Line #34 Music/Portishead


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0_4385568_6.jpeg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: Making soundtracks for imaginary FilmNoir spy movie fever dreams since 1994.[[note]]L to R: Gibbons, Barrow, Utley[[/note]]]]
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4	The other famous TripHop act from Bristol that helped [[TropeCodifier codify]] and popularize the genre alongside Music/MassiveAttack and Music/{{Tricky}}, Portishead is an English band that has been rolling around the music scene since 1991, taking its name from a town eight miles west of Bristol. The band consists of the following members:
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6	* Beth Gibbons - vocals, occasional guitar
7	* Geoff Barrow - RecordProducer, DJ, sampler, keyboards, drums, multiple instruments
8	* Adrian Utley - guitar, bass, keyboards
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10	(Dave [=McDonald=] is also occasionally named their "fourth member", having served as engineer and producer and occasionally contributed instruments on all their albums.)
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12	Portishead's famous SignatureStyle is a combination of hip hop-inspired breakbeats, dense production (often using [[{{Sampling}} samples]]), Utley's distorted guitars, dark and melancholic atmospheres, influences from spy film soundtracks, and Gibbons' haunting vocals, all of which are enhanced by their FilmNoir aesthetics and {{Surreal Music Video}}s.
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14	These elements brought them critical and commercial success right out the gate with their debut ''Music/{{Dummy}}'', but their future releases pursued [[NewSoundAlbum harsher,]] {{darker\|AndEdgier}} sounds. While 1997's ''[[SelfTitledAlbum Portishead]]'' did away with samples and explored a more bleak and aggressive variant of trip hop, 2008's ''Third'' -- the band's first studio release in 11 years following Barrow putting it on hiatus -- forwent the genre completely for a sound with influences as eclectic as {{krautrock}}, {{surf rock}}, {{doo wop}}, and Creator/JohnCarpenter soundtracks. Ever since then, although the band has mainly kept active through occasional touring and single releases, statements from Barrow have maintained that a fourth album is still on the table.
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16	In 1994, the band members also wrote and acted in a short film titled ''To Kill a Dead Man''; while the whole thing is available in the bonus section of their ''Roseland NYC Live'' DVD, footage from the film was also converted into the music video for the song "Sour Times", and stills of it were used in the album art of ''Dummy''. It did, however, also come with an opening disclaimer in which the band stated that they "had grossly underestimated how tough it is to write, design, act and perform a short film."
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18	During their hiatuses, Barrow has worked solo, as a member of the trio Beak, and as a member of the hip-hop supergroup Quakers. Gibbons released one album with ex-Music/TalkTalk bassist Paul Webb, credited as Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man. Utley has done session and soundtrack work and was a member of jazz group Stonephace.
19	----
20	!!Discography:
21	* ''Music/{{Dummy}}'' (1994)
22	* ''Portishead'' (1997)
23	* ''Roseland NYC Live'' (1998) - live album
24	* ''Third'' (2008)
25	----
26
27	!! Portishead contains instances of the following tropes:
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29	* AccentuateTheNegative: Their music is very gloomy. Taken up to eleven on [[DarkerAndEdgier Third]].
30	* AlbumTitleDrop: Referenced in the very first sentence on Third, albeit in Portuguese:
31	--> "Esteja alerta para a regra dos três / Beware the Rule of Three"
32	* CreepyChild: The girl in the video for "All Mine."
33	* DarkerAndEdgier: Every record after ''Dummy''. While the lyrics don't get any more melancholy, the sound gets darker (''Third'''s beat was a lot more industrial).
34	* FakeGuestStar: Utley is not officially signed on with the band and is technically a guest contributor on each album, but everyone considers him a full-time member of the group.
35	* GratuitousForeignLanguage: The spoken Portuguese at the beginning of "Silence".
36	* GratuitousPanning: All of their videos.
37	* InTheStyleOf: "We Carry On" is a tribute to '60s electronic pioneers Silver Apples, who returned the favour by covering it in their live sets.
38	* LastNoteNightmare: "Silence" ends in, well... Silence.
39	* MindScrew: Their short film ''To Kill a Dead Man''. It's a spy film with no dialogue and nightmarish, paranoid imagery.
40	* MoodWhiplash:
41	** "Deep Waters" in the middle of ''Third'', which is a Hawaiian tune about a girl choosing to face her fears.
42	** "Glory Box" is either a woman asking her husband to be a bit more caring and loving, or a cheating woman tired of cheating man asking the same question. Either way, the lyrics -- and music, somewhat -- aren't as sad as the rest of the songs on the album.
43	* MoreDakka: "Machine Gun" uses percussion to audibly apply this effect, though the song itself has nothing to do with the trope. This was used to good effect in the VideoGame/MetroLastLight [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su1djPuvDnw trailer]], with the beats syncing up to gunfire.
44	* NewSoundAlbum: ''Portishead'' and ''Third''.
45	* NonAppearingTitle: A favorite trope of theirs, including their three most successful songs "Glory Box" (their breakthrough UK hit single), "Sour Times" (their big US rock radio hit), and "All Mine" (their highest-charting UK single).
46	* {{Retraux}}: ''To Kill a Dead Man'', styled after FilmNoir and [[SpyFiction spy films]].
47	* {{Sampling}}: From old spy film soundtracks, soul and jazz singles and, on ''Portishead'', original material created by Barrow and Utley.
48	* ShoutOut: "Wandering Star"'s title and chorus contain one to the ''Literature/EpistleOfJude'' from the New Testament of Literature/TheBible, specifically Jude 1:13 in the King James version:
49	--> "Wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever."
50	* SmokingIsCool: Beth Gibbons is such a chain smoker that she is seldom seen without a cigarette during performances.
51	* StalkerWithACrush: "All Mine" veers into this as the song goes on, and the instrumentation only makes it scarier.
52	-->''Make no mistake\
53	You shan't escape\
54	Tethered and tied, there's nowhere to hide from me...\
55	ALL MIIIIIIIIIIIINE!\
56	You have to be...''
57	* SurrealMusicVideo: Most of their videos.
58	* {{Theremin}}: Played by Utley on "Mysterons". "Humming" also has a Theremin-ish sound, but that's actually a Moog. Both get used if -- and when -- they do play live.
59	* UncommonTime: A few songs on ''Third'' are in unusual time signatures. The song "Small", for example, is partly in 11/4 time.
60	* WholesomeCrossdresser: Everyone in the video for "Glory Box."

Context Music / Portishead