On "Glory Box," Barrow manipulated the guitar's Bigsby vibrato while Utley played, creating the squealing pitch bends that embellish the simple descending line in the chorus. Utley's Gretsch G6129 Silver Jet takes center stage on two of Dummy's biggest songs, its unique Filter'Tron pickups providing some of the album's nastiest tones. "It was just the one I could afford, but it was a nasty one: It didn't sustain." "I played a 335 for years, which I hated," Utley told MusicRadar in 2013. But before you go out and buy one hoping to ape Utley's style, you may be surprised to learn that he wasn't really a fan of it. This treatment gives the vocals a distinctly lo-fi sound, as if they were coming out of a public address system-exactly the effect the band was looking for.īeing primarily a jazz player before Portishead, Adrian Utley's main guitar at the time of recording Dummy was the venerable Gibson ES-335. A heavy dose of EQ provided the final touch: McDonald generously boosted the area around 1kHz, an area most mixers would cut due to its harsh, nasal sound. Gibbons' vocals were then processed heavily with a Teletronix LA-2A compressor, which brought every articulation and breath to the fore, creating that right-in-your-ear sound. "I've always liked the sound of old vocals.
"That was something I was deliberately seeking," adds McDonald. The 414 contains the same capsule as the classic AKG C12 used on greats like Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday, giving it an unmistakably vintage sound. "It was all we could really afford in State of Art," McDonald confessed. In this article, we'll highlight some of the secret ingredients that made Dummy a classic.Īccording to engineer Dave McDonald, the AKG C414 was the microphone of choice for Beth Gibbons' vocals-partly because of its signature sound and partly out of necessity. So how did Portishead craft the signature sound of Dummy? Turns out it was a mixture of creative sampling, adventurous recording techniques, and some sick vintage gear. The opening bars of "Mysterons" give you a taste of the album's sonic palette: minimalist, tremolo-laden guitar parts, expert turntablism, crackly sampled rhythms, booming 808 bass, entrancing synthesizers, and of course, Gibbons' unparalleled vocals. And it all began 25 years ago, when the trio of DJ and sampling guru Geoff Barrow, guitarist Adrian Utley, and vocalist Beth Gibbons released their debut album, Dummy, bringing their uniquely dark, melodic take on hip-hop to the masses.Īside from the undeniably excellent songwriting and tasteful musicianship on display, Dummy is primarily an album of texture-something that is fully apparent within the first minute of the record. Although Portishead weren't the first group to explore the sonic territory that would become known as trip-hop (that honor goes to their peers in Massive Attack), the Bristol, UK-based group is now practically synonymous with the genre.
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