Geoff Barrow & Ben Salisbury

Q&A: Portishead producer Geoff Barrow on hip hop, krautrock, and film scores

DROKKGeoff Barrow & Ben Salisbury: Drokk: Music Inspired by Mega-City One (Invada, 5/1/12)

“Lawmaster Pursuit”

Geoff Barrow & Ben Salisbury: “Lawmaster Pursuit”

If there’s one band that pulled off the long, mysterious hiatus with mystique intact, it’s Bristol, England’s Portishead. Yet when the ’90s trip-hop act resurfaced in 2006, it had substantially changed — gone were the down-tempo beats and much of the melancholy, replaced with a new sound and sparse, driving rhythms that owed more to krautrock than Def Jam.

Beatsmith/songwriter Geoff Barrow was guiding it that way. Since the reunion, he’s been on fire, issuing music in a variety of guises with Beak> (a rock band), Quakers (a sprawling hip-hop project), and as Drokk (a soundtracking duo). That’s not including the records that Barrow has produced for others and released on his label, Invada.

With no shortage of topics in tow, we caught up with Barrow to talk about drum sounds, film scores, and writing music for Judge Dredd.

JJ Doom

Review: JJ Doom’s Key to the Kuffs

JJ Doom: Key to the Kuffs (Lex, 8/21/12)

“Banished”

JJ Doom: “Banished”

In February, producer/rapper Jneiro Jarel and masked wordsmith MF Doom announced a collaborative album under the name JJ Doom, teasing us with “Banished” as well as a string of contributors such as Blur/Gorillaz front-man Damon Albarn, Portishead’s Beth Gibbons, and Jarel’s old Willie Isz partner, Khujo Goodie. Now the wait is over, as Key to the Kuffs finally gets its release on Lex.

Supervillain (MF) Doom hits Europe…or does he?

Mysterious hip-hop artist (MF) Doom (aka Daniel Dumile) is to tour the UK, Ireland, mainland Europe, and the majority of Scandinavia starting in October of 2010.

The idiosyncratic MC is a favorite of many, as are his collaborations as Danger Doom (with Danger Mouse) and Madvillain (with Madlib).

Known for sending impersonators to wear his mask and lip-sync on tour, Doom is as much a character as a performer, so what happens on his newest tour is anyone’s guess. He’ll be touring in support of Expektoration, a live album planned for release on September 14, 2010 on Gold Dust Media.

Weekly Music News Roundup

Doom admits to hiring people to play him on stage; Nile will record a new album in June; Qwel puts out a limited-edition tour CD; the next Madvillain album should be finished in two months.  This and more in the roundup…

Ten Albums to Anticipate This Spring

As the weather stops being oppressive in the Northern Hemisphere, a number of potentially great albums from countless genres are on the way.  Here’s a list of ten that have us excited, including efforts from Isis, MF Doom, Coalesce, Prefuse 73, Mr. Lif, and more.