January 30, 1995

Get this around your
Portishead

Brits Cross The Pond

By JOHN SAKAMOTO
Toronto Sun

Here are some of the words commonly invoked by
the notoriously subtle, understated British music
press to describe the U.K.'s latest sensation,
Portishead.

"Sinister hip-hop," "musical film noir," "avant-garde
moonscapes," and (our personal fave) "minimal
crucial musical elements interplaying in the void ..."

Now here are some of the words used by
Portishead's genuinely subtle, understated founder,
23-year-old Geoff Barrow, to describe the band's
debut album, Dummy.

"Songs with, um, an alternative backing
arrangement." "Songs that aren't, um, deep songs,
but they're quite serious." And, after a bit more
verbal flailing, the most incisive description we've
heard so far: "Music that's alternative without being
guitar-based."

Formed in 1991 after Barrow met singer/lyricist
Beth Gibbons on a job-creation program,
Portishead took its name from Barrow's
hometown, located 20 km outside Bristol. While
working as a tape operator at a local studio, he met
another Bristol-based band, Massive Attack, who
introduced him to Neneh Cherry. That led to
Barrow's most high-profile outside credit,
co-writing three tracks on Cherry's Homebrew
album.

After one EP and a single, Dummy came out in
August - it's just been released on this side of the
pond - and promptly drew the kind of drooling
raves that publicists only dream about. Every major
British music mag picked it as one of the year's 10
best albums.

"Yeah, it's kind of a joke," the modest Barrow is
saying last week from his home in Bristol. "The
press here has gone really over the top. I don't
understand half of what they're saying. I mean, I
don't know what film noir is."

Barrow is only slightly better acquainted with the
other common reference that crops up in
Portishead reviews.

"That's David Lynch, right?" he asks. "Yeah, I've
only ever seen the show once, but I guess they're
talking about the guitar sound, with all that
tremolo."

Actually, Barrow and Gibbons make an extremely
odd pair. As a DJ, tape-op and remixer, he's
immersed himself in music since he was 13. She
toiled in the production department of an ad
agency. He likes to talk, she doesn't. She likes to
pose for photos, he doesn't. He listens to Isaac
Hayes and suspense-film soundtracks. She prefers
Janis Joplin, the Cocteau Twins, and Edith Piaf.

Regardless, Barrow and Gibbons head back into
the studio this week to start work on their next
album, described by Barrow as a "logical
continuation" of Dummy and due out late this year.
In between, they'll embark on a six-week North
American tour, including a late-April date in
Toronto.