Portishead

Portishead may refer to:

Portishead (album)

Portishead is the second album by English band Portishead, released in 1997. The album reached No. 2 on the UK Album Chart and No. 21 on the Billboard 200 chart.

On 3 December 2008, Universal Music Japan re-released Dummy and Portishead as a limited SHM-CD version.

Reception

Portishead received critical acclaim upon its release. Spin praised the record and noted that the band created a "gothic", "deadly" and "trippy" atmosphere. Commenting the textures of the music, music journalist Barry Walters observed that the group got "darker, deeper and more disturbing" in comparison to their previous effort Dummy.

Accolades

(*) designates unordered lists.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons and Adrian Utley, except where noted. 

Details

Portishead (band)

Portishead are an English band formed in 1991 in Bristol. They are named after the nearby town of the same name, eight miles west of Bristol. Portishead consists of Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons, and Adrian Utley, while sometimes citing a fourth member, Dave McDonald, an engineer on their first records.

Their debut album, Dummy, was met with critical acclaim in 1994. Two other studio albums were issued: Portishead in 1997 and Third in 2008.

History

Dummy (1994)

Portishead's first album Dummy was released in 1994. The cover features a still from the band's own short film To Kill a Dead Man. The credits indicate that at this juncture, Portishead was a duo of Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons. Adrian Utley, who co-produced the album with them (and who played on 9 of the tracks and co-wrote 8), became an official band member shortly after its release.

Despite the band's aversion to press coverage, the album was successful in both Europe and the United States (where it sold more than 150,000 copies even before the band toured there).Dummy was positively described by the Melody Maker as "musique noire for a movie not yet made".Rolling Stone praised its music as "Gothic hip-hop".Dummy spawned three singles: "Numb", "Sour Times", "Glory Box", and won the Mercury Music Prize in 1995. The success of the album saw the band nominated for Best British Newcomer at the 1995 Brit Awards. In 2003, the album was ranked number 419 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The album is often considered one of the greatest trip hop albums to date and is a milestone in the definition of the genre.

Karmacoma

"Karmacoma" is a single by British trip hop collective Massive Attack, released as a single from their second album Protection on 20 March 1995. It is a rap featuring vocals from band members 3D and Tricky. Tricky also recorded his own version of "Karmacoma," renamed "Overcome" for his debut studio album, Maxinquaye.

Massive Attack themselves recorded a second version of the song (without Tricky) renamed "Fake The Aroma" on "The Help Album", a compilation album for the charity War Child.

Samples

The melodic refrain (e.g. 0:54) is taken from the opera Prince Igor by Russian composer Alexander Borodin, and also includes a sample of Tuvan throat singing used by The KLF in "Dream Time in Lake Jackson". The bass line sample featured is the same bass line used by Serge Gainsbourg in the song "Melody" from his 1971 album Histoire de Melody Nelson. The "Napoli Trip Mix", by Italian band Almamegretta, of the song contains samples from Roberto Paci Dalò's record "Napoli", released in 1993. The Startled Insects wrote the music for this track (Tim Norfolk and Bob Locke)