TripHop is dead 'long live Portishead

It is not always a gift, when after more than a decade can Bands carried away to a comeback 'especially when they have with previous works created as Portishead seemingly unattainable and unrepeatable: first, the debut album' Dummy ', published in 1994, genre-building milestone. 'Glory Box', 'Sour Times', 'Strangers', 'Roads' forever. Geoff Barrows catchy Psycho sounds orchestrated Beth Gibbons' uniquely versatile and always characteristic traumatized voice. Thanks to 'dummy' apply Portishead with Massive Attack rightly so as archetypes of trip-hop, this drawer 90, which of course they never liked, and too many untalented freeloaders eventually have as soon crowded that they under the burden of this inflationary Chill-Dub had to break apart -Downbeat-Ambient-Geblubbers.
The second album 'Portishead' (1997), initially reviled as something ideas looser successor, has remained the most stringent, most coherent in itself work. Relentlessly the slow beats and heavy bass, fantastic Barrows Scratching and 'course again dominant' Gibbons' really painful wonderful singing, surrounded by a reduced instrumental accompaniment. But eventually Gloomy and this time without any optimistic disorder also received the no less complex 'Portishead' earned their affection and appreciation as a classic trip hop work that his own genre in songs like 'Cowboys', 'Half Day Closing' or 'Over' without prejudice has survived.
Eleven years have passed. The Nineties long, long gone. The band dissolved in years. Beth Gibbons lives' in spite of everything. 2002 her solo work 'Out of Season', together with Rustin 'Man aka Paul Webb, the former bassist of TalkTalk: complex, immensely soulful and melancholic' only suffers every sound, the gibbons are by themselves, under the heavy burden Portishead, and so was 'out of season' necessarily the moderate success in the arts pages and a small, exquisite fan base.
And now yet again Portishead? Gibbons back together with Adrian Utley, Geoff Barrow and Co? Why in 2008? Use the name in order to increase the support from the outset? Something awakens fears that have all too often is confirmed.
Not this time. Portishead are back 'and her third album' Third ', which appears in Germany in late April, is a work that even the greatest optimist would not have thought possible: It has the already idle compared to its predecessors not fear' the contrary. 'Third' exceeds all expectations that seemed utopian to fulfill. Musically tight from the first until the last second, more diverse than ever, gloomy, exciting, psychedelic. The tone has become sometimes rough, reinforced Utleys guitar, Barrows sounds better than ever. Techno songs like 'We Carry On' switch with almost rock (the strong, tense opener 'Silence' is leading the way). Among typical Portishead songs like 'Hunter', which reach the quality of the classics without compromising, and beautiful bitter-sad pieces of 'Out of Season' reminiscent. Faster beats, strong instrumentals, monotony and variation, the courage to electronic and a strong first single (the ice-cold 'Machine Gun'), but does not protrude, let Beth Gibbons' unchanged wonderful vocals total are less dominant and therefore brighter paradoxically simultaneously.
'Third' is one of those rare works that inspire their listeners without weak stopgap consistently at the highest level. The third album from Portishead is not only a brand worthy of this: The very first contact clearly suggests that here a musical heavyweight with tremendous creative power and maturity appears that has the potential to become a classic.