LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Portishead
built 678 days ago
The Bristol, England trip-hop trio Portishead is back in the studio, as previously reported. For fans, it's been a long stretch from their last release, 1997's self titled off of Go! Beat was their second and last studio album. According to Geoff Barrow, the group's producer/instrumentalist, Portishead is only one day away from completing the new album. The following message was posted yesterday (Oct. 23) on the group's website:
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The great unnegotiable with Portishead is that Beth will not speak to the press ever again. Combined with her near-suicidal lyrics, this has given her a reputation as a trip-hop Garbo, which is altogether too flamboyant for the band. So now Geoff is careful to emphasize the party line: Beth is fine, a completely normal lass. She just doesn't enjoy interviews. He doesn't like photo shoots, so they let each other take care of those responsibilities. But still, a dark rumor dogs Beth, explaining why she maintains a press embargo--gossip has it that she doesn't want to admit to her hippie-rock past, when she sang Janis Joplin and Fleetwood Mac covers.
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P[O]rtishead may not have invented trip-hop, but they were among the first to popularize it, particularly in America. Taking their cue from the slow, elastic beats that dominated Massive Attack's Blue Lines and adding elements of cool jazz, acid house, and soundtrack music, Portishead created an atmospheric, alluringly dark sound. The group wasn't as avant-garde as Tricky, nor as tied to dance traditions as Massive Attack; instead, it wrote evocative pseudo-cabaret pop songs that subverted their conventional structures with experimental productions and rhythms of trip-hop. As a result, Portishead appealed to a broad audience — not just electronic dance and alternative rock fans, but thirtysomethings who found techno, trip-hop, and dance as exotic as worldbeat. Before Portishead released their debut album, Dummy, in 1994, trip-hop's broad appeal wasn't apparent, but the record became an unexpected success in Britain, topping most year-end critics polls and earning the prestigious Mercury Music Prize; in America, it ... became an underground hit, selling over 150,000 copies before the group toured the U.S. Following the success of Dummy, legions of imitators appeared over the next two years, but Portishead remained quiet as they worked on their second album. Named after the West Coast shipping town where Geoff Barrow grew up, Portishead formed in Bristol, England, in 1991.
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Portishead's music has always had a darknening menace, a kind of jazzy noir that recalls the days of Prohibition, and its Hollywood reflection of gangsters, mob men, and lurid romanticism. The timbre of Beth Gibbons' voice hangs in some silky darkness that floats above some on-screen nightclub. It's a voice made for the screen, and Only You provides it its best treatment.
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Named after the West Coast shipping town where Geoff Barrow grew up, Portishead formed in Bristol, England, in 1991. Prior to the group's formation, Barrow had worked as a tape operator at the Coach House studio, where he met Massive Attack. Through that group, he began working with Tricky, producing the rapper's track for the Sickle Cell charity album. Barrow ... wrote songs for Neneh Cherry's Homebrew, though only "Somedays" appeared on the record. Around the time of Portishead's formation, he had begun to earn a reputation as a remix producer, working on tracks by Primal Scream, Paul Weller, Gabrielle, and Depeche Mode. Barrow met Beth Gibbons, who had been singing in pubs, in 1991 on a job scheme.
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After releasing a short film (To Kill A Dead Man) and its accompanying music, Portishead signed a record deal with Go! Beat and their first album, Dummy, was released in 1994, and featured heavy contributions from guitarist Adrian Utley. In spite of the band's media-shyness, the album was successful in both Europe and the United States, spawning two hit singles, "Glory Box" and "Sour Times". Portishead has often been used as accompanying music in the media. Such examples include car adverts, Channel 4 intermissions and the teenage drama series Sugar Rush.
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