Portishead's Favourite Albums

Annotation :

"Geoff Barrow: This choice was between lots of different hip hop records but I chose Enter The Wu-Tang as it's everything I want as a hip hop fan. I also really get a sense of the punk ethic that informs the RZA's producton. This record's roughness and the pure energy of the whole thing is still fresh and unstoppable now."

Annotation :

"Geoff Barrow: My Invada partner [Fat Paul] lent me this album. It is really rough to listen to but totally unique at the same time; especially when you read about where it came from and what it led to. It was also musically a huge influence on me whilst writing and recording Third."

Annotation :

"Geoff Barrow: I used to be in a boring hair metal band when I was young, pre-Nirvana. We were definitely behind the times in rock terms and I wish I'd heard this or music like it when I was younger. So this is my teenage fantasy rock album... not much else to say really."

Annotation :

"Adrian Utley: This is one of the most important albums of my life. I didn't understand it when I first got hold of a copy but sensed its brilliance and importance. Now I can't live without it. A Love Supreme is powerful, dedicated, spiritual music which is incredibly recorded."

Annotation :

"Adrian Utley: I was given a Canadian copy of this album by a super hip friend when I was 13. I love it and it was one of the earliest influences on me playing the guitar; along with Lightnin' Hopkins and John Lee Hooker. 'If Six Was Nine' features in the Easy Rider soundtrack and is so brilliant. Hendrix has always been somewhere in the back of my mind, lurking about and popping out occasionally and this album along with the tracks 'Voodoo Chile' and his version of the 'Star Spangled Banner' are, for me, the most powerful things he ever did. In that strange way that we collect music as children and seem to end up with a random juxtaposition of LPs, my collection featured Lonnie Donegan, The Thunderbirds and Jimi Hendrix!"

Annotation :

"Adrian Utley: I first got this album in the late 80s when I was really involved in playing jazz and this came busting in to change everything for me. I was overwhelmed by its sound. I'd never heard hip hop this powerful before and I was confused and elated by its construction. It made me completely rethink my life and approach to music. And it made me save money to get a sampler and Atari computer. I met Geoff Barrow around about the same time and he knew about and was making this kind of music. Shortly after, we started working together. I remember this album mainly being played at deafening volume on the shit stereo in my shit car, driving up the the motorway to a whole new life."

Annotation :

"Adrian Utley: I found this album in a shop in Sydney when we were on tour in Australia 1998 and it has been probably my most consistently listened to album since. When I've been playing or in the studio too much I will only be able to listen to music like this which is so far from my normal world. It is inspirational, mediative and calm; an antidote to the crazy world I tend to find myself in. Hariprasad is such a beautiful and accomplished, spiritual player in the Indian classical tradition. Both of my children were born to his music."

Annotation :

"Adrian Utley: I love Neil Young and this album was massive when I was a kid. It has never left me; I always had a copy around. I thoroughly believe in him and his life is an inspiration. He is one of the few who gets better as he gets older."

Annotation :

"Adrian Utley: This was a really important album for me and one I listened to endlessly. It signified a change in both my life and my musical direction. It was through this album I discovered a lot of other reggae and ska/bluebeat. Most of my musical friends and my parents hated it which in some ways made me love it more. Also it came at the end of the seventies and I think we all felt a dissatisfactionand anger about the state of the country - and somehow this album encapsulated a lot of those feelings. 'Too Much Too Young' was my favorite track. Amazing."

Annotation :

"Adrian Utley: I remember buying the first Silver Apples record as a re-release when I was in New York in the mid nineties and couldn't believe that it had been made in the late 60s... I thought it had been done recently and there was some mad story attached to it or that it was a scam. Its incredible and really innovative. Especially if you think what was going on in music at that time. It was as avant as Hendrix... who I believe they knew and supposedly influenced. I don't know of anything or anyone who sounded like this, with really hip grooves played on many tuned drums with a collection of oscillators operated with telephone switches. All of this gave it a crazy off-centre feeling. I loved it then and still do. Oscillations...awesome...

Geoff Barrow: Ade played me Silver Apples and from then on they've had a massive influence on my musical life. The incredibly inventive drumming of Danny Taylor and the totally nuts and brilliant explorations of Simeon. I've been lucky to meet and chat with Simeon once or twice and he's an amazing guy, I would have loved to have seen them play together but Danny sadly died in an accident some years ago. Simeon has been working on a film about the band so I can't wait to see it."

Annotation :

"Geoff Barrow: John Carpenter manages to create a killer mood in one of the most simple but well written electronic soundtracks ever. This is also one of my favourite films. It makes me want to punch the air in excitement like a little kid."

Annotation :

"Geoff Barrow: As a non-French speaker I can only relate on a musical level to this album. I love the connection between the three or so studio players, working together as a tight unit rather than being part of the orchestra also used. The players totally vibe with each other using dynamics of playing - something very hard to hear in modern production of popular music."

Annotation :

"Geoff Barrow: Can are my favourite and most inspirational band ever, I think. I heard this in the early nineties on the radio, thinking they were the best new band ever - and then I found out it was released in the the early 70s. Melodically, sonically and rythmically this is experimentationwith songs."