Day 208: Portishead – Dummy
I didn’t forget to listen to my album today but I did almost forget to write about it, so it’ll be a shorter one today. I decided to listen to an album that I haven’t heard in many years while I take my Friday night megashower that makes me feel a little bit like Patrick Bateman when he’s going through his psychotically elaborate routine. I went for Dummy by Portishead.
Album cover courtesy of Go! Discs
Portishead are a UK band formed in Bristol in 1991 by Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley after the first two met at a course for the unemployed in a scheme that was set up by Thatcher’s government. They were recording the song “It Could Be Sweet” when Utley, a jazz guitarist, heard them at the studio and was impressed with what the pair were doing: “I was all, ‘Fuck me, what is that?’ Just hearing the sub-bass and Beth’s voice – it was unbelievable. Like a whole new world that was really exciting and vital.”
Their debut album Dummy was released in 1994 and it’s become a modern classic and the seminal trip hop album. It was produced by Utley and it wasn’t recorded digitally, with the band using some curious methods to create their sound, like using broken equipment and “recording our own sessions and then cutting ’em to vinyl, and then putting ’em on the studio floor and walking across them and using ’em like skateboards.”
The resulting album is a classic for a reason. I’ve loved it since I was a teenager but somehow it dropped out of my life a little bit, I haven’t listened to it in ages. I think it’s probably one of the most atmospheric albums of all time, with the juxtaposition of the hip-hop inspired dark and slightly off-kilter sound with the angelic vocals of Beth Gibbons that creates something that still sounds completely fresh today.
Rolling Stone called what Portishead are doing goth hip hop, which is so good that I wish I’d come up with it myself. It’s this perfect mixture of light and dark. It’s a classic for a very good reason and I don’t know why I don’t listen to them more. 9.5/10.