The transitions between movements are always fluid as new pieces are pulled into the picture by a crossfader that moves at a snail’s pace. The context is important because unlike many of the other notable trip-hop releases, Smokers Delight has a distinct DJ feel to it, with an aesthetic that relies on multiple melodies being seamlessly layered on top of each other throughout the course of a song.
– JTĪfter releasing an album on then-fledgling label Warp Records in 1991, Nightmares on Wax founder George Evelyn stepped away to run a dance club in Leeds, DJ, and start his own record label. Even Portishead lost interest in 2008, the release of the fucked-up, paranoid sounding Third represented a huge transition for the band, revealing once again that Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons & Co. That didn’t last - within a few years, everyone would come to copy the Portishead template, diluting it a little each time until it lost its intrigue. At the time it was completely alien and strange, but compelling in spite of the weirdness that characterized it.
Dummy became a cult hit on the strength of gorgeous, catchy singles like “Sour Times” and “ Glory Box,” though between those tracks, the group stuffed in moments of soul balladry, heavy-hitting boom-bap beats and swampy, psychedelic dirges. Named for a small English town, Portishead took a hazy, dark approach to pop music, blending crackly hip-hop beats with sparse guitar licks, noir film samples and a fetish for John Barry. And it’s thanks in large part to Dummy, the breathtaking debut album by Portishead. But it wasn’t until around 1994 that the phrase began to make the rounds outside of its incubating scene in Bristol, UK, and began to circulate in the U.S.
This is not the beginning of trip-hop - that arguably started back in 1988 when Massive Attack released their debut single.
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