Vinyl: Portishead's trip-hop synthesis

By Siegfried Bilstein     3/31/11 7:00pm

It took a while to get there, but by the late '80s hip-hop had cemented its place into mainstream American consciousness. Rap music was everywhere, from the pop charts with MC Hammer to the underground with alternative groups like The Pharcyde. Naturally, as what happens with most genres (think punk or blues music), the movement transformed into a genre, splintering into categories like alternative, gangsta or pop-rap. Even though hip-hop as a unified cultural movement no longer existed, this level of development opened the doors for artists of different traditions to experiment with hip-hop's fundamental ideas. While some '80s bands, like Blondie and the Clash, did incorporate aspects of hip-hop into their music, it wasn't until the '90s that growth of fusion cross-genre bands really picked up.

 

Some obvious spin-offs are bands like Rage Against The Machine and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. While they are arguably the most successful, these bands are representative of a very popular Los Angeles aesthetic at the time: occasional rapping and singing accompanied by heavy bass lines and hip-hop drums. Electronic music took a note of hip-hop also; the Chemical Brothers, Prodigy and other artists of the nascent big beat genre took the hip-hop notion of a breakbeat to the extreme.

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Trip-hop, a rap-free fusion of hip-hop sampling and sultry female vocals, was also born in this era. Portishead, a British band from Bristol, helped propel trip-hop to the popular consciousness. Their music integrates all of the necessary elements of hip-hop with expert execution.

 

Trip-hop is a slowed down, melancholic reinterpretation of American hip-hop that was pioneered by British kids in the '90s. Similar to  when they showed us in the '60s that they could play our poverty-inspired blues better than we could, British DJs and musicians took sample-based hip-hop and threw in guitars, bass and some (usually female) vocals. While in their later years they would venture out into other musical territories, Portishead's 1994 debut album Dummy is an excellent example of the trip-hop aesthetic.

 

In album opener "Mysterons," turntable scratching, snare rolls and heavy backbeats blend in well with the more traditional and dark guitar and bass work. Throw in some eerie atmospheric sounds and vocalist Beth Gibbons' longing voice and you have a track that somehow takes the fun out of hip-hop and replaces it with a gloomy beauty that is just as satisfying. Most of the album proceeds in the same way, with Gibbons' voice carrying a desperate angst supported by synthesizers,samples and beautiful guitar work.  Gibbons really drives the band; if it wasn't for her bossa nova-like stylings on "It Could Be Sweet," the beat would have been simply a generic weed rap. While every song on the album is an excellent listen, they sound similar, with varying ratios of guitar to vocals to electronics.

 

Trip-hop exists in a strange place: Situated somewhere in between hip-hop and electronica with a post-punk attitude, it's difficult to imagine until you listen to it. The slowed-down beats are reminiscent of reggae, and were probably heavily influenced by the large Caribbean population in England. There isn't anything rough or signifying about trip-hop; its music merely represents a strictly British retooling of American beats in the context of a vibrant electronic scene. British music critic Simon Reynolds once said the genre was "merely a form of gentrification." However, trip-hop's lovely aesthetic, presented so well by Portishead's Dummy, forgives the lack of substance.

 

Portishead entered the mainstream with their big hit "Sour Times." The song managed to chart at number 53 on Billboard's Hot 100, and its unsettling metallic rattling and disarming bass line would go on to garner a sample backing a Big Boi verse on Girl Talk's recently popular "Jump On Stage." While trip-hop never achieved the success or notoriety of its cousin genres like rap-rock, it is a great example of hip-hop's effect on other kinds of music, and Portishead's debut Dummy serves as a great introduction.

 

Siegfried Bilstein is a Wiess College senior. Vinyl revisits classic music that is relevent to today's audience.

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