The story of Portishead can be told as a tale of three albums.
On Dummy (1994), Portishead created a masterful blast of recombinant culture. They started with Gibbons’ torch song balladry, tinted with hard streaks of solitude, melancholy, and existential angst. Multi-instrumentalists/producers Geoff Barrow (turntables) and Adrian Utley (guitar) and sound engineer Dave McDonald underpinned her voice with hip-hop rhythms and DJ samples and scratches and other electronic sounds, layering in eerie and discordant touches to create an unsettling, psychedelic atmosphere. Back in 1994, it felt like a whole new musical experience, familiar yet entirely new.
Their self-titled follow-up (1997) was at once more consistent, almost a perfect refinement of the trip-hop form. And yet I found it too uniform, less interesting and compelling—an album of meticulously crafted songs that managed to be less than the sum of its parts.
Over ten years later, their Third album (2008) was heralded as a radical departure. Yet to me, the basic strategy was the same, only with a different set of clothes, donning a shimmering, electronic cloak instead of the baggy rap threads. The music remained eerie, unsettling beats beneath Beth Gibbons’ aching vocals. And it was every bit as brilliant and refreshing as their debut.
Playlist 1
Playlist One features an LP-length condensation of Dummy, plus a shorter selection from Portishead.
Playlist 2
Playlist Two presents an LP-length condensation of Third.
Cover Art:
- Dummy: Source, Discogs.com, Fair use.
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