Dummy
Isolation. Desire. Narcotic. Memory. Shock. Intimacy. Imagination. Solitude. Alienation. Consolation. Truth. Loss. Siren. Lullaby. Nostalgia. Grief. Companion. Lust. Lubricant. Hallucinogen. Essence. Temptress. Perfection. Loneliness. Seduction. Vindication. Depression. Distance. Reconciliation.
Portishead’s 1994 album Dummy reassembles itself with every listen and with each listener. It becomes, cumulatively and collectively, a sequence of perfect meditations on loneliness and solitude; it carries promises of the narcotizing power of love; it serenades the anonymous consolations of the night; it rhapsodizes the unmooring influence upon the soul of unrequited and obsessive desire.
Dummy is irresistibly intimate, stylistically eclectic. A mixture of influences drawn from hip-hop, rock, jazz, folk, soul, funk, blues, and elsewhere, the album is a sparsely woven tapestry of sounds striped from their origins — shards of lyrics, samples, gestures, surfaces, textures. It is held together only by inertia and by the force of the memories, impressions, and perceptions it provokes in the listener — only to fall away undone and unresolved into darkness.
An entry in Continuum’s 33 1/3 series, Portishead’s Dummy will be published in September 2010.
I’m looking for stories about this music. What were you doing when you first heard it? How did it change your life? How has listening to it changed the way that you thought about what music could do?
We live in a world where music is infinitely distributable, ubiquitous in its presence, contextless in conception and reception. Music lives and dies in a place of continuous reinterpretation by its listeners.
What does Dummy mean to you?
Email: dummy333@rjwheaton.com
Twitter: @dummy333
Facebook: Dummy 33 1/3 page
Or comment below.
Hi,
In 1994, I was sixteen – at that age when a new piece of music can still surprise you and blow your mind. As you get older, that level of surprise doesn’t occur that much anymore because you’ve heard it all before.
I was at a friend’s birthday party in his parents’ house and I was getting bored with the music that was playing that night – a mix of Europop, 2 Unlimited and Extreme’s “More than Words”. Ugh. So I went through the record collection that belonged to his parents. I found the obligatory Simon and Garfunkel records, The Bodyguard soundtrack and Eric Clapton’s Unplugged album. Nothing cool there. But in a small stack of cd’s lying on the cd player I saw this blue cover art that belonged to an album called “Dummy” by a group named Portishead. I hadn’t heard of them, but I was curious so I slid the cd into the player and waited.
As “Mysterons” started to fill the room with its sultry beats and eerie vocals, the party changed its mood. It was as if we were suddenly more mature and we were in this dark, sexy, slightly drunk place. Or at least I was…
I’ve been hooked on Beth Gibbons’ voice since that day – and even though my love for her started with “Dummy”, I think her album with Rustin Man is her masterpiece to date.
Kind regards,
Roel Kramer
Comment by Roel Kramer — March 1, 2010 @ 4:43 am