Western Eyes
Nice & thorough Portishead site!
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The Story So Far
Geoff Barrow met Massive Attack while working as a tape op in the Bristol studio they were using; his connection to the band eventually led to some production and writing work with Tricky and Bristol Godmother Neneh Cherry.
He met Gibbons in an unemployment office, later recruiting jazz guitarist Adrian Utley and beginning work on the score of a noir-ish short film called To Kill A Dead Man. The trio took the name Portishead after the English shipping port near Bristol. Around this same time Barrow landed remix assignments from Paul Weller, Primal Scream and others, and soon signed to London independent Go! Discs.
The group spent several months recording their debut. That effort yielded Dummy, the 1994 release that effortlessly shined the mainstream spotlight on a dark, brooding form of electronic music appropriately branded "trip-hop." Dummy sent the critics into a fever and became a sizable hit despite the band's media allergy. The album claimed a number of year-end awards and by 1995 had been seized from the clutches of the cognoscenti by dinner party trip-hoppers across Britain and America (it had sold 150,000 copies before the band ever set foot there).
This hectic series of developments perhaps contributed to the extended vacation its media-shy members took before releasing Portishead in 1997. Recorded with painstaking attention to detail (the band generated all its own samples, pressing studio jams to acetate; they also were said to allow equipment to age and gather dust before playing it) the second Portishead album pleased fans but didn't pack the mainstream punch of the debut.
The band has established an amazing live reputation, which is upheld by their third release, PNYC. Portishead, apart from supporting a website championing the Bristol music scene with fellow musicians Massive Attack, are working on new material. We wait with bated breath.
Words from the Portisfreaks
Filip Standavid writes: "I love Portishead because listening to their music I can hear with both ears the sound of my desperation. I know things won't get any better, but at least, they sound much better. I mean life's such a fucked-up story that sometimes it feels good to know other people feel the same way, too. Plus: Portishead is a very honest band, a non-image band, maybe the best in the world. It's just music, and that's so fucking hard to find these days ..."
Rachel writes:
"Portishead is a band with a sound that just creeps up on you like bad memories sometimes do. When the songs make the world sound cold and lonely, you somehow feel better being cold and lonely too. It embraces the art of depression in the most masterful way."
Ats Tanid writes:
"Mournful croonings of Beth Gibbons; dark, brooding aural landscapes in the music; lyrics that seem to exist and speak beyond yourself -- that's what I love and find addictive about Portishead."
Adrian Breva writes:
"Beth Gibbons is one of the best vocalists out there, and the basslines and trippy beats make for a listening experience that the copycat groups can't imitate."
Dave Adelson writes:
"Portishead, because the only thing more haunting and beautiful than the music is the voice of Beth Gibbons. The most brilliant band in existence."
Annie Todd writes:
"I love Portishead because no one else has the same sound. So brilliant and mysterious, they have the ability to catch a note in your throat and make you cry."
Raquel Caballero writes: I love Portishead because the music is so dark and trippy and it makes me feel happy and on top of the world. I think Beth Gibbons has such a beautiful voice, the music wouldn't be the same without it.
