Source: The Georgia Strait, Volume 31, December 11-18, 1997
Written by John Lucas

INWARD-LOOKING PORTISHEAD DIGS DEEPER FOR ORIGINAL IDEAS

Whatever else Portishead may be, it is not a trip-hop band. Despite the Bristol, England-based group's penchant for scratching,
funky breakbeats, and samples, Geoff Barrow is quick to distance its music from that label. On the phone from a tour stop in
Atlanta, Georgia, Barrow explains that, in England, trip-hop is "seen as a really dirty word". Trip-hop, he says, is a form of
instrumental dance music that was developed by DJs in New York, and has nothing to do with the slow, soulful mood music
proffered by Portishead. In 1994, at roughly the same time that this nascent genre was taking root in English clubs, a new sound
was emerging from Bristol. Portishead released its first album, Dummy, and like-minded artists such as Tricky and Massive
Attack were rapidly attracting the attention of the fickle British music press.Somewhere along the way, the signals got crossed,
and the Bristol sound was incorrectly slapped with the dreaded label.

"We don't come from dance culture," says Barrow, who plays keyboards and drums in the band. "We've never particularly
been into dance culture. But it's so massively huge in Europe, and a lot of the people who were making this so-called trip-hop
came from dance culture. They worked in clubs and came out of house music, and slowed stuff down and did all that kind of
stuff. For us, we were never about that. It was never about club music. So we always felt completely separated from that."

Whatever the label, Dummy was a remarkable debut. Beth Gibbons' mournful vocals and Adrian Utley's minimal, spy-movie
guitar lines were a magic combination. Topped off with tastefully mixed snippets of old jazz records and Mission: Impossible
soundtrack albums, songs such as "Sour Times", "Numb", and "Glory Box" seemed to come from the past and the future at the
same time. The album sold some two million copies worldwide, and has had a far-reaching influence.

When Barrow began hearing that influence every time he turned on the radio or television, he realized the next Portishead album
would have to be different. He says th band's members became "very distrusting of our own sounds" when it came time to
record their eponymous sophomore disc.

"What caused a lot of the problems on the second record is that we were hearing the sounds we had used on so many other
things. On TV adverts... It seems to be the general mood, you know?" In order to work from a fresh sonic palette, they agreed
to a complete moratorium on sampling; Well, almost complete. "There's two really tiny samples on the album" Barrow admits.
"And they're more like the icing on the cake, rather than the body of the work on the track, whereas 'Sour Times' was based
on a Lalo Schifrin sample, and 'Glory Box' was based on an Isaac Hayes sample."

Barrow acknowledges that the music on Dummy was heavily influenced by what the group's members were listening to at the
time - everything from film-noir scores to American hip-hop - but he says that more recently, Portishead has been into, well,
Portishead. "In the end, instead of looking outside for inspiration, we just went deeper inside of what we actually do. And that's
why it's called Portishead," he says.

For Gibbons, going deeper meant wading into some uncharted emotional waters. The lovelorn victim of Dummy has been
joined by a stronger, more vengeful character. When she snarls lines like "The truth is sold/ The deal is done" ("Cowboys") or
"Why should I forgive you/After all that I've seen/Quietly whisper/When my heart wants to scream?" ("Seven Months"), the
delivery is worthy of Eartha Kitt or Shirley Bassey (the former being best-known for her TV role as Catwoman, the latter for
her rendition of "Goldfinger").

"There was a little bit more frustration and anger on this record than the last one, in her vocal style," Barrow says. "I think it's
just her finding other places. We were all massively conscious of trying not to go into the same areas again, and do something
new and refreshing, rather than Dummy Part 2."

With so much emphasis placed on fresh musical ideas, perhaps lazy critics will quit lumping the band into the currently trendy
category of "electronica". Watching electronic artists press buttons and twist knobs can quickly become tiresome, but when
Portishead plays live, which it will do Saturday (December 13) at the Rage, it does so as a true band. In concert, the core
lineup of Barrow, Gibbons, Utley, and engineer Dave McDonald is joined by keyboardist John Baggot, bassist Jim Barr, and
drummer Clive Dreamer. "There's nothing coming from a sequencer," Barrow announces proudly. "I think it's fine for people to
use sequencers and everything else, but for us, the people who play with us are incredibly talented, so there's no reason why
we should. And we feel like we can change stuff, we can bring stuff up, we can actually give our own emotions into the playing
of it."

Ultimately, all these labels, categories, and subcategories are mean-ingless, especially if the music lacks quality and the artist
lacks talent or conviction. Happily, Portishead lacks neither. "For us, it's about making music, and trying to be as original as you
can," says Barrow. "That's all that matters to us."