I have just listened to Portishead P3 for the first time. The playing appliance is good. It has deeply resonant speakers with good top and uncardboardy middle. The CD was on at 37% volume, which is pretty loud in a small soundproof box. I listened through. The track I'd heard before, Machine Gun on Jooles Nertherlund, sounded so much better cranked up on a good system. Don't get me wrong. Our TV-combi has a splendid audio contraption. No, it wasn't that.
Live show digression - that ol live sound recording problem: PAs + ambient sound mixed 'correctly' = perennial nightmare. I was surprised to see that they played the clapped out drum machine parts live on midi pads. The studio CD was perfectly produced, of course. Therein lies the impossible comparison. Why do bands like this feel the need to perform live? No deviation from the CD apart from a few over-dubs. And it must be acknowledged that the 'live' show is not exactly dynamic. I expect they get paid well.
Back to listening to the CD - the machine gun track stuck its neck above the shoulders of the previous, impressive nonetheless, pieces. I was not tempted to turn up the volume though, because I was engaged in another project. I simply listened.
The final 20 seconds had me reaching for the volume knob, regardless. I shoved it up to 42% (considerably loud) at exactly the point the CD finished. Now that: I call a good album.
Number Eleven refers to Nigel Tufnel's volume knob, and is only coincidentally related to the fact that this is the eleventh posting.
