Synopsis

Set inside a strange, seemingly endless hotel corridor, the video follows a series of unsettling residents as they drift between private rooms and bizarre rituals. Massive Attack, Tricky, and a woman occupy one room, while elsewhere a wounded man sits in silence, a typist works obsessively, and other guests act out fragments of menace, desire, and absurdity. The disconnected scenes gradually form a surreal portrait of guilt and confinement, with the hotel functioning like a dream space where every room conceals another disturbing secret.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video appeared in 1995 as the visual companion to "Karmacoma," the third and final single from Massive Attack's album *Protection*.

• Its hotel setting and gallery of eccentric guests have prompted comparisons with *The Shining*, *Pulp Fiction*, *Barton Fink*, and David Lynch's *Eraserhead*. These references are presented as visual echoes rather than a conventional narrative.

• Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, and Tricky wear matching work shirts marked "Texmex," while Andrew Vowles is shown sitting on a couch with what appears to be a gunshot wound.

• The video's unsettling atmosphere comes partly from its refusal to explain the characters or connect their actions. The corridor links the rooms physically, but the story remains deliberately fragmented.

• "Karmacoma" contains a sample from The KLF's "Dream Time in Lake Jackson." The sample appears during the track and reinforces the song's hazy, disorienting quality.

• Tricky later reworked the song as "Overcome" for his 1995 debut album *Maxinquaye*, with Martina Topley-Bird contributing vocals.

• The single reached No. 28 on the UK singles chart in April 1995.