Portishead released the 1994 debut album Dummy, a landmark of trip hop and alternative music.
The Bristol, England, group consisted of Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons, and Adrian Utley. Dummy combined sampled hip-hop rhythms, cinematic strings, turntable textures, and Gibbons’s distinctive vocals. Its atmosphere helped define the darker, more introspective side of the Bristol trip-hop scene.
Dummy won the 1995 Mercury Music Prize, making Portishead the first winner of that award. Its best-known tracks include “Sour Times,” “Glory Box,” and “Numb.” The album was initially associated with trip hop, although its influence reached alternative rock, electronic music, and film-style soundtrack production.
A common mix-up is confusing Portishead with Massive Attack, another major Bristol act. Massive Attack released Blue Lines in 1991, while Portishead’s breakthrough album was Dummy. Portishead later released Portishead in 1997 and Third in 2008.