Comments on: Portishead-like sound

Question: Portishead-like sound

phaedon — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:07:09 -0800

I'm looking for any relatively new bands/artists that sound like Portishead. Signed or unsigned - any recommendations?

By: infinitywaltz

infinitywaltz — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:13:41 -0800

Atomica sounds a lot like Portishead. They have a self-titled album out on Positron! Records.

By: subtle_squid

subtle_squid — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:17:15 -0800

Yossy Little Noise Weaver
is in that realm with maybe a little touch of Bjork

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:19:24 -0800

Switchblade Symphony, Rasputina, and Sunshine Blind all sound like Portishead.

By: sveskemus

sveskemus — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:26:41 -0800

You probably already know about Massive Attack, Tricky, Lamb, DJ Shadow, and Thievery Corporation, right? They all sound kind of like Portishead IMO but they are all well known. I can't name any less well known bands who sound like Portishead off the top of my head. If any spring to mind I'll be sure to come back and add them.

By: subtle_squid

subtle_squid — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:26:43 -0800

Martina Topley-Bird, Trickey's ex girlfriend also has a similar vibe. First learned of her when her song Sandpaper Kisses was featured in Indigo Prophecy.

By: sveskemus

sveskemus — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:27:05 -0800

Ah. Relatively new. Missed that. Sorry.

By: googly

googly — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:29:11 -0800

There are a zillion bands that sound like portishead. One good way to find them is to listen to DJ mixes of trip hop/downtempo music. Two suggestions:

(1) Check out the mixes (available for free download!) at thetastates, especially those that feature portishead in the mix (Head In The Clouds; No Ones Around, There's No Need To Fake It; and Chinchillin').

(2) Listen to the "Groove Salad" stream at somafm.

By: afx114

afx114 — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:45:44 -0800

Ilya is pretty close... they are never mentioned without the "Portishead" comparison.

By: emelenjr

emelenjr — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:58:31 -0800

Zero 7.

By: skywhite

skywhite — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 17:17:47 -0800

Tricky, Morcheeba, Beth Orton, some CocoRosie and Massive Attack...

By: skywhite

skywhite — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 17:18:39 -0800

Sorry, those aren't relatively new...

By: vkxmai

vkxmai — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 17:33:49 -0800

Tricky "Maxinquaye"
Tricky "Pre-Millennium Tension"
Leftfield "Leftism"
Massive Attack "Protection"
Massive Attack "Blue Lines"
"Dreamworld: Essential Late-night Listening"
Hooverphonic "Blue Wonder Power Milk"
Stereolab "Emperor Tomato Ketchup"

By: furtive

furtive — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 18:03:06 -0800

The Receivers features the former guitarist for The Dears and are all very good friends of mine. They just finished their album and are shopping it around. I'm a big fan of the Petrograd song myself, but they haven't put up the best ones yet on myspace.

By: christy

christy — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 18:14:39 -0800

check out bitter:sweet and mandalay, i also really like psapp, but they are a bit different.

the last.fm similar page might be of some use, although looking through it it's not too many new artists.

By: JaredSeth

JaredSeth — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 18:44:10 -0800

Music-Map can be handy for these kinds of questions. Enter an artist and it presents a cloud of similar sounding performers.

Portishead results.

By: dobbs

dobbs — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 19:31:07 -0800

The Dining Rooms
Troublemakers

By: phaedon

phaedon — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 19:33:31 -0800

Every answer is better than the next. Thanks.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 19:45:47 -0800

Well, we don't use trip-hoppy breakbeats, exactly, we're more of a minimal-electronica-with-vocals sort of unit, but I've been told, on more than one occasion, that we sound something like Portishead. Or we remind people of Portishead. Whatever. Anyway, you can see if you agree...

By: Shadowkeeper

Shadowkeeper — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 19:49:52 -0800

I just made a Mix CD for someone based around Portishead and Portishead-like bands:

Nightmares On Wax
Bitter:Sweet
Zero 7
Massive Attack
Frou Frou
Thievery Corporation
Air
Olive
Sneaker Pimps
Everything But The Girl
Flunk
Morcheeba
Tosca

And a couple of others that's aren't leaping to mind at the moment ...

By: mikshir

mikshir — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 20:05:55 -0800

I haven't seen Baxter mentioned. They're not new though.

By: aclevername

aclevername — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 20:59:40 -0800

Kristin Mainhart.

By: tmcw

tmcw — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:08:23 -0800

Hmm... members of Portishead have been in Rustin Man, The Jimi Entley Sound, and The I Dig according to my contraption / MusicBrainz. (yeah, self-link) Not sure about the sound, since I can't play music right now.

By: jonathanstrange

jonathanstrange — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:11:54 -0800

Check out Gotye (pronounced like Gaultier the designer) he's an up and coming aussie artist, a little like portishead, but really very good... his song "Hearts a mess" has a great new filmclip too.

myspace: www.myspace.com/gotye

By: sevenless

sevenless — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:21:02 -0800

My sounds like Portishead mix includes a lot of those mentioned plus Lamb, Dabrye, Coach Said Not Too, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Teflon Tel Aviv, and Ruby.

I can't guarantee that every song by them sounds like Portishead of course, but some do.

By: sevenless

sevenless — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:24:33 -0800

Crap, most of those aren't really even close to relatively new. Sorry.

Well, the Coach Said Not Too song I have is from the 2006 SXSW site, so I suppose that one's relatively new.

By: aneel

aneel — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:51:48 -0800

Halou

By: thossum

thossum — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 01:30:57 -0800

The album Beth Gibbons did with Rustin' Man (not sure if Paul Webb was in Portishead), Out of Season, sounds Portishead-ish, mainly because she's singing it ... It came out in 2002, so not brand new - but very pretty.

By: srs

srs — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 07:03:07 -0800

Lovage is another one that's been compared to Portishead.

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 07:07:11 -0800

If you're not in a hurry, you can look forward to Portishead's third album.

By: freudenschade

freudenschade — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 11:28:36 -0800

Check out CocoRosie. Not quite the same thing, but I get a really similar vibe from them.

By: thejanna

thejanna — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 12:10:36 -0800

You could always try creating a portishead station on pandora.com to see what you get...

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:22:23 -0800

I love you all.
UNKLE.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:29:54 -0800

Oh, and Smoke City. Thirding Lamb, too.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:30:31 -0800

Xploding Plastics. Maybe the Cranes, moreso if you count their remix disks.

By: cashman

cashman — Thu, 03 May 2007 11:25:02 -0800

way late on this, but My Brightest Diamond.