Portishead

YOU'VE heard of film noir, well, now there's a band that plays music noir--that's about the most apt description for the cinematic sound of Portishead. The band prefers not to be lumped into any particular genre, but trip-hop is the banner under which it was initially categorized by the British press, and the label has stuck--much to Portishead's distaste. Displeasure over the classification aside, Portishead's atmospheric, avant-garde pop sensibility does put it within the same lineage of musical evolution as the trip-hop outfits Massive Attack and Tricky.

The term trip-hop surfaced in 1994 as a tag for the unique sound coming out of Bristol, England, the homebase of Portishead. Portishead is the name of the West Coast shipping suburb of Bristol where the band's mastermind, Geoff Barrow, was raised. The town was not a great place to live, according to Barrow, who related to Rolling Stone that, "It looks really pretty and twee, but it's actually quite horrible." Barrow escaped Portishead when he was seventeen by getting a job at a recording studio in Bristol called the Coach House; he worked as a tape operator, but was also the designated "tea boy," the lucky chap who got to serve up tea for the bands that recorded at the studio. While not off scrounging up refreshments for other musicians, he taught himself how to piece together experimental samples, and dreamed of the day that he would form a band that would make music very different from all the "normal" fare he heard day in and day out.

After Barrow had absorbed all he could at the Coach House, he began auditioning vocalists in an effort to realize his dream. He didn't have much luck at first; he had already given about fifty singers a hearing when he ran into Beth Gibbons at the local unemployment office in 1991. Gibbons had been singing in a number of different bands over the years, and most recently had been playing the Bristol pub circuit as the vocalist for a cover band. The two of them found that they shared similar musical ideals, and the former tea boy and the woman who'd been spending her evenings belting out Fleetwood Mac and Janis Joplin tunes now had the beginnings of their own band. The pair commenced writing some music, aided by jazz guitarist Adrian Utley, formerly of the Jazz Messengers and Big John Patton. Word began to spread about their unique sound, and Portishead ultimately succeeded in landing a deal with the UK label Go! Discs, in 1993. Barrow continued to do studio work for other bands, including producing re-mixes for Paul Weller, Depeche Mode, Primal Scream, and Ride.

Joined by engineer-percussionist Dave McDonald, Portishead released its debut album, Dummy, in 1994. The first single from the disc was the moody "Sour Times (Nobody Loves Me)," which got play on radio stations and video channels on both sides of the Atlantic. Barrow and company created the noirish video for the single using scenes from a ten-minute movie called To Kill a Dead Man, which they had completed prior to signing with Go! The black-and-white surrealist film, which features Barrow and Gibbons as sixties-style spies and its video spawn both earned Portishead favorable comparisons to film-score mega-stars like John Barry and Ennio Morricone.

Dummy scored Britain's prestigious Mercury Music Prize in September of 1995, beating out over 140 other British and Irish contenders; other albums in the running included work from PJ Harvey, Blur, Elastica, Tricky, and Oasis. In addition to that coup, Dummy was named 1994's album of the year by Melody Maker, Mixmag, and The Face. At that stage, the band members had spent a fair amount of time granting interviews around the world--enough to determine that promoting the album was their least-favorite part of the whole business. So, Barrow and Gibbons worked out a little deal to make things easier on themselves: he consented to do most of the interviews, because he loves to talk and hates to be photographed; she would do most of the photo shoots, because she feels that the songs already say everything for her. The media-wary band members also spent only a short time on tour, because they wanted to head back into the studio--the Coach House, incidentally--to commence work on their second album as soon as possible. Barrow has remarked that they hope to release "ten albums in ten years--at least." But the band is already a bit off pace of the ambitious goal: its second album, Portishead, came out in September 1997, nearly three years after Dummy.

Portishead 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 also 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. 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 a Sickle Cell charity album. Barrow also 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. Over the next few years, the pair began writing music, often with jazz guitarist Adrian Utley, who had previously played with both Big John Patton and the Jazz Messengers.

Before releasing a recording, Portishead completed the short film To Kill a Dead Man, an homage to '60s spy movies. Barrow and Gibbons acted in the noirish film and provided the soundtrack, which earned the attention of Go! Records. By the fall, Portishead had signed with Go! and their debut album, Dummy, was released shortly afterward. Dummy was recorded with engineer Dave MacDonald, who played drums and drum machines, and guitarist Utley, who rounded out Portishead's lineup.

Both Barrow and Gibbons were media-shy -- the vocalist refused to participate in any interviews -- which meant that the album received little attention outside of the weekly U.K. music press, which praised the album and its two singles, "Numb" and "Sour Times," heavily. Soon, Go! and Portishead had developed a clever marketing strategy based on the group's atmospheric videos that began to attract attention. Melody Maker, Mixmag, and The Face named Dummy as 1994's album of the year, and early in 1995, "Glory Box" debuted at number 13 without any radio play. Around the same time, "Sour Times" entered regular rotation on MTV in America. Within a few weeks, Dummy and "Sour Times" were alternative rock hits in the U.S. Back in the U.K., the album had crossed over into the mainstream, becoming a fixture in the British Top 40. In July, the record won the Mercury Music Prize for Album of the Year, beating highly touted competition from Blur, Suede, Oasis, and Pulp.

Following the Mercury Music Prize award, Barrow retreated to Coach House to begin work on Portishead's second album. The self-titled record finally appeared in September 1997. The live PNYC followed late the next year. The self-titled record finally appeared in September 1997. Portishead went on hiatus starting in 1999, and Barrow, Utley and Gibbons worked on their own projects. In 2001, Barrow formed Invada Records, an experimental label that included Koolism on its roster. Barrow and Utley also recorded a cover of the instrumental rock classic "Apache" as the Jimi Entley Sound that was released as a limited edition 7" single in 2002. The pair also worked as producers, with Barrow working under the moniker Fuzzface on Stephanie McKay's McKay album in 2003, and Barrow and Utley co-produced the Coral's 2005 album The Invisible Invasion. Gibbons collaborated with Rustin' Man, a.k.a. former Talk Talk member Paul Webb on the 2003 album Out of Season (Gibbons had also appeared on a few tracks by Webb's previous project, ORang).

Portishead reconvened in 2005, performing their first live dates in seven years, including an appearance at the Tsunami Benefit Concert in Bristol, and recording material for their next album. Their version of "Un Jour Comme un Autre (Requiem for Anna)" appeared on 2006's Serge Gainsbourg tribute Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisted, and in 2007 the band curated the Nightmare Before Christmas All Tomorrow's Parties festival. In 2008, a decade after their last album, Portishead returned with Third, the trio's most challenging, unpredictable work yet. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide