Portishead on Fallon

Portishead put on an amazing show last night at the Hammerstein in NYC. My mind was blown that Beth Gibbons can still sing so beautifully. If you get a chance they are a must see! Here they are on Fallon last night.

Portishead Third Song Stream - The Rip

Ten years we have waited. And now the wait is just about over.

We don't have our hands on Portishead's third studio record, Third, just yet, but we have listened to this song, "The Rip" and yeah, we kinda like it.

It opens like a classic Portishead song with the haunting swirls that we have certainly heard before. But suddenly it becomes stripped down to a plucking guitar that reminds us of singer Beth Gibbons work with Rustin Man (Paul Webb). Gibbons vocals sound, as always, dreary yet somehow beautiful and refreshing. But just as we become comfortable with this new mellower Portishead accompanied by trademark Gibbons, they change again, adding some synth that feels less Portishead-y than it should. Yet seconds in we are won over again as we think twice...Yes. This. Is. Portishead.

If only we had the full length.

Give it a listen over at Prefix.

Portishead "Third" Reviewed, More Tour Dates

If I wasn't excited before. I certainly am now. This is from Mark Stewart's (of The Mafia) review for Spex about the new Portishead album Third.

On »Third«, Portishead deliberately reject this approach in favour of an old technique, known as crate digging in DJ circles: the quest for those weird and wonderful sounds nobody else has ever used.

One of the album’s most interesting new tracks, »Magic Doors«, reverts to the old DJ method: Portishead take a Funk beat and slow it down, pitch it right down to half-speed, then add one of Beth Gibbons mournful litanies. In this, Portishead follow the lead of Led Zeppelin who, a few decades earlier, took Blues numbers from the 1930s and slowed them down to half their speed.

You can read the whole article here.

Tour Dates:

03-26 Porto, Portugal - Coliseum
03-27 Lisbon, Portugal - Coliseum
03-30 Milan, Italy - Alcatraz
03-31 Florence, Italy - Sashall
04-02 Munich, Germany - Tonhalle
04-03 Berlin, Germany - Columbiahalle
04-04 Copenhagen, Denmark - KB Halle
04-06 Cologne, Germany - Palladium
04-07 Amsterdam, Netherlands - HMH
04-09 Manchester, England - Apollo
04-10 London, England - Hammersmith Apollo
04-12 Edinburgh, Scotland - Corn Exchange
04-13 Wolverhampton, England - Civic
04-17 London, England - Brixton Academy
04-26 Indio, CA - Empire Polo Field (Coachella)
05-05 Paris, France - Zenith
05-06 Paris, France - Zenith
05-08 Brussels, Belgium - Forest National
05-29-31 Barcelona, Spain - Parc del Fòrum (Primavera Sound)