Who doesn’t love epic music? I’m not talking about music with a fat drop, or a live set where a band however awesome and virtuous jams out to space and back- there are times and places for those things; the sort of epic that I’m speaking of now is the kind of epic that takes you away, away, away. It lifts you out of your seat- It takes you through your headphones, through your MP3 or CD recording, and puts you back at the scene of the sound, and then it takes you a step further, placing you in an alien landscape illustrated solely by sound- It’s so good that its dissociative.
Prepare to dissociate. Today’s throwback embodies the epitome of epic; Portishead’s music has been described as reminiscent of film noir, yet its undertones are characteristic of this previously unfathomable soundscape where epic meets nostalgic. The music of Portishead is all at once driving, haunting, and beautiful.
In 1991, Bristol, England’s Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons started the band that would herald the arrival of Trip Hop in the main stream (if one could ever consider trip hop main stream in any sense). By 1994, they had taken on a third band member Adrian Utley, who was heavily involved in the production and composition of their 1994 release, Dummy. Dummy, being the bands first official release, had been preceded by a few standalone singles, however, its the album itself that beckons the most meritorious acclaim. Dummy, garnered mass acclaim in both the UK and US, despite very little press or media coverage, serving as a testament to the strength and novelty of the music- in some ways, this was the birth, or even the explosion, of a new genre of music. It’s only fitting that the release has earned a place among Rolling Stone Magazine’s top 500 greatest albums of all time.
It was no surprise, then, when the band’s next release, the self-titled, ‘Portishead‘ carried the band’s legacy forward on wings of brass and tarnished gold. I feel like brass and tarnished gold are a good visualization of how the album might make one feel, it’s regal, but subdued, not overblown or bombastically hyped, yet still very, very epic, like a fancy New York City style theatre, long abandoned and left to dust; and yet, the music is so alive. By the time Roseland NYC Live came around, Portishead wasn’t just some unknown band anymore. Despite their aversion to media and the press, Portisheads reputation had, by 1998, grown far and wide. It was anyone’s guess how Roseland would turn out. Most guesses, I’m sure, were ‘awesome.’ And so it was. Roseland Live NYC was a live recording of the band at the eponymous venue in New York City, but with one essential addition to note. Accompanying the band at Roseland was the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on strings. The product was a video-recorded performance not only bridging the gap between the band’s first two releases, but amplifying their greatness. Not only that, but the introduction of an orchestral element into the fabric of Portishead’s already heavy, lo-fi sound was nothing less than brilliant. And that is why Portishead’s Roseland NYC Live deserves a slot in VibeRight’s illustrious throwbacks section.
Thankfully, Roseland wasn’t the last we’ve heard of Portishead. There have been singles and even a release since Roseland, and the band is rumored to have new material in the works. In an interview with Rolling Stone Barrow stated that he would begin working on his portion of the project sometime in January of 2012, stating somewhat facetiously, that this could mean we’ll be waiting “another fucking 10 years” before the release of new material from Portishead. I think that I speak for more than just VibeRight when I say, ‘keep it coming!’ We eagerly await whatever comes next.
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