Though the ominous textures that DJ-percussionist Geoff Barrow gave Portishead's initial work can be found in abundance on "Third," the group has foregone turntable samples in favor of a minimalist aesthetic comprising off-kilter guitar- and beat-loops. "Silence" and "Hunter" throw together daring unmusical elements, which gradually betray harmonic sensibility.
Relentlessly gloomy, the Portishead formula is given a few surprising spins on "Third," especially in "The Rip," in which the fuzzy production gives way to metronomic beats and lovely keyboard arpeggiations. "Nylon Smile" is populated by "ethnic" instruments (or imitations thereof), string plucks and hand-drum thwacks as Gibbons sings, "I don't know what I've done to deserve you" in an alienated sonic environment.
Though several doses of this languid, tension-filled music get a tad draining, taken altogether it is a suitable sound for our troubling times, and there's an invigorating mysteriousness. Its blaring electronic peals are a wake-up call.
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-- John Payne
Roots remain highly conscious
The Roots
Rising Down (Def Jam)
***
Few rap artists are as self-aware as the Roots. On the group's finest albums, 1999's "Things Fall Apart" and 2002's "Phrenology," no dynamic, however small, is haphazardly applied. On "Rising Down," that attention to detail is heard in the musical uniformity running across its lean 44 minutes (excluding hidden material).
"Rising Down" is meant as the group's "most political album," but its dystopian sound resonates louder than frontman Black Thought's riffs on global warming or guest Truck North's meditations on rampage shooters on "Singing Man." It's a heavy aural palette of saturated black, browns and blues, slathered onto distorted bass lines, buzzing synthesizers and drummer ?uestlove's splintering stick work.
That sonic consistency is technically impressive but carries its own risks: Any sound that stripped-down can achieve the hard-hitting minimalism of "Rising Down" -- or falter into the droning monotony of "I Can't Help It." Against that backdrop, songs offering richer, brighter textures pop out, especially "I Will Not Apologize," with its Afro-beat brass brigade and spiraling bass lines, and "Rising Up," with its buoyant electric keys and rollicking go-go breakdowns.
Overall, "Rising Down" doesn't replicate the balanced charm of last year's "Game Theory," but in other ways, it's the more provocative effort.
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-- Oliver Wang
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Albums are rated on a scale of four stars (excellent), three stars (good), two stars (fair) and one star (poor). Albums reviewed have been released except as indicated.
