Blogarhythms

After a decade-plus of waiting I have to admit I was starting to think that pioneering Bristol, UK-based Trip-Hop act Portishead was never going to drop another album. In fact, it was just a few months ago when my man Emeyesi asked me if I knew what was up with another Portishead album as we drove to the radio station to produce another episode of our show. My response was something along the lines of “maaaan, I don’t think there’ll ever be another Portishead album!” I told him to forget about it and just be happily surprised if and when the band ever released anything else.

I spoke way too soon though, because by the end of that very week I had an advance of Portishead’s hotly-anticipated, much-delayed third LP, appropriately (and simply) entitled Third, sitting on my desk, just waiting to haunt my headphones.

Haunt it would. But not before it was inspected by my number-three-obsessed living/work-space cohabitant m. Cody, who I came home and found sitting in my chair rocking Third at full-blast the very next night. A rabid fan of the band (as well another of Bristol’s Trip-Hop scene-makers, Tricky) herself since the mid-’90s I was curious as to what she thought of their return. She was resolute in her response, “it’s their best record so far.”

Surprised, I began listening to the record myself and pressed her for more information. The differences I noticed in the album — an even darker sound influenced by Prog, Psyche, Folk, old proto-Electronica & Krautrock more-so than old espionage & cowboy movie soundtracks, a lack of turntablism (something I’d always loved about the group, the absence of which I’d feared would detract horribly from their sound after hearing of DJ Andy Smith’s departure), and most notably an approach to vocals from Beth Gibbons that eschews the breathy/whiny Jazz chanteuse/smoky-room Soulstress schtick (which so many other female singers have vamped on ad nauseam) in favor of more subdued crooning and her patented “out-there” Halloween wails — were the things she loved about it so much. So I had to agree, after eleven years Portishead had distanced themselves not only from the hoards of artists who’ve flipped some aspect of their sound into fame and success of their own but from the legend they established for themselves on classics like Dummy and their self-titled 1997 sophomore album… And it sounds amazing.

If you haven’t heard the first single “Machine Gun” (which I just got on one-sided 12” vinyl with a dope etching on the other side) yet, you suck. It’s primitive drum-machine beat, rapid-fire snare rolls, industrial noises and Vangelis-esque synths were the first thing on the disc I gravitated to, and they make for one hell of an aggressive single. Album opener “Silence,” a tom-heavy break-fueled Psyche jam, is aggressive for other reasons entirely. It’s foreign-language intro reminds me of Chill Rob G’s 1990 hit “The Power.” And I think it might be the fastest song (a record that might be broken later on the album by the rattling robo-rocker “We Carry On”) Portishead’s ever made. Heavy drums and higher BPM’s (though not as high as “Silence”) return on “Magic Doors,” whose stuttery beat, droning electronics and big piano chords wouldn’t sound out of place on a Radiohead record. The same could be said about the jangly guitars and tribal drumming of “Nylon Smile” too. But the sizzling Willie Mitchell-reminiscent organ & bass groove of “Plastic,” which sounds like the sort of thing RZA used to ache to sample, is one of my favorite things on the disc.

Portishead “Plastic”

The album finally hits stores overseas today, and here in the states tomorrow. And I’m relieved that it’s of sufficient quality to warrant the tag “worth the wait.” But with the addition of such an incredible piece of work as Third to their already stellar (if small) catalog I can’t help but feel like it’d be a travesty if we had to wait another decade for the group’s fourth.

- El Keter