Portishead, for the uninitiated, is a group from Bristol, England named after the nearby town of the same name. Consisting of Geoff Barrow, Adrian Utley and the fantastic Beth Gibbons, they first shot to fame with the timeless album Dummy. Made at the same time as a short film noir called To Kill a Dead Man, and the same approach - gloomy, tormented, and wildly melodramatic- permeates the album, and while they first had success with the tracks Numb and Sour Times (two of the lynchpin songs of the album), they are probably best known to the masses for the absolutely gorgeous Glorybox, Taking a sample from Issac Hayes Ike's Rap II from 1971,Glorybox has dark flashes of old soul and film music, and a bassbeat pulse (courtesy in large part to Mr Hayes) derived from the slow bump and grind of the Bristol scene that spawned Barrow's old collaborators, Massive Attack.
It's got a beautiful sultry feeling to it which makes you feel like Gibbons emoting like she's consumed by shame while trying to seduce you through your stereo. That gorgeous orchestral back-drop works with a passionate chorus that makes you want to smile, cry and drag the nearest person into bed.
Another song on perpetual rotation on the FVS Zen player, this was the tune that got me into Porstihead and trip hop in a big way.
- FVHK5K
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