Dummy
The Mercury-winning debut: home-pressed vinyl, mismatched samples and Gibbons's voice, and the record that put trip hop on the map.
Portishead, 1994
- Released
- 22 August 1994
- Recorded
- 1993-1994
- Studio
- State of Art and Coach House Studios, Bristol, and Moles Studio, Bath
- Label
- Go! Beat
- Producer
- Portishead, with Adrian Utley
- Length
- 49:21
Recorded in Bristol at State of Art and Coach House, with extra mixing at Moles in Bath. A London studio mix was thrown out, some vocals were lifted from an earlier 16-track session because the feel was right, and the album was cut from DAT. Barrow said State of Art was nowhere near state of the art, and the band smoked so heavily there that the fire brigade was called. The samples include Lalo Schifrin, Weather Report, Johnnie Ray, Eric Burdon and War, and Isaac Hayes.
NME called it a sublime debut and The Wire made it its record of 1994. Rolling Stone moved it from 419 to 131 in its list of the 500 greatest albums in 2020, and Pitchfork placed it 11th among the albums of the 1990s in 2022. It has gone triple platinum in Britain.
Track listing
- Mysterons5:02
- Sour Times4:14
- Strangers3:55
- It Could Be Sweet4:16
- Wandering Star4:51
- It's a Fire3:48
- Numb3:54
- Roads5:02
- Pedestal3:39
- Biscuit5:01
- Glory Box5:06
Personnel
- Beth Gibbons vocals
- Geoff Barrow Rhodes, drums, programming, string arrangements
- Adrian Utley guitar, bass, theremin, Hammond, string arrangements
- Clive Deamer drums
- Gary Baldwin Hammond
- Neil Solman Rhodes, Hammond
- Richard Newell drum programming
- Dave McDonald engineer, nose flute
- Andy Hague trumpet
- Strings Unlimited strings
More from Portishead
Third (2008)
Sources
- Dummy (album), Wikipedia
- Portishead: Dummy, Discogs
- Adrian Utley: Portishead Sound Shaper, Sound On Sound (1995-06)
- Portishead's Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley break down Dummy 25 years later, KEXP (2019-08-22)