Portishead - Portishead (CD 1997)

Portishead is supposed to be a creatively free and absolutely enchanting downbeat trip-hop sort of band. Based on this widely accepted rumor, their albums have sold many a copy. Unfortunately, I fell for the hype. Portishead is little better than annoying and their 1997 self-titled sophomore disc grinds on my nerves more than the vast majority of my collection. Hailing from Bristol, England, Portishead formed in 1991 and has since the beginning consisted of Beth Gibbons (vocals), Geoff Barrow (drums, programming), and Adrian Utley (guitar, bass, organ, production). The band, named after...

Anybody who was into moody alternative and/or trip-hop back in the 1990 s has to sometimes wonder what became of Portishead. They came and went in a few short years, leaving only two studio albums in their gloomy wake. There have been stirrings from the Portis camp recently, and rumor has it that a new album just might see the light of day sometime in 2008. Let s hope so. Let s also hope that singer Beth Gibbons and musicians Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley decide to come up with something a little more innovative the next time around. You see, their sophomore album Portishead (1997) is a...

At first listen, "Portishead" is bound to be disappointing. Gone are the clever arrangements and soulful vocals of "Dummy" - here, instead, we've got menacing, repetitive measures of almost mathematical sound. The atmosphere of this, the band's second release, is infinitely darker and less varied than their breakthrough album. But there's a line in the song "Wandering Star", from "Dummy", about "the masks that the monsters wear" - and that line sums up this record. It's got all the same devices and tricks of "Dummy" - but it's tinted black. The emotion is masked behind the sinister Apollonian.

I've been a Portishead fan ever since the first time I heard the Dummy CD. I DJ'ed some of the hottest nightclubs in Philly and NJ for several years and I also bartended at a few of them. Don't get me wrong I love house music and listen to it very often but that constant throbbing of bass and the upbeat tempo can wear on one's nerve after 5 nights a week, 6 hours a night (provided I didn't go to an afterhours club to have a few drinks at 5am before I went home) My ex girlfriend really turned me on. (To Portishead) She bartended a club I was a resident DJ at and we had just gotten off of work.