In 1994, the world of electronica shook upon the release of "Dummy", Portishead's debut album. The album features the sultry vocals of Beth Gibbons, the wonderful musicianship of Adrian Utley, and, most notably, the creative, unconventional audio engineering of Geoff Barrow. To this day, it remains a defining album in the trip hop genre.
My love for trip hop began to solidify once I was exposed to this album, and as a sound recording student, I found its story particularly inspiring.
What made "Dummy" so iconic?
The humble beginnings of Portishead.
Portishead was heavily influenced by Massive Attack, another major player in trip hop. Portishead member Geoff Barrow worked as tape operator for Coach House Studios in Bristol. This is the studio in which Massive Attack produced a lot of their records. Having watched Massive Attack's collaborative process in creating their electronic, downtempo, hip hop album "Blue Lines", Geoff was inspired to create a similar project.
On his own time, Geoff would sample hip hop and breaks with DJ and friend Andy Smith. Geoff had ideas of taking the hip-hop sound in an entirely new direction. Andy helped him out using his expertise to dig up records for Geoff to sample. The only issue was finding the right team for this project.
The Team
Andy introduced vocalist Beth Gibbons to Geoff, who ended up being the most natural fit as the front-runner out of the many singers Geoff and Andy auditioned. Nothing really came of it until Geoff met jazz guitarist Adrian Utley on a serendipitous encounter in Coach House Studios. Adrian wouldn't even have stepped foot in the studio, had not drummer Clive Deamer encouraged him. Eventually, Clive would be called in to do many of the drums for the album, becoming an unofficial member.
The official band was formed, consisting of Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons, and Adrian Utley. Together, they would write the music and produce the album. "Dummy" was largely collaborative, like Geoff wanted, and a full list of personnel can be found on their Discogs page.
The key to their unique sound.
Geoff experimented heavily during the creation of this album, pushing the conventional use of tape and vinyl.
Typically, in professional recordings, preserving quality is of utmost importance. Not to Geoff. Here are some fascinating methods discussed in Reverb's article, Making Portishead's "Dummy": The Production Experiments of a Trip-Hop Classic.
To create the effect heard 30 seconds into "Strangers," the guitar (an "absolute piece-of-shit acoustic we found lying around the studio," according to Utley) was recorded on a dictaphone—known as a handheld tape recorder to Americans—to produce an especially gnarly distortion. From the sound of it, the same was likely done to the vocals as well.
Geoff would even copy recordings onto cassette, another odd choice as a serious producer.
After recording Clive's drums onto a half-inch 16-track tape, Geoff would have it pressed to vinyl. "...then he'd chuck it on the floor and kick it around, so it was a bit crackly, get it on his deck and just scratch on the snare drum bit to make it go dull," explained Adrian in MusicRadar. The now crackly, degraded audio was then sampled and programmed to beats. Other instruments were treated this way, giving the overall record a unique textured feel. Listen to the opening song "Mysterons". The same treatment was done to the guitar and can be heard best in the chorus.
Portishead's sound heavily incorporates sampling other records. As mentioned, Geoff began this project with the help of his DJ friend Andy, sampling hip hop beats and breaks with intentions of taking it beyond the existing genre. In total, Portishead sampled five different songs for five of their tracks on "Dummy". Here are a couple examples that demonstrate how these samples were treated:
Sour Times contains samples from "Danube Incident" written & performed by Lalo.
Wandering Star contains samples from "Magic Mountain" written & performed by Eric Burdon & War.
A lot of detail and creativity went into the making of this album, and their efforts were very well received.
Portishead's debut awards and certifications
Upon "Dummy's" release in 1994, its unique sound quickly attracted attention. Portishead gained much of its initial success due to Bristol's underground press and support.
At the time, Bristol's underground interest in trip hop had already been brewing for a few years. Bristol's Wild Bunch crew and sound system and Massive Attack had garnered quite the attention reinventing hip hop into trip hop, what became known as the Bristol sound. This was the perfect time and place for Portishead to release their project.
"Dummy" took off from Bristol, and solidified its place in trip hop history.
Its popularity gave trip hop its biggest exposure, yet.
In 1995, "Dummy" won the Mercury Prize for most best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. This won over the likes of Oasis' "Definitely Maybe" and Van Morrison "Days Like This".
"Dummy" legacy in trip hop history
To this day, "Dummy" remains one of the most influential albums in trip hop. Since 1994, the genre has grown and inspired new forms of electronica. Since "Dummy", Portishead has released two more well-received albums, solidifying it's spot as an icon in trip hop history.
"Dummy" was one of the first albums that exposed me to trip hop. I've never looked back. Have a listen. Try listening for the unique production and creative use of sampling. You may fall in love with trip hop, too.
