Ran across an interesting doom metal cover (not for the faint-hearted) of a Portishead track from their self-titled album yesterday and it made me want to listen to that album again after a long time. Listened to it twice before falling asleep at the break of dawn.
Portishead was my first exposure to trip hop and it was quite a revelation to me who had up until then only listened to mainstream pop and rock with the occasional smattering of alt rock. I forget exactly how I stumbled onto it but I think Glory Box off of Dummy was the first song of theirs I heard (probably on some late night Channel V show - I was a night owl even then). And I remember distinctly this one afternoon after school when my best friend came home and I played my precious Dummy cassette (these were the days before CDs were affordable in India, especially on my meager allowance) for her, making sure to draw the curtains to darken the room first. She later agreed that darkening the room was a good call.
Portishead belongs to the night, to darkness. Listening to this music during the day just doesn't fit. Maybe that is why I love it. Darkness, and I'm not talking literally here, always seems to add an extra dimension to art that makes it more interesting, visceral and real.
Here is a deliciously creepy video for the song All Mine from the album Portishead (make sure to dim the lights to get the full effect):
Portishead was my first exposure to trip hop and it was quite a revelation to me who had up until then only listened to mainstream pop and rock with the occasional smattering of alt rock. I forget exactly how I stumbled onto it but I think Glory Box off of Dummy was the first song of theirs I heard (probably on some late night Channel V show - I was a night owl even then). And I remember distinctly this one afternoon after school when my best friend came home and I played my precious Dummy cassette (these were the days before CDs were affordable in India, especially on my meager allowance) for her, making sure to draw the curtains to darken the room first. She later agreed that darkening the room was a good call.
Portishead belongs to the night, to darkness. Listening to this music during the day just doesn't fit. Maybe that is why I love it. Darkness, and I'm not talking literally here, always seems to add an extra dimension to art that makes it more interesting, visceral and real.
Here is a deliciously creepy video for the song All Mine from the album Portishead (make sure to dim the lights to get the full effect):
No comments:
Post a Comment