http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHjcaBvJVqQ
I thought The ILLZ was a big, famous old rapper that Portishead got a hold of and remixed; some research shows the opposite; Portishead is the bigger of the two groups, and Delgis Mustafa, a brilliant young rapper, got a hold of it and chopped it up for his own use. As such, it's brilliant, not a sample but a complete remaster, new content, context and meaning; clever and sharp and lyrically impressive, but gets more credit for fooling me, sounding like an old master whose vocals had been stolen and set to other backgrounds. Phenomenal.
Showing posts with label portishead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label portishead. Show all posts
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Help I'm Alive — Metric
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoK63Bk7pgw
I won't write an essay here on the topic of gender in music — I'm not nearly well-versed enough, and, frankly, it's been done. I will say that the few female vocalists I do enjoy are generally either Jazz, Trip-Hop, or Rock'n'Roll. There are some genres where I know female vocalists exist, but I don't enjoy them (modern pop, rap, alt-rock, etc). I can probably name only a few female vocalists off the top of my head, actually... Ella Fitzgerald, Blondie, the woman from Fleetwood Mac, Metric (above), The Go! Team...
Oh my god, is that all I can list? I know the names of male singers from named bands (Thom Yorke — Radiohead, etc) but rarely the names of female singers from named bands (... — The Decemberists? I know Colin Meloy.) Oh! Imogen Heap. This still isn't that many.
Doesn't Massive Attack have female vocalists? Guest vocalists. And, uh, Morcheeba, Portishead! All the associated trip-hop acts.
Oh dear.
I won't write an essay here on the topic of gender in music — I'm not nearly well-versed enough, and, frankly, it's been done. I will say that the few female vocalists I do enjoy are generally either Jazz, Trip-Hop, or Rock'n'Roll. There are some genres where I know female vocalists exist, but I don't enjoy them (modern pop, rap, alt-rock, etc). I can probably name only a few female vocalists off the top of my head, actually... Ella Fitzgerald, Blondie, the woman from Fleetwood Mac, Metric (above), The Go! Team...
Oh my god, is that all I can list? I know the names of male singers from named bands (Thom Yorke — Radiohead, etc) but rarely the names of female singers from named bands (... — The Decemberists? I know Colin Meloy.) Oh! Imogen Heap. This still isn't that many.
Doesn't Massive Attack have female vocalists? Guest vocalists. And, uh, Morcheeba, Portishead! All the associated trip-hop acts.
Oh dear.
Monday, March 11, 2013
It's A Fire — Portishead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZlEVAhhhVw
About a year ago, I made a playlist of entirely female vocalists. Somehow, I don't have a lot of music with women on vocals. Something about the timbre, or inherent patriarchal bias, whatever. I actually struggled to find fourteen songs with female vocalists, and by the end, they were almost entirely trip-hop.
Trip-hop is a genre of electronica, based on trip (dub, reggae, techno) and hip-hop, often with rap, sampling, guest stars, and other features of hip-hop. It came out of Britain in the 90s and 00s, mostly through bands like Portishead (above) and Massive Attack.
Portishead and especially Massive Attack fall into that genre of music I so revere, the sort which defies description. To call it ambient, drum-based, processed, dark would be a start, but it's more... immersive. It paints the whole world in shadow for the duration of the song. Very wonderful stuff.
About a year ago, I made a playlist of entirely female vocalists. Somehow, I don't have a lot of music with women on vocals. Something about the timbre, or inherent patriarchal bias, whatever. I actually struggled to find fourteen songs with female vocalists, and by the end, they were almost entirely trip-hop.
Trip-hop is a genre of electronica, based on trip (dub, reggae, techno) and hip-hop, often with rap, sampling, guest stars, and other features of hip-hop. It came out of Britain in the 90s and 00s, mostly through bands like Portishead (above) and Massive Attack.
Portishead and especially Massive Attack fall into that genre of music I so revere, the sort which defies description. To call it ambient, drum-based, processed, dark would be a start, but it's more... immersive. It paints the whole world in shadow for the duration of the song. Very wonderful stuff.
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