Daily Discussion Thread 11/26/2020 - HipHop | HipHop Channel

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Daily Discussion Thread 11/26/2020 - HipHop

Daily Discussion Thread 11/26/2020 - HipHop

Daily Discussion Thread 11/26/2020

Posted: 26 Nov 2020 06:38 AM PST

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Throwback Write-Up #27: Portishead - Dummy

Posted: 26 Nov 2020 04:07 AM PST

Artist: Portishead

Album: Dummy

Release Date: 22 August 1994

Listen: Apple Music

Spotify

Youtube

I must first thank u/chaotic_gold for giving me the motivation to do a write-up on Dummy by posting his terrific write-up of Tricky's Maxinquaye, which (due to its being a trip-hop album from Bristol) is a sister-album to Dummy in many ways. It is very well written, and is a fantastic insight into Tricky as an artist which likewise gives a terrific insight into the genre as a whole. Check out his post here.

It was my mum that introduced Portishead to me, accompanied by stories of her attending their concert in our relatively quiet town in 1998, after the release of their second, self-titled record Portishead. I quickly fell in love with the sounds of Glory Box and Biscuit, and it was in my later years in which I began to listen to hip-hop that I came to recognise the beauty of this album past just the angelic voice of mysterious front-woman Beth Gibbons. I have, since then, been incredibly disappointed that Portishead and the bands fellow trip-hop artists (a title each relevant band hates, might I add), has had such little place in the current discussion of hip-hop and its history. It is my intention here not to discuss at length the history of the band or trip hop, but instead to discuss the album and its roots in and influence on hip-hop and rap.

Portishead's Dummy is undoubtedly the best of both worlds; production efforts firmly rooted in hip-hop, dub, and electronic tradition, whilst the sorrow of Beth Gibbons over the so consistent and evident sounds of the album elevates its soundscape to a level far greater than it is given credit for. A tear-jerking, comedown album of the ages, Portishead's Dummy is the magnifying glass zooming so close on the bleak and depressive side of the 1990s, where in your bedroom you felt so alone but so in touch with the cinematic and lush sounds of the 1994 masterpiece.

​

The Wild Bunch

Ok, so maybe the heading is a little bit disingenuous - none of the three recurring members of Portishead were ever members of Bristol's godfather of Trip-Hop, The Wild Bunch - but it is certainly fitting to describe the greater Bristol scene as such. It was The Wild Bunch (consisting of what would become Massive Attack, Tricky, and others) that laid the foundations of and built upon the sound that grew out of the small English town of Bristol 1980s that would later become 'Trip-Hop' in just the next decade. It is important to understand that it was in the 1980s that the English underground music scene underwent drastic changes; the introduction of American Hip-Hop to English ears became quickly intertwined with the massive presence of English break-beat, house music, Jamaican dub, electronic, ambient, reggae, funk, and maybe most importantly in Portishead's case, Jazz. It was growing multiculturalism in Bristol in the 1980s and '90s that turned the small city into a melting pot of music, and Portishead is symbolic most of the influences of Jazz and Hip-Hop on the scene. It is true that, released in 1994, Dummy was the metaphorical comedown of Trip-Hop's big decade, and it sonically fits the description.

It is, as described very fittingly by u/chaotic_gold, the 'Holy Trinity of Trip-Hop' in Massive Attack, Tricky, and Portishead, that were the most notable products of Bristol's musical genesis during the '80s and '90s, and later in this post I will recommend records by each of these artists. I mention these artists out of simple love and admiration for the genre however, as if the story of Dummy has to be told in the context of Massive Attack and of their sometime collaborator Tricky, it's equally obvious that Portishead were on the opposite side of Bristol's coin; a lonely and soulful depiction of the claustrophobic and noirish inner city or the warmth and dimly lit and cigarette smoke filled bedrooms of cold Britain, a far cry from the block parties and basement raves of The Wild Bunch and it's alumni.

​

Sour Times

It was Conservative Prime-Minister Margaret Thatchers 'Enterprise Allowance' that we can thank for the creation of what was initially the two person band, Portishead. A 19 year old, long haired Geoff Barrow would meet then 26 year old Beth Gibbons in the line of an induction meeting for the government scheme, and would hit it off when asked by the instructor what they wanted to do with the £40 per week that was given to unemployed people who set up their own business. Beth had told the group that she was a singer with intentions of starting her own label, and it was Barrow who approached her about singing for him after he had spent the early months of 1990 auditioning singers of whom he was never happy with. They would quickly begin making music together, meeting Adrian Utley in 1991, who only became an official 'member' of Portishead after Dummy's release, though he was by all accounts just as involved in Dummy as Gibbons and Barrow. Utley recalled his first introduction to the duo as a then 34 year old bored jazz guitarist finishing up a recording session in a downstairs room below: "I remember somebody opening the door upstairs and me hearing It Could Be Sweet [one of the first tracks written for Dummy]. 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."

Geoff Barrow had spent the earlier 4 years of his teenage years falling in love with hip-hop and sampling while attending youth club funk nights in rural Somerset in the Eighties, whilst also acting as a junior tape-op for Massive Attack on their debut Blue Lines.

Gibbons was, and still is, a mysterious figure. The 26 year old had grown up on a farm, and as Barrow later said, had "probably done more singing in her bedroom than on stage". I will say little about her singing ability now, for it will be spoken to at length in just a few moments.

Finally, Adrian Utley had moved from the even smaller town of Portishead (which would later be the source of inspiration for the groups name), playing jazz guitar in Big John Patton's touring band and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. A lover and collector of noir and sci-fi films of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s and of hip-hop, Utley and Barrow would watch films and attempt to replicate the use of instruments such as theremins and cimbaloms, whilst also teaching each other to sample and produce tracks with reference to American hip-hop acts such as The Pharcyde, and English break-beat.

These periods were not, however, the sour times in which the heading refers to, and are instead those that lead to them. The recording process of Dummy was a strange one; the band never gigged, instead hulling up in Neneh Cherry's kitchen recording their first songs together. When the working relationship between Cherry and Barrow brokedown in 1991, Barrows mental state followed suit, forcing Portishead to move to Coach House Studios despite the bands sonic differences to the bands that were also recording in the building. The impact of the Gulf War, the pressure of his work with Portishead, and the newly 'frat'-like atmosphere of the Dummy recording sessions at Coach House Studios was making the album-making process difficult. Though told out of humour many years later, Barrow described Bristol as being largely at fault for his and the bands compromised mental state; 'The only place to eat was Iceland or this horrible pub called Granny's where your beans and chips would arrive with Granny's thumb in it.'. The lush, devastating soundscapes of Dummy rose from that bleakness, and would likewise inform later works.

​

Dummy

Dummy is, in all ways, truly devastating. The title of the record, inspired by the 1977 TV Drama of the same name in which a blind and deaf woman's life descends into prostitution and degradation, does not describe the sound of the record; every sound, every instrument, and every word spoken, is deliberate or deliberately random. The album is filled with the sounds of eerie loneliness, using cinema soundtracks and jazz and classical orchestras to inform the drums loops and scratching of Geoff Barrows, the Bond-like and jazz inspired guitar licks of Adrian Utley, and the extraordinary, harrowing lyrics written and sung by Beth Gibbons. It is in this sense that Dummy is so incredibly deliberate - the spy-movie and sci-fi guitar riffs, the hip-hop and break-beat inspired drumming, the countless, velvet-like organ and string sections, and the pleading and totally raw voice of Gibbons present on all tracks all maintain complete obedience to the mood in which Portishead are so relentless in establishing. Dummy is to the night what Blue Lines is to day; The foggy, cold, lonely walk in moonlit Bristol; the disgusting, tiled and moldy bathroom of the inner-city club you stumbled across; the narcotised walk home; the cigarette; the welcoming and warm bed. The 2 producers found themselves sampling and breaking up their own tracks, feeding back into their samplers and pressing their 'finished' products onto vinyl in order to allow for further manipulation, just as a hip-hop producer would. It was these seemingly random acts (such as physically walking on their newly pressed records) that gave Dummy the filmic, noirish air in which the voice of Beth Gibbons soars. Akin to Billie Holiday in many respects, Gibbons' breathy and desperate vocals transform the jazzy, hip-hop inspired beats into massive, devastatingly heartbreaking lullabies and stylish and charismatic soundscapes. It is undeniable that, despite Barrow's fresh take on 1960s and '70s soundtracks, strings and organ arrangements, and scratching, sampling and looping, and Utley's infectious jazz-influenced guitar and bass playing, it is Beth Gibbons that elevates Dummy to such a level that won it a Mercury Prize just a year after its release. That is not to undermine the beautiful cohesion of Utley and Barrow, though, both of whom manage to create 11 individual but perfectly cohesive songs despite the heavy use of varying samples and a wide range of instruments. It is their production that is so heavily inspired by hip-hop and jazz that informs the luscious, sexy, but lonely soundtrack to the 1990s. The unsettling and lonely crooning of Gibbons is so beautifully supported by the so intensely different beats of Utley and Barrow, but yet not once do they feel at odds. Though I generally avoid Pitchfork when it comes to hip-hop, their review of this album is very good: 'For 50 minutes, the album sustains a single, all-enveloping mood; its track list is a 10-sided die where every roll comes up some variation of despair.', writes Philip Sherburne.

Mysterons

Dummy opens with the aptly named Mysterons; named after the Martian villains of the 1966 television show Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, the theremin present so early in the track and the so intensely Bond-like guitar riffs of Utley compliment looped snare rolls and one of Gibbons more confrontational performances on the album.

'All for nothing / Did you really want?'

Sour Times

Based around a looping, extended sample of Lalo Schifrin's music for Mission: Impossible, Sour Times is undeniably cut from the same cloth as Mysterons. Cinematic in its use of sampling with a bouncy drum loop and droning, metallic rattling sounds, Gibbons gives maybe her most confident performance on the recond, bouncing over the drum loop, singing in the songs hook: 'Cause nobody loves me, It's true, Not like you do.'. Those of you who like Black Thought will recognise the drum loop on this song from his very recent track Thought vs. Everybody, which samples Sour Times.

Strangers

It is on the third track, Strangers, in which the soundscape of Dummy begins to expand; that isn't to say it lacks the features of the two (the spy-film like guitar present throughout the track says otherwise), however the use of a buzzing guitar and abrasive drum pattern is reminiscent of an old train moving over equally as old train tracks, with the sweet breakdown that appears momentarily later in the track providing a break from the beat to reminisce on the words of Gibbons, who sings in what was a home-recorded demo that made it onto the record: 'Did you realize, no one can ever see inside your view / Did you realize, for why this sight belongs to you'.

It Could Be Sweet

Little can be said about It Could Be Sweet that would accurately convey its charm; Beth Gibbons, a thumping sub-base, scattered samples, and keys to fill it all in is simply magic. Gibbons croons 'Cause I don't wanna lose / What we had last time, your leaving / This life ain't fair / You don't get something for nothing, turn back / Gotta try a little harder / It could be sweet'. The ultimate head-bobber, and a night-time drive song up there with the albums final song, Glory Box, It Could Be Sweet uses its minimalism to charm.

Wandering Star

The heavy hitting, lumbering bass and cymbal pattern of Wandering Star, accompanied only by Barrow's scratching and a regularly beating synth, are more akin to those present on many 80's Rakim and Eric B records; Gibbons turns a head-bobber into a lullaby, singing: 'Please, could you stay a while to share my grief / It's such a lovely day to have to always feel this way', and 'the darkness, the blackness, forever.' If you needed further proof of the impact of hip-hop production on trip-hop and its Holy Trinity, look no further than Wandering Star.

"'Wandering Star' kind of needed a solo, so I just kind of scratched the start of Magic Mountain. I wasn't really ever a scratch DJ, as such, but I was always madly into DJ Premier. You don't need loads of notes to make it sound cool, and that's what Premier did with his scratching. He didn't have to do anything. It was an incredible technique, but still it would just be so cool. He's the most soulful scratch DJ there's ever been.", said Barrow.

It's a Fire

Written entirely by Beth Gibbons and brought to Utley and Barrow as essentially a gift, the voice of the album sings 'Cause this life is a farce / I can't breathe through this mask / Like a fool / So breathe on, little sister, breathe on'. The singer is so incredibly personal on It's a Fire, and is clear as day in her singing. Assisted sparsely by a drum loop and a stunning organ, Gibbons' breathy, open letter, is elevated into her very own Church song - her voice bouncing from mahogany wall to mahogany wall.

Numb

An ode to despair and hopelessness, Beth Gibbons breaks out of her shell on Numb, crooning 'I'm ever so lost / can't find my way / Been searching, but I have never seen / A turning, a turning from deceit', and 'but this loneliness / It just won't leave me alone / oh no'. The latter of the two lines being immediately followed by Utley's quiet bass playing, and Barrows' scratching over a slowed sample of Ray Charles I've Got a Woman.

Roads

I really cannot stress enough when I say that Roads is undoubtedly Beth Gibbons' masterpiece. One of the most heartbreaking songs ever put to tape, Roads opens with a gut-wrenching, wailing guitar riff and a punchy snare loop, with Beth wailing 'How can it feel this wrong? / From this moment / How can it feel this wrong?'. Growing more and more desperate, Gibbons sings: 'I got nobody on my side / and surely that ain't right / surely that ain't right' atop a luscious and drifting string section and bass solo later in the track. The string section on Roads, similar to those in Glory Box, are unspeakably gorgeous, and by the end of the song Beth is so close to the mic that you can hear her breathe in for more air, just to plead to the listener once more; a common theme on the album, present also on It's a Fire.

Pedestal

A much needed respite from the despair of Roads, Pedestal picks things up once again. With constantly present basslines, a subtly supporting synth, and the usual looped drum pattern, Barrow is given time to scratch to his heart's content in the periods between Gibbon's sphinxlike vocals and the trumpet solo in the middle of the song.

Biscuit

A beat one can hear MF DOOM or Earl Sweatshirt rapping over, Biscuit sounds like death; it is the final high of the album before the ultimate comedown, with violent drums that penetrate the truly grimy Rhodes and guitar never ceasing to thump. A drum loop that feels like a gunshot to the chest (and a snare drum that certainly sounds like it), Gibbons' raw and quivering singing of lines like 'I can't make myself heard / No matter how hard I scream, oh, sensation / Sin, slave of sensation' breaks you down, giving way to Geoff Barrows masterpiece: scratched into the song and slowed down to 16 RPM, Johnnie Ray's sweet '50s refrain of 'I'll never fall in love again / It's all over now' and what was a once cheerful trumpet opening becomes the final bow tie on a drowning, hopeless package.

'At last, relief / A mother's son has left me sheer'

Glory Box

Glory Box snakes its way into your ears; smooth as butter and haunting in its use of Isaac Hayes' Ike's Rap II, the final song of Portishead's debut is luscious in every sense of the word. The song's string section is a gorgeous support pillar for the sultry bass-line and drum loop, with Gibbons' pleading 'Give me a reason to love you / Give me a reason to be a woman / I just wanna be a woman' maintaining Glory Box as one of the ultimate comedown songs of all time. Utley's searing guitar solo and wailing guitar riffs throughout the song are amazing, and Barrow creates out of a such a full and velvet-like songs, a sparse and grimy breakdown just before the songs climax, with Beth Gibbons' finishing the album not with a bang, but with 'I'm so tired of playing / Playing with this bow and arrow / Gonna give my heart away / Leave it to the other girls to play / For I've been a temptress too long / Just / Give me a reason to love you.''

​

Hip-Hop, and Portishead's Legacy

It is sadly true that, at least in the public eye, history has not been kind to Dummy. What is a masterpiece of one of the most unique subgenres in modern music is now often seen as coffee table music or music that is best only for the bedroom. Having said that, however, the rap game has been far more complimentary of Portishead than the mainstream. Aesop Rock rapped over 4 Portishead beats in a collaboration with J Kingz in the January 1, 2006 mixtape Aesop Rock Meets Portishead.

Kanye West credited Portishead and their live album which heavily featured an orchestra with being the primary influence for the orchestral horns present on his records, stating 'So after I won those Grammys (awards)... I ran and got a string section… Hip-hop never had strings that lush with drums that hard but Portishead had that, and they sounded hip-hop, and people vibed to that.". West would release his own live album, Late Orchestration, after releasing Late Registration.

The impact of Portishead on Top Dawg Entertainment is notable also: Roads is present on Kendrick Lamar's playlist The Making of 'good kid m.A.A.d city' and has been credited by the artist as being a great inspiration for Lamar, Prescription and Raymond 1969 by ScHoolboy Q sample Undenied and Cowboy respectively, both from the bands self-titled sophomore album, and Ab-Soul named a song after the band on his 2016 album Do What Thou Wilt., stating in his Dec. 2016 Hot 97 interview that he had "sampled so much of their stuff early on before I even really knew it was them".

In reference to Portishead as one of his favourite songwriters, Vince Staples said "Sometimes music gives you a kneejerk reaction. You hear it and it makes you feel a certain way. That was one of those things; I hadn't heard anything like it. I feel like the songwriting was very honest and also had a lot of depth. But music was never something I thought long about when I was a kid. It was just in the background of my life. My parents listened to gospel music and that wasn't my thing."

I will try not to post every time any Portishead song has been sampled, though the range of artists that have so evidently been influenced by the group, such as Raekwon, Three 6 Mafia, Canibus, ScHoolboy Q, and Aesop Rock, and the countless artists such as Slowthai, Vince Staples and Kanye West who have spoken on their love for the group and for Dummy are just some examples of the truly unspeakable influence of Dummy, Portishead, and Trip-Hop on the greater hip-hop canon.

​

More!

Portishead - Portishead

Portishead's sophomore effort, Portishead is the band at their most confident. Gibbons' singing is still the same, but with an air of confidence seldom heard on Dummy. Utley and Barrow, with more money and greater confidence, begin to make and use their own samples, making their own creations the centerpiece of the record's sound. My favourites on this record are Western Eyes, Undenied, All Mine, Cowboys, Over, and Only You (shouts out the Roseland version of this track also, another example of Barrow scratching).

Portishead - Roseland NYC Live

Special shoutout to this album's version of Sour Times - it is, in my opinion, leagues better than the original, and oh my god is the scratching amazing. In fact, the scratching is phenomenal throughout the album, as are the orchestras. God, the orchestras are amazing. Check this one out for sure.

Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man - Out of Season

Beth Gibbons' 'solo record', Out of Season is absolutely beautiful. A far move away from Portishead's Trip-Hop, Out of Season consists of stunning acoustic guitars, grand orchestras, choirs, jazz drumming like no other, and Gibbons channeling Billie Holiday in songs such as Romance. Songs like Sand River are softly sung, beautiful lullabies, whilst songs like Spider Monkey and Funny Time of Year have grand instrumentals, contrasting Gibbons' unwavering, breathy singing. There is a reason Out of Season's cover so closely resembles Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, for her singing on the album cannot help but remind one of Dylan.

Massive Attack - Blue Lines

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

Tricky - Maxinquaye

Again, u/chaotic_good 's write-up on the project.

DJ Shadow - Entroducing…..

Or,

FactMag's The 50 Best Trip-Hop Albums of All Time list is really good, and has a lot of great albums on it.

​

Discussion

  1. Have you heard of trip-hop as a whole, and/or Portishead in particular before? If not, do you feel compelled to explore some more?
  2. What are your favorite songs on the album?
  3. What are you favourite moments on the album?
  4. Do you hear the influence of this album in other people's work? What are some examples in other genres?
  5. What would you like to hear from Portishead?
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