PREVIEW: Portishead: 8 p.m. Wednesday. $20. The Roxy, 3110 Roswell Road N.E. 404-233-7699.: Portishead showing more group effort
The music of Portishead swirls and shimmers like a dervish. A sense of foreboding surrounds the listener with hints of James Bond theme tunes of the '60s and soundtracks from science fiction and horror classics all pegged to the urban beats of the '90s.
The band's second U.S. jaunt brings it to the Roxy on Wednesday, with its four members augmented by two disc jockeys. Between the two American tours, Portishead did play a stateside show in July at New York's Roseland Ballroom that was taped for broadcast on British television. "It was terrifying, mainly," says multi-instrumentalist Adrian Utley speaking by phone from the group's hometown of Bristol, England. "(With) all these cameras tracking around and all this white light, we thought, `This is a mistake.' It looks good though. We'll probably sell a long-form video in the next year."
Utley sees little difference between American and British audiences. "If we play in England it has a different connotation for us." But, he adds, "It's just the way we feel. It's the same kind of people that come to the shows everywhere."
The band's new CD, titled simply "Portishead," has received rave reviews but less attention from radio than the debut, "Dummy." "Sour Times" from the latter record caught the radio and the public's ear with its forlorn refrain of "Nobody loves me, it's true, not like you do" sung by the achingly beautiful voice of Beth Gibbons.
Adding to the mysterious atmosphere that surrounds the band, Gibbons rarely talks to the press, but often consents to photo shoots. Previously, leader and songwriter Geoff Barrows has handled most of the interviews, but Utley's higher profile of late does much to negate the perception that the band is a duo. As Utley puts it, "I was always there from the first day. It was the way it was marketed by the record company."
The new record even looks like more of a collaborative effort on paper. Unusually, the fourth member is the group's engineer and sound man Dave McDonald. McDonald's role becomes more understandable when you know the band's recording process, which makes intensive use of the studio.
"We're all involved ---Dave, me and Geoff in the studio," says Utley. "Geoff and I tend to write the backing tracks, with the live beats first (that's Geoff's department). We'll have a sound in mind, like a soundtrack we're inspired by, then multitrack it, maybe put it onto vinyl and sample it from vinyl. Then that goes to Beth, and she'll write her lyrics and melody on that. "
Why record your own samples, rather than taking them direct from someone else's recording? "Because if you use a sample (from another artist)," Utley says, "a few weeks later someone has the same sample on their record. (Also) if you make your own samples, you can make the chord sequences go the way you want them."
By: Shane Harrison