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.

ALARM's 50 Favorite Songs of 2012

ALARM’s 50 (+5) Favorite Songs of 2012

Last month ALARM presented its 50 favorite albums of 2012, an eclectic, rock-heavy selection of discs that were in steady rotation in our downtown-Chicago premises. Now, to give some love to tunes that were left out, we have our 50 (+5) favorite songs of last year — singles, B-sides, EP standouts, soundtrack cuts, and more.

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.

Portishead

Concert Photos: Portishead @ Aragon Ballroom (Chicago, IL)

[Chromatic, our 400-page exploration of musicians and color, is out now. Order here!]

In its recent sold-out return to Chicago, experimental trip-hop band Portishead proved that fans’ interest is at an all-time high, despite the release of just one studio album in the last 14 years. Third, which came out in 2008 to widespread critical acclaim, has buoyed the British group through myriad festival appearances and a curatorial/headlining role for two All Tomorrow’s Parties this year. On 11/14, the band will release a limited-edition two-track record entitled Chase the Tear via XL. All proceeds from the release will go to Amnesty International.

The group’s current tour is its first in North America in more than a decade. Playing in front of a massive projection screen on the sprawling Aragon stage, the members of Portishead (plus three additional musicians) were visually amplified, towering visages in black and white.

Portishead

Weekly Music News Roundup

Blue Note announces another list of catalogue deletions; Akron/Family and High on Fire sign to new labels; Trent Reznor comments on Nine Inch Nails‘ music being used in the torture of overseas detainees.  Keep reading…