Portishead Discussion

[busyboy]

Portishead announce fourth album plans
Band say they are also looking at touring again

Portishead have confirmed that they have started forming ideas for their fourth album.

It seems fans will not have to wait over a decade for their next effort, unlike the 11-year gap between their second album, 1997's 'Portishead', and this year's 'Third'.

Producer/instrumentalist Geoff Barrow told BBC 6music that the band had finalised the initial direction of the album, and were now looking at recording plans - plus new tour dates.

"When everyone's had a bit of a break, I think we're just going to plough onto it," he explained. "I think we're kind of there now. We've sat down and we've talked about the direction and stuff like that.

"Everyone seems really positive about it. And I think everybody at some point wants to get back out on the road, because we didn't really do an awful lot of live stuff. What's really interesting is that we're in this lucky position now. We haven't got a record company; our deal ended and so did our publishing deal.

"So we pretty much own all of our own rights now, which is scary as well as exciting really, so we're thinking of loads of different ways of doing things."

www.nme.com/news/portishead/41668

[galvanize]

Huge news!

They're the most consistent band in the trip hop genre!

[banet2001]

Wow, I did not expect to hear news of a new Portishead album this soon after Third. After 11 years in between albums I half expected at least four to five years for a fourth. Then again, who knows how long it will take to write and record the fourth album.

[oscillations.]

Oh My God. I'm scared to know what they will do next. I doubt they can upstage THIRD

[Minimalism]

Wow. So unexpectedly quick. But then again, banet does have a point, it could probably take them another five years to finish the album.

[oscillations.]

I don't know. T Rez has been cranking out the NIN releases several times per year ever since his 1999-2005 hibernation. Maybe Beth Gibbons & Geoff Barrow will follow suit. Make up for lost time, so to speak.

[Mic Technique]

I'm sure this will come sooner than most think.

[Roman Candle]

I'm barely listening to the third...my bad...it sounds really great...the darkest thing i've ever heard...I LOVE IT

[Coin-Operated [Boy]]

To me, they would most likely make a record that won't really top the quality of its predecessor, but still deliver an accomplished sound anyway. But still, who knows how this will turn out?

[busyboy]

Portishead Are Free Agents

After returning to the realm of popular music with last year's Third, Portishead are now free agents after fulfilling their contract with Island Records. According to a MySpace post from the band's Geoff Barrow, "we spent the day discussing the future of the P as we are free...well free of a deal and free of commitment...for now!" Publicists for the band confirmed that this does indeed mean that the band are no longer on Island, or any label.

So yeah, Portishead not only have to decide all sorts of musical things now, but also have to figure out how to put out their music. Could take a while. (If you haven't heard, this band isn't going to beat Jay Reatard in the productivity department anytime soon.)

Barrow stated, "with the world being the way it is there are lots of options open...but if you lot have any bright ideas of how we should sell our music in the future lets us know , why not!" He continued: "i dont think that were into giving out music away for free to be honest...it fukin takes ages to write and we have to heat our swimming pools...!!!"

This does bring up a good point-- in this age of album-as-tour-promotion, how does an infamously show-averse band like Portishead survive? Perhaps they should try to strike some sort of licensing deal with every too-chic nightclub/coffee bar/boutique on earth. Or, you know, play shows. I hear they're pretty good live.

www.pitchforkmedia.com/node/149210

[busyboy]

Portishead's Barrow Forms New Band

Portishead producer and multi-instrumentalist Geoff Barrow is such a perfectionist that his group has only managed to release three albums in the past 15 years. So it's probably good that Barrow and his new band Beak> are putting some restrictions on themselves; it's the only way they'll ever get anything done.

Barrow formed Beak> earlier this year with two fellow Bristol musicians, Billy Fuller and Matt Williams. The band already has an album ready to go. Their self-titled debut will be out October 19 in the UK on Barrow's own Invada, and Ipecac will release it the next day in the U.S. So how did Barrow make an album so quickly after spending more than a decade on Portishead's Third? Easy: He forced himself.

The band has some pretty rigorous guidelines in place. They record all their music in one room and they don't use overdubs. The band wrote their entire album over the course of one 12-day session. In a statement about Beak>, Barrow says, "It's really good to create music under different conditions than you're used to."

Listen to a song from the album, the eerily low-key krautrock churner "I Know", below.

Invada will also sell a limited deluxe edition version of the album. Inside a black box, you'll get the album on CD, as well as a bonus CD EP, a 12" with two bonus tracks, and a T-shirt.

Beak> will make their live debut at the Ten Years of ATP fest in Minehead, England in December.

pitchfork.com/news/36273-portisheads-geoff-barrow-forms-new-band/

[busyboy]

They have just released a new track titled "Chase The Tear" in support of Amnesty International. Hear it at the link:

www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=11755

[galvanize]

Fantastic track - I hope it eventually ends up on the fourth album.

[busyboy]

It sounds so 80s to me for some reason. In their own peculiar way, of course.

BTW, that Beak> album is really not bad at all. A bit heavy to digest, but pretty good.

[Deleted]

Not a fan of "Chase The Tear" on first listen at all. :(

[TGAC]

Portishead's Geoff Barrow sets out new album rules Portishead


Portishead's Geoff Barrow has taken to Twitter to set out a number of rules for the band's next album.

Barrow posted six tweets outlining his desires for how the follow-up to 2008's 'Third' should be released, utilising his caps lock key for extra emphasis.

He wrote: "There will be NO free downloads. There will be NO bonus tracks. There will be NO remixes. There will be NO hidden footage."

Barrow didn't stop there, outlining further that he wasn't too bothered about coming up with a substantial marketing plan for the record.

"There will be NO additional content," he wrote. "There will be NO corporate partners. There will be NO fashion lines. There will be NO tabloid pictures. There will be NO £25 unit cost. There will be NO street team. There will be NO MySpace. There will be NO celeb producer. There will be NO Twitter. There will be NO press/blogger gig. There will be NO acoustic session. There will be NO meet and greet. There will be NO edited version. There will be NO iTunes-only. There will be NO press launch. There will be NO Asian version. There will be NO radio friendly."

In conclusion, Barrow wrote: "Just music and us."

Portishead are curating All Tomorrow's Parties' I'll Be Your Mirror festival, which takes place in London in July.

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As long as you release it relatively soon...

[Deleted]

Jan 6, 2011 13:59:17 GMT -5 TGAC said:

Portishead's Geoff Barrow has taken to Twitter to set out a number of rules for the band's next album ... There will be NO Twitter.

Well, JEFF, where's the logic there, ugly? jkjkjk

NEway, yeah, hope this is more on the horizon rather than several hundred miles down the vertical drop off the edge of the flat pre-Columbus world. Yeah, I know that's widely believed misconception (don't trust what they teach you in elementary school, kiddies), but Third's def one of my fav albums of the last few years.

[Mic Technique]

What is 'busyboy'? ???

Dec 17, 2008 13:34:37 GMT -5 Mic Technique said:

I'm sure this will come sooner than most think.

Better yet, what is this?

Jan 6, 2011 13:59:17 GMT -5 TGAC said:

"There will be NO Asian version."

lolllllll. Can't say I expected a departure from all of which was renounced above but s0 nice of Barrow to reaffirm the pair's standing, i.e. repudiation :johnboehner: of 'corporate stratagem'.

[TGAC]

Jan 6, 2011 16:50:00 GMT -5 Mic Technique said:

What is 'busyboy'? ???

Some random stranger who obviously didn't plan to stick around, going by the username he picked upon registering...

Dec 17, 2008 13:34:37 GMT -5 Mic Technique said:

I'm sure this will come sooner than most think.

* suffocates *

Heightened intuition, eh? ;)