This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Artist News Releases
Massive Attack reissue Mezzanine album as DNA-encoded spray paint
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 22 October 2018
Massive Attack have announced that they are releasing a remastered version of their 1998 album ‘Mezzanine’ as a can of spray paint. This isn’t one of those QR code deals though – the album is actually inside the paint itself as audio encoded DNA.
Yeah, that all sounds quite complicated and confusing, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, it is. Earlier this year, the band announced that they’d encoded the album into DNA. You can try to get your head around that process in this academic paper here.
With that DNA now mixed into the black paint that fills these spray cans, they reckon that each can contains one million copies of the album. Not sure if they’re all chart eligible though.
As well as being a mind-bending way to release a record, the unusual piece of merch is also a nod to the frequent rumours that anonymous street artist Banksy is actually Massive Attack’s 3D, who says of the new release: “It’s a creative way to store your back catalogue, although DNA-encoded spray paint is unlikely to be adopted by street artists seeking anonymity”.
The remastered version of ‘Mezzanine’ is also available in other more traditional, easier to listen to formats.
