Portishead - Third

Once upon a time in the mid 90’s there was a girl I sorta kinda liked who worked at the Mexican equivalent of a Hot Topic, you know, a store that sells trendy subculture clothes and novelty items. I used to give her CD’s to sell that I would get wholesale through a contact of mine and she would consign them for me. And of course anything she recommended seemed cool, I mean I tried my first cigarette because of her. And then one day she blew my mind by loaning me Nearly God by Tricky, Into the Labyrinth by Dead Can Dance, and Dummy by Portishead. Even though I found romance elsewhere (in the form of a Turkish exchange student) those albums rewired the way my brain thought about music. And trip hop seemed to be everywhere for a while, even on the Latin MTV (a show called Ozono) which would play before Head Bangers Ball.

That’s why it nagged me forever that there was no follow up to Portishead’s self-titled second album. I missed all that slow motion melancholy and the pain of Beth Gibbons voice. 10 years later I started to notice some movement again but didn’t give it much thought. I mean I liked their song on the Monsieur Gainbourg Revisited tribute album and I heard they where doing live shows but it did not occur to me that they where releasing another album until a week or so ago when I saw it announced in a magazine. And of course I got that new album paranoia, expecting it to sound like house or breezy electronica instead of the deeper more introspective tracks I am accustomed to. Thankfully I was wrong in thinking the album would not sound dark.

The first song opens with some mystical incantations in Portuguese and then instruments are added layer by layer. A galloping Iron Maiden style baseline, surf rock guitar, droning noise… its reminds me in some weird way of the film Six String Samurai until Beth comes in with her beautiful vocal style. Then the time apart melts away and it sinks in that I am in fact listening to a new Portishead album. The rest of the songs come mostly in three flavors, grandiosely cinematic, electronic minimalist, or jazzy folk. The electronic tracks like We Carry On and Machine Gun sound incredibly retro in a good way, like something from Kraftwerk. The folksier tunes remind me of Beth’s solo album Out of Season, Deep Water might as well be a B-Side for Tom the Model. Overall the mood and sound is perfect from beginning to end, not as mind blowing as Dummy or Portishead but certainly not in a different category either. If anything, I just regret the disappearance of scratch breaks, it’s sad to think that turntables are not a prominent part of their dreamlike compositions. Still, if you’re looking for the old deep and murky underwater sound of Portishead it’s back and well worth your time.