Portishead 3rd
- Thread starter ML2008
- Start date
mistersloane
heavy heavy monster sound
This is SUCH a depressing record. I always thought Portishead were much more of a theory band than the other Bristols, and this album really does encapsulate a certain...attitude?...within the UK at the moment, it's like a really depressing precis of music in the UK. I like it alot, and have liked where they've gone increasingly. Machine Gun is track of the year for me so far, by quite a long way.
Have been listening to it also for awhile and ...
Dig it, glad they did it and enjoy listening to the way they put the tunes together.
Can understand the ref's to J Carpenter - those bit cheesy one finger synth parts.
Guitarist upped his input nicely,
some cuts get a kind of 'instant Portishead' affect be it the guitar sound or notes,
a certain Theremin -esque note you've heard from them before
or simply Beth's vocals.
She has some very nice moments here ...
I don't get it as such a 'depressing record' , but definitely understand how one can feel that way (Mr. S).
Interesting to hear you comment that it captures a current UK attitude feel ,
it does do alot more emotionally then almost everything else out there I can think of at the moment..
Get a kind of fleeting life spark among the debris that flicks you see it feel it then gone ,
a bit Company Of Men atmosphere -wise ? ( another 'UK feeling' )
My wife returned from London after 10 days and I had just finished McCarthy's The Road last night before she got in , have been playing P3 for her today .
She popped out to Exeter / Devon and has been telling me about it so this fits as the release of the day in the house.
Dig it, glad they did it and enjoy listening to the way they put the tunes together.
Can understand the ref's to J Carpenter - those bit cheesy one finger synth parts.
Guitarist upped his input nicely,
some cuts get a kind of 'instant Portishead' affect be it the guitar sound or notes,
a certain Theremin -esque note you've heard from them before
or simply Beth's vocals.
She has some very nice moments here ...
I don't get it as such a 'depressing record' , but definitely understand how one can feel that way (Mr. S).
Interesting to hear you comment that it captures a current UK attitude feel ,
it does do alot more emotionally then almost everything else out there I can think of at the moment..
Get a kind of fleeting life spark among the debris that flicks you see it feel it then gone ,
a bit Company Of Men atmosphere -wise ? ( another 'UK feeling' )
My wife returned from London after 10 days and I had just finished McCarthy's The Road last night before she got in , have been playing P3 for her today .
She popped out to Exeter / Devon and has been telling me about it so this fits as the release of the day in the house.
mistersloane
heavy heavy monster sound
I think depressing as in bleak - as in The Cure, Pornography, bleak - rather than depressing without merit; it has all of the tropes of the Uk around it - some prog, some folk, some 20s kinda Andrews Sisters type thing, deep sub bass, one line grime-type synth lines (albeit via Carpenter) and as such it just seems to encapsulate the UK and music, very contemporary. I always thought she was singing about herself with reference to the State, rather than in the personal way she is often interpreted - I took Dummy and Portishead to be about the end of Thatcher and the de-optimism felt about the Blair times, in that Specials way, and this one just seems, well, unrelentingly bleak in a way that's, well, true really, the UK really is unrelentingly depressing if you look at it, especially from within. I respect them, but don't listen to them often if at all, but I've definitely studied each album they've done, in detail.
Gotcha ...
Do agree on the 'bleak' .
esp. coming off finishing The Road last night - the contemporary US take on 'bleak'.
These are hard times for many, here we have the butt end of Bush right in our faces
as he departs the stage.
We will get by , but it's a ton of *hit left at the door, has slid in under the door , living with it.
Interesting too as I guess I tended to hear Beth's vocal angst and brittleness and less clearly noted, her lyrics as being a troubled personal state.
Also that it's her pov and dare say 'role' within the Portishead context once that became what it is.
Didn't hear much of the release she did outside Portishead, but dunno if it was as angst -y ?
Do think that they have made quite a position for themselves , having pulled this one off
and in a world of dross , respect that.
Sounds like we'll keep playing it for the next while then !
Do agree on the 'bleak' .
esp. coming off finishing The Road last night - the contemporary US take on 'bleak'.
These are hard times for many, here we have the butt end of Bush right in our faces
as he departs the stage.
We will get by , but it's a ton of *hit left at the door, has slid in under the door , living with it.
Interesting too as I guess I tended to hear Beth's vocal angst and brittleness and less clearly noted, her lyrics as being a troubled personal state.
Also that it's her pov and dare say 'role' within the Portishead context once that became what it is.
Didn't hear much of the release she did outside Portishead, but dunno if it was as angst -y ?
Do think that they have made quite a position for themselves , having pulled this one off
and in a world of dross , respect that.
Sounds like we'll keep playing it for the next while then !
Poisonous Dart
Lone Swordsman
Have you heard?
Wildabeast and 6th Sense made a track where they're rhyming over the "Machine Gun" instrumental. It's kinda ill.
One.
Wildabeast and 6th Sense made a track where they're rhyming over the "Machine Gun" instrumental. It's kinda ill.
One.
I never thought I'd get bored of Beth Gibbons's voice, but...
A friend of mine once said he could never stand listening to Portishead because he'd "been out with a few girls like that". Refused to be drawn on exactly what he meant, but I inferred that nerve-baring emotional masochism rapidly loses its allure.
I always thought she was a great singer, but ten years later the emotional range seems artificially limited. I wouldn't make that complaint about someone like Nick Drake*, though, who's arguably much <em>more</em> limited, so perhaps it's just a question of being no longer anywhere near that space myself.
It's about time they ditched that fucking theremin, isn't it? Mind you, the logical progression would be to an Ondes Martenot - and Johnny Greenwood's already bagsied that.
One other thing that's happened in the interval since the last album is the transformation of Roisin Murphy from a poor man's Beth Gibbons (Moloko) into something quite wonderful. Nowadays, I'd much rather listen to / watch / go-out-with-girls-like her.
* Or Ian Curtis. Or Malefic.
A friend of mine once said he could never stand listening to Portishead because he'd "been out with a few girls like that". Refused to be drawn on exactly what he meant, but I inferred that nerve-baring emotional masochism rapidly loses its allure.
I always thought she was a great singer, but ten years later the emotional range seems artificially limited. I wouldn't make that complaint about someone like Nick Drake*, though, who's arguably much <em>more</em> limited, so perhaps it's just a question of being no longer anywhere near that space myself.
It's about time they ditched that fucking theremin, isn't it? Mind you, the logical progression would be to an Ondes Martenot - and Johnny Greenwood's already bagsied that.
One other thing that's happened in the interval since the last album is the transformation of Roisin Murphy from a poor man's Beth Gibbons (Moloko) into something quite wonderful. Nowadays, I'd much rather listen to / watch / go-out-with-girls-like her.
* Or Ian Curtis. Or Malefic.
I think Portishead always were to some extent about the sexual imago projected by Gibbons's voice, hunched stance, slightly scary lyrics etc., so I'm not going to apologise too much for evaluating the new material in terms of my own changed libidinal relationship to that imago. Nevertheless, I guess it is a bit male-solipsist and reductive. So, how about those ring-modulated drum hits in <em>Machine Gun</em>, eh? Eh...?
errr... do you mean her solo effort? which i felt was an uninspired, noodly, zero focus mess. best things she did were with moloko surely? do you like my sweater is still a pretty challenging pop album. and "sing it back" i will NEVER tire of, which ever version.
and all those countless other "poor man's Beth Gibbons" out there... morcheeba anyone?
bassnation
the abyss
jesus, really? i felt tired of it pretty much the first time i heard it played. but that kind of uplifting light house sound is overplayed in the uk, and has been for years, imo. give me something dark and unsettling like portishead any day of the week.
i agree about "house-lite" or whatever. but to me there is something special about "sing it back", something magic about that melody. don't know if this is way too far fetched but it actually reminds me of timeless old songs like Que Sera Sera.
really?????????? god i couldn't stand it. not that it was horrible but there was just nothing for me to like. i don't even know if i want to give it another try.
Murphy released another album last year which was way more upbeat, cheery, not-Herbert-produced stuff, called 'Overpowered'. Since she worked with a bunch of producers the album isn't as inspired, pared back, or tightly focused as Ruby Blue, but I guess the variety and straightahead dancy vibes may be more appealing? Some of it reminds me a lot of Kylie circa 'Fever'. Think she had Cathy Dennis writing some stuff, from memory... can't remember producer credits, except pretty sure Bugz in the Attic did one and maybe Groove Armada? Hm. Doubt this is selling it to anyone, although you were the one who started the thread in praise of that (awesome) Groove Armada song, weren't you Zhao?
Edit: dunno who remembers, but at the time Moloko were kicking off Geoff Barrow went to one of their gigs with a t-shirt that said 'Accept No Imitations', but then apologised saying they were clearly not Portishead rip-offs at all and that he'd been misled by his mates... Think that's the gist? Guess that was all a decade ago now, so I'm feeling a bit hazy on it.
Edit: dunno who remembers, but at the time Moloko were kicking off Geoff Barrow went to one of their gigs with a t-shirt that said 'Accept No Imitations', but then apologised saying they were clearly not Portishead rip-offs at all and that he'd been misled by his mates... Think that's the gist? Guess that was all a decade ago now, so I'm feeling a bit hazy on it.
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which one is that? (if i did, every dog has its day don't they)
no i never started no thread about that song. awesome or not.
Yeah you did, here ya go... http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=5666