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Portishead Changes It Up On Unsettling 'Third'

Universal

English electronic-music trio Portishead has released its third album.

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By CURTIS ROSS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 22, 2008

It's all gone a bit topsy-turvy when a Portishead track is a dead ringer for Silver Apples.

The Apples, a cult favorite '60s duo and pioneers of pulsing drone-rock, were one of the sources Portishead cited in a Mojo article on the group's third album, following no-so-hot on the heels of its second disc, 1997's "Portishead."

Prolific Portishead isn't. Nor do they seem to be putting much thought into album titles. But shaking up a sound that easily could have become a formula? This they do with abandon.

"Portishead" was a jolt three years after 1994 debut "Dummy." "Third" nearly quadruples those changes.

Still, even after stripping away almost every recognizable characteristic of their sound, save Beth Gibbons' tremulous sob of a voice, it's amazing how, well, Portishead-like this album winds up being.

Far more beat-driven than previous albums, melodic elements are kept to a minimum - a strummed guitar here, a three- or four-note synthesizer riff there.

The opium den languor of "Hunter" is interrupted by unsettling keyboard figures. The effect is like watching television half-asleep only to be jarred awake by news of an assassination.

"Plastic" features what sounds like a helicopter rotor, or a homicidal ceiling fan. "We Carry On," with its strict one-two beat and humming electronics, is the aforementioned ode to Silver Apples. "Machine Gun" is all beats, save for Gibbons' heart-wrenching lead and otherworldly, wordless backing vocals.

"Small" affects an eerie calm that seems aimed at disarming the listener. There's an air of malevolence floating through even the most blissful tones, like an ambient remix of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

On their first two albums, Gibbons and band mates Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley established themselves as masters of mood creation. On "Third," they see how much they can subtract and still maintain it.

Quite a bit, it turns out.

Download this: "Hunter"

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