Portishead - (Interlude) (2009)

Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons met during a coffee break at an Enterprise Allowance course in February 1991, and before long they were recording their first song together. They then met Adrian Utley while they were recording at the Coach House Studios in Bristol, and when Utley heard 'It Could Be Sweet' they began to exchange ideas on music. They decided to work together and they called themselves Portishead, named after the nearby town of the same name, eight miles west of Bristol. Their debut album 'Dummy' was released in 1994, with the cover featuring a still from the band's own short film 'To Kill a Dead Man', and at this point Portishead was a duo of Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons, with Adrian Utley, who co-produced the album with them, as well as playing on nine of the tracks and co-writing eight, only becoming 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), and it received almost universal praise from critics. It spawned three singles: 'Numb', 'Sour Times' and 'Glory Box', and each of them was issued in a variety of formats, and with numerous remixes appearing on all of them. The success of the album saw the band nominated for Best British Newcomer at the 1995 Brit Awards, and the album is often considered one of the greatest trip hop albums to date, and is a milestone in the definition of the genre. After their initial success, Portishead withdrew from the spotlight for three years until their second album 'Portishead' was released in 1997, featuring a harsher, grainy sound, and once again three singles were extracted from it. Despite most of their singles just having remixes of the song as extra tracks, some of them did contain exclusive recordings, in particular the 'Theme From 'To Kill A Dead Man'' on one of the 'Numb' discs, and a bonus track on the Australian, American and Euro CD's of 'Dummy', which we in the UK never got to hear. In 1999 they collaborated with Tom Jones on his 'Reload' album, backing him on his rendition of 'Motherless Child', and in 2006 they contributed to a tribute album to Serge Gainsbourg, as well as posting a couple of 'doodles' on their My Space page the same year. It wasn't until 2008 that 'Third' finally appeared, and since then the only thing we've heard from them is a song released for Humans Rights Day to raise money for Amnesty International. Even though they released just three albums in 14 years, they were so ground-breaking that they forged a new genre of music almost single-handedly.

Track listing

01 It's A Fire (bonus track on Australian, American & Euro CD of 'Dummy' 1994)
02 Theme From 'To Kill A Dead Man' (b-side of 'Numb' 1994)
03 A Tribute To Monk & Canatella (b-side of 'Numb' 1994)
04 Mourning Air (War Child) (from the 'Help' charity compilation album 1995)
05 Untitled (from the 'Help' charity compilation EP 1995)
06 Revenge Of The Number (from 'The Rebirth Of Cool Phive' compilation 1995)
07 Cowboys (Instrumental) (b-side of 'Cowboys' 1997)
08 Motherless Child (from 'Reload' by Tom Jones 1999)
09 Interlude (from 'Trip-Hop Reconstruction' compilation 1995)
10 Requiem For Anna (from 'Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited' 2006)
11 Key Bored 299 03 (released on MySpace 2006)
12 Greek Jam (released on MySpace 2006)
13 Chase The Tear (released 2009 to raise money for Amnesty International)