Portishead released a third album and I had no idea until two hours ago.
Please, the next memo, can I be included?
In case you've never heard of Portishead, they're a British band who, in 1994, released the album, Dummy, which is probably most well known for the track 'Numb'. Djae introduced me to the band, and I just got drawn in by the sound of the band, which was dark, and smooth, and like you were lying beneath sky at night, watching it all move. I describe the album like this because it's been twelve years, and it's only upon occasion that my Ipod skips to one of the tracks, but this is the feel I get, the time that my instincts tell me it would be best to listen to the album and fully appreciate it. The vocals on the tracks were provided by Beth Gibbons, who in 2002, did an album with Rustin Man, and which I never heard, but I remember being told about, some time after the fact (by Jon (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
underdogautopsy), if I remember right); but part of thing that struck me about the band was Gibbons' voice, the reedy, fragile quality of it, as if it were straining to rise above the sounds produced by Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley, and as if it had to pierce through you to do that. It was beautiful, of course, but that was never the fullness of it--if it had just been beautiful, I would, I think, have forgotten about it. But I could remember that voice, that music, and if the second album, the self titled Portishead was not as strong as the first, it wasn't a bad album, and had its highlights, way back in 1997.
And then...
Then, a live album, Roseland NYC Live, which was nothing special, a rehash of everything they'd done, and I thought that they had called it quits. New music came, new music went. I bought an Ipod and put all three albums on there, and later took of Roseland for the space. Mostly, I didn't think about the band.
But today, a third album. Third.
It sounds--
Well, so far, it sounds pretty fucking cool, and excuse me while I lose a portion of the day to it.
Please, the next memo, can I be included?
In case you've never heard of Portishead, they're a British band who, in 1994, released the album, Dummy, which is probably most well known for the track 'Numb'. Djae introduced me to the band, and I just got drawn in by the sound of the band, which was dark, and smooth, and like you were lying beneath sky at night, watching it all move. I describe the album like this because it's been twelve years, and it's only upon occasion that my Ipod skips to one of the tracks, but this is the feel I get, the time that my instincts tell me it would be best to listen to the album and fully appreciate it. The vocals on the tracks were provided by Beth Gibbons, who in 2002, did an album with Rustin Man, and which I never heard, but I remember being told about, some time after the fact (by Jon (
underdogautopsy), if I remember right); but part of thing that struck me about the band was Gibbons' voice, the reedy, fragile quality of it, as if it were straining to rise above the sounds produced by Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley, and as if it had to pierce through you to do that. It was beautiful, of course, but that was never the fullness of it--if it had just been beautiful, I would, I think, have forgotten about it. But I could remember that voice, that music, and if the second album, the self titled Portishead was not as strong as the first, it wasn't a bad album, and had its highlights, way back in 1997.And then...
Then, a live album, Roseland NYC Live, which was nothing special, a rehash of everything they'd done, and I thought that they had called it quits. New music came, new music went. I bought an Ipod and put all three albums on there, and later took of Roseland for the space. Mostly, I didn't think about the band.
But today, a third album. Third.
It sounds--
Well, so far, it sounds pretty fucking cool, and excuse me while I lose a portion of the day to it.
- Notes:Portishead - Machine Gun
Profile
- benpeek
- Ben Peek
- benpeek.com
Page Summary
- imago1 : (no subject) [+3]
- caligatia : (no subject) [+1]
- frogworth : (no subject) [+1]
- darinbradley : (no subject) [+1]
- nick_kaufmann : (no subject) [+2]
- barthanderson : (no subject) [+2]
- cucumberseed : (no subject) [+1]
- elenuial : I always thought "Glorybox" was their most well-known song... [+1]
- jody_macgregor : (no subject) [+7]
Comments
If it's something I've listened to for years, I can tune out the lyrics and just soak up the melody high one gets from good music.
You're not the only one for whom it somehow slipped under the radar! Wonder why.
if other people are like me, i suspect it slipped under the radar because they'd assumed the band had finished. probably the kind of thing that happens when it's ten years between albums.
And buy the disk.
shame the album cover is real plain, tho.
Thanks for the tip!
you might be right bout the song, too.
I'm listening to Third and liking it, though the drumbeat in Machine Gun goes beyond insistent and into nagging. Only the last song really reminds me of their earlier stuff, though Beth's voice (thankfully) hasn't changed much.
yeah, i don't think i am as much a fan of machine gun as peter up there, but i'm cool with it, i think.
how you been, man?
I've been good. Too damned busy, though. Perversely (and perhaps futilely) I'm hoping that the PhD lark will actually result in things slowing down for a bit. One book in three years: luxury!
How about you? The blog is still wild and unpredictable, which I love. Is that a fair assessment of the rest of your life?
phd, hey? if it's anything like my time, the first year you'll do shit all, then write it in a year and a half wondering why you bludged them first years :) do i ask what you're doing it on?
I'm madly scrambling to get some books out of the way before really getting stuck into it, so yeah, not much actual work so far. But I'm pretty sure my exegetical work will be exploring the mutability of identity in the crime/SF crossover and realist crime in general, drawing comparisons and contrasts between Asimov in particular and my own work, leading up to the writing of my first straight crime novel. Sounds pretty dry, no?
*blink blink*
sorry, man, i dozed off there for a moment. wanna repeat it for me?
:)
anyhow, nah, man, sounds cool, especially the writing of the crime novel thing. good to see you're using the phd to do something different, too. way to be with it, i reckon.