SERGE PIZZORNO
Kasabian guitar droog hails the scary adventure of Portishead’s 2008 comeback Third.
I was at Portishead’s Nightmare Before Christmas weekend in Minehead in 2007. An amazing, mad line up, in Butlin’s. I went to see them and someone gave me ketamine, which I’d never had before. It was insane. They played Machine Gun and I had a moment of, This is the future. It was so minimal, with that incredible John Carpenter synth sound. My legs had turned to jelly, there were flashing lights… I’d had a glimpse into a sound, and I was like, I need the album now. I had to wait for about six months, but when it arrived, it stayed on repeat for a long time. It’s an adventure, a scary one. Geoff Barrow’s production, he’s got the best taste, he always makes the right decisions. I can hear Lalo Schifrin, Silver Apples, Hawkwind – things and moods I love. Everything creates this feel and atmosphere – the sharp editing, the use of modular synths, which is unbelievable, the bizarre tunings. They went deep on that: I think a lot of the guitars are out [of tune] but they’re perfect, like the Joy Division bit on We Carry On. There’s always a little gem in the middle of the songs. In Hunter, it starts off with this creepy David Lynch sound, and from nowhere there’s this synth drop, a weird little sequence [of notes]. Small begins with this eerie cello thing and goes into proper psych rock… the songs just flow, you never know where you are. And Beth Gibbons’ voice – such a strange fit, the piece of the puzzle that makes it so unique. She’s like a druid-folk-angel. You feel the pain in it, it’s beautiful, it’s a weapon, especially on Machine Gun, which is so futuristic and industrial. I know nothing about her, it’s just pure mystery, her voice and the lyrics. It’s a work of art and it exists on its own terms, without compromise. It’s such a strong instruction to stay on your own path, to not settle. Ask yourself, why are you doing that? Listening to it now, I get flashbacks. I play it when I go and get my fish and chips at night, there and back, down the country roads, on my own. You’re driving and you can’t see the horizon and it’s pitch black and you can see the trees and your mind races. It gives me the fear. I love that. As told to Ian Harrison
“I GET FLASHBACKS …IT GIVES ME THE FEAR.”