Massive Attack have hailed Damon Albarn as an “absolute genius” after collaborating with him on their upcoming new album.

The trip-hop duo have drafted in an array of guest stars for their as-yet-untitled fifth album, set for release in February 2010, including Faith No More's Mike Patton, Phantom Limb's Yolanda Quarty, Fredo Viola and Beth Orton.

Speaking exclusively to Gigwise, Grant 'Daddy G' Marshall said he was daunted by the task of working with the Blur and Gorillaz star.

He said: “How do you produce Damon? You kindly ask Damon. You say ‘Damon, we’ve got a track that we want you to do and here are the lyrics, would you like to have a look at the lyrics?’

“How do you tell Damon Albarn you’ve got lyrics for him? He just kind of kindly refuses and it takes him about a day to make up his thing for the song and it's recorded the next day; he’s a genius, an absolute genius.”

The new album will be Massive Attack's first long-player since 2003's '100th Window'.

(by Huw Jones)