Bristol phenoms Massive Attack melded dub rhythms, hip-hop beats, and electronica on their 1998 album Mezzanine, a work that’s staggering in both its scope and its depth of imagination. The group imbued pre-2000s anxieties and nervy samples to create unsettlingly immersive songs, notably the agonizing slow-burn of opener “Angel” and the anxious thumping of “Inertia Creeps.”

– Paula Mejía

The Bristol scene knew better than anyone that the gothier trip-hop gets, the better it gets — and the best it got was Massive Attack’s third album, which found their dub and hip-hop strains spliced with compellingly gloomy paranoia. The vocals drive it home — Horace Andy at his most emotional, Elizabeth Frazier spiderweb-intricate, 3D and Daddy G glowering over their shoulders — and the concrete-canyon production still somehow sounds claustrophobic.

– Nate Patrin