With Beth Gibbons out doing her solo thing supporting her pensive new album Lives Outgrown, it seems like a good time to dust off some of those classic Portishead records that helped make her a household name in trip-hop circles back in the 90s. That said, while everyone agrees that Portishead’s highwater mark was achieved on their classic debut album, Dummy, you could argue that the group’s most recent (and conceivably final) album, Third, was their most accomplished work. It was their most challenging album, sporting a more abstract, dark, and experimental flavor than their beat-heavy 90s records. And while Portishead’s music often had a menacing undercurrent running through it, they did a brilliant job of dialing up the unsettling vibes on Third, even flirting with some harsh industrial-flavored elements at times, most notably on “Machine Gun.”
Check out this performance of the track captured live on Later with Jools Holland from 2008 and witness Portishead at their most instrumentally abrasive (which becomes more evident as the intensity builds throughout the back-half of the song):
