I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Album # 419
Album Title: DummyArtist: Portishead
Genre: Trip Hop
Recorded: State of Art and Coach House Studios 1993-94
Released: August, 1994
My age at release: 29
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Roads (Selected by my wife, Angela)
As the poet Robert Frost eloquently stated in his most famous work, The Road Not Taken:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Once, while paused at a fork on that metaphorical road, my wife put Dummy by Portishead into car's cassette player and, as we travelled and talked, I heard the album for the first time. Back then, in the spring of 1995, my wife was my girlfriend and, over the next few months, she would become my EX. It was a tumultuous time, as we were both moving along separate career paths. As ridiculous as it sounds in retrospect, we were struggling with the challenges of being twenty-somethings. Obviously, things between us worked out just fine but, during those difficult months, this record was a significant part of the soundtrack to our lives.
Dummy was the debut record released by Portishead. The band, originally comprised of Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons & Adrian Utley, took their name from a coastal town just outside their home base in Bristol, England -- where they were part of an influential artistic movement of the 80s and 90s dubbed The Bristol Scene.
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| Dummy - by Portishead (1994) |
The movement included anti-racism activism, graffiti (particularly the work of the mysterious street artist Banksy) and music, often dubbed The Bristol Sound. Portishead is considered a pioneer of a specific genre within the Bristol Sound called Trip-Hop. Trip Hop is a complicated genre, perhaps best described as an experimental fusion of hip-hop and electronica. However, neither truly define the sound. Trip-hop artists, including Portishead, Massive Attack and Tricky (all from Bristol), also incorporate elements of funk, soul, R&B, psychedelia and jazz into their compositions. Consequently, the trip-hop sound is a bit of a paradox. It is difficult to describe but also instantly recognizable.
The music of Portishead is ethereal, moody, dark and hauntingly beautiful. The band combined live and pre-recorded material to create their signature sound. Typically, conventional instruments such as guitar or bass were layered by Adrian Utley over pre-recorded musical samples being spun, scratched and looped by disc jockey Geoff Barrow. Singer Beth Gibbons would contribute to this textured musical atmosphere with haunting melodic vocals. The band's sound was distinctively "lo-fi" (low fidelity) as they eschewed digital technologies for older, analogue equipment. Additionally, the vinyl records used were either vintage or had been intentionally distressed.
As I re-listened to the record this week, I was transported back to that strange and uncertain time in my life. I returned to that fork in the road and the emotions, although muted by time, still resonate. My wife and I avoid talking about those days.
It was a road we travelled apart from one another. Fortunately, there was another fork on our roads that led us back together...and that made all the difference.
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