After 3 years in the wilderness, trip-hop pioneers Portishead rumble back
over the horizonwith "Cowboy", a mighty behemoth of bass and lazy beats.
Released on 12 inch vinyl only and in a strictly limited edition of 7500,
the band could be accused of elitism and awkwardness. I don't care. When a
band - any band - produces music of this calibre and degree of innovation,
they could make it available only to purchasers of a certain brand of soft
drink and they would be forgiven.
"Cowboy" is heavier than the Portishead of old. The band seem to have plugged their equipment into the earth's core and turned it up to 11, producing a truly seismic bass and an eardrum-shattering sound. Placing them amongst fellow noiseniks and high-volume merchants such as MBV, the Velvets or Spacemen 3, Portishead carve out their own mighty slab of sonic stone with a nod to dance and hip-hop beats. And when Beth Gibbon's unsettling Eartha-Kitt-on-dope voice appears in the mix like a slightly unhinged ghost at a seance, the effect is no less than spine-tinglingly superb. The most vital release this week by miles.
The b-side consists of an instrumental version of the a-side, in which Geoff Barrow's aural Frankenstein's monster escapes from Castle Portishead and sends tremors throughout the land.
Rating: 10/10