Conference marvin::uk_music

    That's actually quite a good definition. No kidding. I bought the
    record after a positive review in - wait for it - Elle magazine. Not
    that I normally go by what Elle says in relation to music, just that it
    agreed with other positive stuff I'd read about Portishead. I think
    that the record itself is this year's 'Debut' (Bjork) and I do mean
    that as high praise.
    
    There's a recent Portishead note in goes11::radio_radio, but it's not
    much more informed than this note.
    
    
    Rod

    Portishead have remixed a track on the new Primal Scream single, and
    its very good, very much in a Portishead styleee--slow and dubby.
    
    The lp is on my crimble list!  Though I suspect I'll get it when
    visiting the Mighty Ed next week.
    
    Mikef

Portishead played live on MTVs most wanted last week, and were extremely 
impressive.  I suppose I'd better go out and get the CD, now.  I was pretty 
amazed at how good they were, especially considering they were playing 100% 
live.  Good one.  They've won another friend in this otherwise disillusioned 
Welshman.  

    
    Great album from what I've listened to so far this afternoon, I can
    imagine it being perfect late night driving music...
    
    Chris.

Went out and bought it last week and it is indeed an excellent buy (even at 14.99
from Our Price).

The wife has been playing it 3 time a day ever since!

    
    
    Got it at Christmas, first listen thought it was crap....started
    listening to it on a rainy Saturday..what an album..its the best I've
    heard for a long time. Its a very atmospheric album..great with a
    bottle of wine and a few candles..
    
    		one transformed Portishead fan........A.b..
    
    

    Last night on VH-1 they played the Portishead film "To Kill A Dead
    Man". Very artschool.
    
    It's one saving grace was the soundtrack. Was any of the music on the
    lp that you are raving about?
    

    I thought the film was kinda cool and quite interesting.  Can't
    remember which tunes it used tho - might be some of the themes from the
    lp?
    
    Mikef

I missed the film, but I saw a trailer earlier in the day.  Yes, I think there 
was at least one song off the album there - When the woman was in a bed, and 
this bloke comes in and shoots her?  Lyrics are "...nobody loves meeeee...it's 
true.."

Bells a ringin'?

ps I knew I forgot to set the video for something.  pah!

    I saw the beginning of the film.  I lasted about 4 minutes before I got
    bored as nothing much seemed to be happening with the music.  It was a
    bit too Radio 3 for me, no tunes to get your teeth into, however, I
    love the sound of that plinky plonky instrument thing, that one that
    looks like a box with loads of strings on it that you hit with a spoon
    or something.                                           
    
    tmp

    Yes, an awful lot of the music is from the album "Dummy".
    
    Dave. (who wishes he had known that it was on).
    

    Dave 
    
    Have no fear. If VH-1 is anything like the other staelitte channels,
    the film will be repeated 15 times before the weekend!
    
    Stuart

I've only heard `dummy' once; on that rather limited basis, my current
opinion is that it's okay in small doses, but after a while it grates
on me a bit.

Chris.

    Re .10: The plinky plonky thing is called a Theremin.
    
    
    Rod

    >>Re .10: The plinky plonky thing is called a Theremin.
    
    Are you sure? I've never heard a Theremin make a "plink-plonky" sound.
    I don't see how it can: it generates a continuous tone, with amplitutde
    and frequency controlled by varying the position of the hands in
    relation to two inductors, perhaps the most famous example being the
    warbling sound on "Good Vibrations", or many a 50's sci-fi film for
    that matter. But you probably knew that already?
    
    Phil Gill.

    Err... no I'm not sure! I was only using the notes technique of
    confident assertion to slip in a dodgy fact unchallenged. But you
    probably knew that already.
    
    
    Rod

now you know where I got the idea from ;-)

On my copy of the "dummy" album, the last track "glory" sounds as if it is
a recording of a LP record - there are occasional pops and crackles in it 
like surface noise.  Is this something anyone else has noticed?  Have I got
a duff CD or just brilliant hearing abilities?

nick 

Isn't the "plinky plonky thing" a sample taken from Mission Impossible, or 
something?

    re-2 - the pops n crackles are there...I think you can hear them on
    several tracks on the album.  I think its due to a sample being used,
    which has been taken straight from a vinyl recording.  I've heard it a few
    times on other albums/tracks also.
    
    

    Yes, I've got Dummy on vinyl and the extra clicks and crackles stand
    out there too. Seems like quite a few performers, in the cd age, are
    enjoying the irony of giving us surface noise anyway. Like the previous
    noter I've heard it on several other records.
    
    
    Rod

    
>>  out there too. Seems like quite a few performers, in the cd age, are
>>  enjoying the irony of giving us surface noise anyway. Like the previous
    
    ...surely it's because they can't make the sound they want themselves
    and they haven't got access to the original masters so they steal it
    from an LP record instead...
    
    as you may have guessed I don't have much time for bands who can't make
    their own noises %^)
    
    Graham
    Graham

    I don't think there is anything wrong with sampling as such, depends on
    what you do with it really.  On the Portishead album, for instance,
    you'd be hard pushed to recognise the original source (if it wasn't
    credited).  There are some great hip hop/rap singles based on themes
    from old jazz standards also.  I don't think its a crime in the same
    way as the fashion from a couple of years ago of just taking an old
    song, putting some drum beats behind it, and releasing it as something
    wild and new.
    
    I like surface noise also.  As John Peel said, life is full of surface
    noise.
    
    Mikef
    
    

There's a difference between Portishead's manner of sampling - mainly noises - 
and the manner employed by idiots such as Vanilla Ice, and his ilk.  He just 
whipped peoples' songs, because he couldn't write his own.  Portishead write 
their own tunes and words, and tend to use samples much as they'd use a musical 
instrument, just to add depth.

I never used to like people using samples, but it really does work well on this 
album.

    
    Okay guys, I was playing 'Devils Advocate' a bit there....
    
    I quite agree with your comments, it's the sampling of a chunk of Music
    that I really don't like. One of my favourite bands - The Orb - have
    made a career out of samples, the thing is they sample sounds & noises
    not other peoples music, much the same as Tangerine Dream & Hawkwind
    have always done, except they built machines to create the sounds - coz
    samplers hadn't been invented...
    
    G.