Sublime Chiller (Dummy - Portishead)

Member Name: Zmugzy

Product:	Dummy - Portishead
Date:	07/04/09 (346 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Original blend of inspirational intrumentation with the vocal of Beth Gibbons.

Disadvantages: None

Dummy was Portishead's debut album and I find it hard to believe that it was way back in 1994 that it was first released. The album gained much acclaim at the time and won the Mercury Music Prize in 1995. I've only recently purchased the CD and I'm hooked. Its trip-hop 'Bristol sound' is generally regarded as benchmark of the 1990s music scene. Trip-hop is generally defined as a fusion of hip-hop, chillout and psychedelic rock that has also often been be associated with drug taking. The band have since released two further albums: Portishead in 1997 and Third in 2008. Lead vocalist Beth Gibbons also made the 'Out of Season' album in 2002 with Rustin Man.

Portishead consist mainly of instrumentalist and lyricist Geoff Barrow and lead singer Beth Gibbons, although guitarist Adrian Utley contributes some subtle chord contributions on some of the tracks, in particular on Glory Box. There is also some impressive bass work on Pedestal. Other contributions include Andy Hague on trumpet, Gary Baldwin on the Hammond organ, Richard Newell who does some of the drum programming and Dave McDonald who plays the nose flute. Barrow's instrumental work gives the album its edge with a diverse range of funky percussion, analogue tape loops, syncopated rhythms, sample scratches and Hammond organ tremelos. Arguably the most impressive instrument on the album though is the fragile, soulful voice of Beth Gibbons whose singing has been compared to the likes of Nina Simone and Billie Holiday.

The outstanding tracks on the album are Mysterons, Glory Box and Sour Times. The spooky Mysterons opens the album and has a spacey feel to it that manages to effectively fuse funky hip-hop rhythms with a military style beating snare drum. The sublime "Glory Box" is probably the best known track. It evokes a sleazy atmosphere and incorporates some spacey guitar work alongside an excellent bass-line sampled from Isaac Hayes's "Ike's Rap II". The song has unfortunately been much reproduced in TV advertising. Other song samples are often so distorted they become barely recognisable. A slowed-down sample of Johnnie Ray's 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again is used on 'Biscuit' and 'Sour Times' makes use of 'The Danube Incident' by Lalo Schifrin. Many of the tracks have a cinematic almost film-noire like quality. Sour Times would slot comfortably into the soundtrack of a David Lynch movie. At times throughout the album it's as if an atmosphere of almost sinister melancholy is threatening to disrupt an overriding beautifully evocative harmony.

Some critics have argued that the album drags in the middle part but although 'It Could Be Sweet' is my least favourite track, for me this is an album that flows sublimely throughout with a truly entrancing and hypnotic quality from the freaky and pulsating 'Strangers' to the laid-back ambience of "Roads" with it warm violins caressing Gibbons' expressive vocal strains. After a few listens, these songs soon sink into your subconscious and suck you into some ghostly urban heart of darkness where everything moves along in slow motion. For me Dummy is primarily a highly addictive chill-out album that has aged extremely well. It still remains one of the best albums of the 1990s.

Summary: A groundbreaking album that has stood the test of time.