The 90ies were characterised by a wide variety of musical genres of which we’ve only touched a few so far. One of them that emerged right at the beginning of the decade in Bristol, 100 miles west of London, was Trip Hop, a wild mixture of genres incorporating Acid-Jazz, Soul, Dub and Funk but typically prominently characterized by slowed down break-beat drums with heavily accented bass frequencies and strong melancholic feelings. The perfect soundtrack to lose yourself in a stoned daze.

While the title of first band to bring the genre to the attention of a wider audience would probably go to Massive Attack, the broad popularisation happened when Portishead – named after a small town on the coast just outside Bristol – released their debut album “Dummy”. It received universal critical acclaim even though the band had a strong disliking to press coverage. To be honest, I found it hard to choose just the one song for this blog, as it’s a complete work of art – one of those albums that really should be listened to from beginning to end, like The Beatles’ Abbey Road, Pink Floyd’s The Wall or Manu Chao’s Clandestino. Also, the songs tend to flow into each other and it’s often not quite so clear where one ends and the next one begins.

The video to “Sour Times” is made up of footage from the short film “To Kill A Dead Man”, a spy movie the band made around the same time.