-powerful-politically-charged-boots-on-the-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/382542\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive Attack and Tom Waits meet “an atmosphere of chaos” on the powerful, politically-charged ‘Boots On The Ground’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Massive Attack<\/a> and Tom Waits<\/a> have shared their surprise collaboration with the powerful and politically-charged \u2018Boots On The Ground\u2019. Check it out below.<\/p>\n

After teasing the track online, \u2018Boots On The Ground\u2019 arrives today (Thursday April 16) with a film created by the Bristol trip-hop icons, made with work by US photo artist thefinaleye and showing the the aftermath of the recent largest public protests in American history against \u201cICE raids, the militarisation of domestic forces, and state authoritarianism\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 2020, to recent ICE raids on migrant communities and the killing of civilians that protect them,\u201d the intro text to the video begins. \u201cFrom the brutal state repression of public protest, to the reality of American homelessness that includes nearly 33,000 military veterans\u201d. The video ends by detailing those who have lost their lives to ICE and the impact of oppressive retaliation to protest.<\/p>\n

The track itself, Waits\u2019 first new material since his 2011 album \u2018Bad As Me\u2019 and featuring additional vocals from his son Casey, begins with the heavy breathing of the oppressed with their neck beneath a knee, before Massive Attack lay a sombre and tender soundscape beneath Waits painting a nightmarish reflection of where we\u2019re at.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig legs dangle from a helicopter hole, Big chug rhythm it\u2019s gotta be now, ho! Brown, mean and young, Dumb and full of cum, What can you use a marine for? This is a fucking ass machine gun war.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Boots On The Ground\u2019 will be released as an exclusive vinyl (pre-order here<\/a>) featuring b-side by Waits in the form of the \u201cdroll and sardonic spoken word piece\u201d, \u2018The Fly\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 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,\u201d said Massive Attack. \u201cAcross the western hemisphere, state authoritarianism and the militarisation of police forces are fusing again with neo-fascist politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeen within the American emergency, at home and overseas, this track contains pulses of callous impulse and abandoned mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waits revealed that he accepted the invitation to collaborate with the duo \u201cmany years ago\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWay back then, we sent them \u2018Boots On The Ground\u2019,\u201d he continued. \u201cTheir long release delay never worried me. Today, as in all of mankind\u2019s yesterdays, guarantees this song will never go out of style. Man\u2019s fiasco folly is a feast for the flies. Hence, the b-side of Massive Attack\u2019s upcoming 12 inch \u2018The Fly\u2019 features my appreciation for the winged nuisance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomorrow (Friday April 17)\u00a0Massive Attack will also publish an exclusive spoken word reflection on the themes of the work from novelist Omar El Akkad (American War, What Strange Paradise, and One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This).<\/p>\n

\"MassiveMassive Attack and Tom Waits team up for \u2018Boots On The Ground\u2019. Credit: Press<\/p>\n

As part of their continued environmental efforts<\/a>,\u00a0Massive Attack have partnered with Good Neighbor to produce an \u2018EcoSonic\u2019 pressing of the \u2018Boots On The Ground\u2019 vinyl manufactured using 100 per cent recycled PET (rPET) to make it fully recyclable and produced via an energy-efficient injection moulding process. The sleeves will also be made from 100 per cent recycled, FSC\u00ae-certified paper stock and outer slipcases produced from recycled polyethylene.<\/p>\n

Massive Attack will be donating all profits from the sale of the vinyl edition to the American Civil Liberties Union<\/a> and the US Immigrant Defense Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"MassiveMassive Attack live at LIDO Festival 2025, London (Photo by Kristian Buus\/In Pictures via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Massive Attack made headlines this week when Robert Del Naja was among 500 arrested in London on a peaceful protest in support of Palestine Action<\/a> \u2013 a move by police he later called \u201cunlawful\u201d in a statement<\/a>, when declaring that \u201cthe sense of madness can be overcome.<\/p>\n

The duo have not released any new music since the 2020 EP \u2018Eutopia<\/a>\u2019. Their last full-length album was 2010\u2019s \u2018Heligoland<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

In an interview in 2024 with NME<\/a>, Del Naja confirmed that they had \u201csome new music which we\u2019ve been sitting on for four years\u201d, and in November he shared that he was looking to release some of it in 2026. A spokesperson has shared that \u201cfurther releases are scheduled prior and subsequent to the band\u2019s run of live performances\u201d this summer.<\/p>\n

Their dispute with Spotify came to a head last year, when they revealed that they had asked their label UMG to remove their music from the platform<\/a>. This came following reports that the company\u2019s CEO Daniel Ek had led a \u20ac600million (\u00a3524million) investment into Helsing \u2013 a Munich-based company creating drones and artificial intelligence for military operations. A statement confirms that \u2018Boots on the Ground\u2019 is the first Massive Attack music distributed under a Spotify exemption policy.<\/p>\n

The group also joined Fontaines D.C<\/a>., Amyl & The Sniffers <\/a>and over 400 other artists in backing the No Music For Genocide campaign <\/a>in geo-blocking their work in Israel.<\/p>\n

Massive Attack will embark on a European festival tour which kicks off next month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"TomTom Waits performs at the 27th Annual Bridge School Benefit concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre on October 27, 2013 in Mountain View, California. (Photo by Steve Jennings\/WireImage)<\/p>\n

In 2023, Waits\u2019 longtime music agent Paul Charles claimed that the US singer-songwriter and actor had been \u201cwriting again<\/a>\u201d with the hope that the 76-year-old may tour.<\/p>\n

As well as starring in Jim Jarmusch\u2019s new film Father Mother Sister Brother<\/a> alongside Adam Driver, Waits\u00a0will release \u2018Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow\u2019 \u2013 a curated \u201cessential collection\u201d of covers of songs by himself and wife Kathleen Brennan<\/a> recorded by the likes by Johnny Cash<\/a>, Bruce Springsteen<\/a>, Ramones<\/a>, Willie Nelson<\/a> and Marianne Faithfull<\/a> \u2013 on May 29.<\/p>\n

Waits and Springsteen are also set to appear on the upcoming tribute album \u201920th Century Paddy \u2013 The Songs Of Shane MacGowan\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Massive Attack and Tom Waits have shared their surprise collaboration with the powerful and politically-charged \u2018Boots On The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[5921,4911,156,157,111,139,69,1629],"class_list":{"0":"post-382542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-electronic","9":"tag-alternative","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-rock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}