Massive Attack Reissue Mezzanine as DNA Spray Paint (Yes, You Read That Correctly)

When Massive Attack’s Mezzanine turned 20, in April this year, the group celebrated by encoding it into DNA. That DNA will be released in the form of matt black spray paint inside an aerosol can, the group announced today (October 19). Each can contains about one million copies of the album, according to a press release.

In the press release, Massive Attack’s 3D joked, “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.” (A longstanding and unfounded rumor claims that 3D, a sometime graffiti artist, is the secret identity of Banksy.)

Back in April, the band noted that DNA encoding “could be an answer to the problem of archiving the increasing amount of information that the world is creating.” The album’s digital audio files were converted into 920,000 short DNA strands which were then stored in 5,000 miniscule glass spheres. Mezzanine was the second-largest file ever stored using DNA.