Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man: Out Of Season [Vinyl 1LP]

Indie Pop / Avant Pop / Muzyka alternatywna
premiera polska: 2019-10-11
kontynent: Europa
kraj: Anglia
opakowanie: Singlefoldowe etui
opis:
screenagers.pl 9/10
Podskórny niepokój… szalejący w oddali wiatr… tak kojarzą mi się dźwięki rozpoczynające płytę pod tytułem "Out Of Season"… potem pojawia się wspaniały kobiecy głos. Głos, który porusza do głębi… niezmiernie melancholijny i na swój sposób smutny…
"Out Of Season" to album Beth Gibbons, znakomitej wokalistki równie znakomitego zespołu PORTISHEAD. To Oni wraz z Massive Attack wywołali tą całą gorączkę zwaną trip-hopem. Pamiętacie "Dummy"? Nie wątpię, że tak… Przecież to była wspaniała płyta, jedna z tych najlepiej zapamiętywalnych z lat 90-tych. Potem było równie dobrze, kolejny album "Portishead" także mógł się podobać. Co prawda to nie było to, co debiut, ale słuchało się z zapartym tchem. Następnie "NYC Roseland" czyli wydawnictwo koncertowe, jak dla mnie mistrzostwo świata - utwory bardziej "urockowione" oraz zaaranżowane wspólnie z orkiestrą.
…Od tamtego czasu (czyli od 1998 roku) o Portishead i Beth Gibbons było raczej cicho. Co jakiś czas pojawiały się plotki, że oto już za parę miesięcy nowy materiał macierzystej formacji tej Pani znajdzie się w sklepach… były to jednak fałszywe informacje. Wreszcie w połowie 2002 roku miła niespodzianka! Płyta firmowana nazwiskiem Beth Gibbons… no i cóż, trzeba było posłuchać… Uczyniłem to z chęcią i ogromną przyjemnością.
Po wysłuchaniu "Out Of Season" pierwsze, co przyszło mi do głowy, to pytanie: Ile to ma wspólnego z Portishead?... Przede wszystkim głos, ten sam znany i smutny o charakterystycznym brzmieniu… muzyka też raczej melancholijna, ale nie ma tych trip-hopowych skreczy. Zamiast tego żywe instrumenty: gitara akustyczna (zdecydowanie dominuje), harmonijka, cello, organy, tzw. "brzmienia orkiestrowe" i inne… natomiast sama elektronika pojawia się z rzadka i jest wykorzystywana bardzo oszczędnie. Nie wpływa to jednak negatywnie, wręcz przeciwnie… brzmienie wydaje się być dosyć spójne, a same kompozycje są po prostu rewelacyjne.
No właśnie, posłuchajcie otwierającego "Mysteries", "Show" czy "Drake" a przekonacie się, że to, co prezentuje Beth Gibbons to najwyższa klasa i nie ma mowy o słabych momentach. Cudowne piosenki, idealne na smutne jesienne wieczory (ale nie tylko!). Wspaniała do refleksji, a także do odcięcia się od trudów życia codziennego… ta muzyka jest poza tym wszystkim.
Na koniec powiem jedno i będę się powtarzać: to naprawdę rewelacyjna i niezwykle emocjonalna płyta… jakby trochę niezauważona przez wielu słuchaczy tzw. "dobrej, ambitnej muzyki"… a szkoda, bo naprawdę warto.
Z góry polecam i jeszcze raz brawa za powrót!!!
PS. W nagrywaniu tegoż albumu duży udział miał także Paul Webb (były basista Talk Talk).
Piotr Wojdat (18 listopada 2003)

Editor's Info
Out of Season is a studio album by vocalist Beth Gibbons (of Portishead) and bassist Paul Webb (under the pseudonym Rustin Man, formerly of Talk Talk).
It was released on 28 October 2002 in the United Kingdom and on 7 October 2003 in the United States. Out of Season is largely a folk album with jazz leanings, with Gibbons and Webb drawing more directly on the influences of Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, and Nick Drake, at which Portishead's work in trip hop only hinted. Out of Season also features contributions from Gibbons' fellow Portishead bandmate Adrian Utley and Webb's former bandmate Lee Harris.
The first track of the album, "Mysteries", appears on the original soundtrack of the French movie Les Poupées Russes (The Russian Dolls), and in Wim Wenders' Palermo Shooting from 2008.
The album achieved a silver certification from the BPI.

pitchfork.com
Portishead were a simulacrum, their anchors sunk deep in sample culture with Beth Gibbons' torch singer stylings and Adrian Utley's soundtrack scrapings operating merely as tools in the sample yard. In its evocation of forgotten jazz, blues, film music, and hip-hop, Portishead's Dummy was the quintessence of "even better than the real thing", yet when the magic ceased on the band's eponymous sophomore album, it was ultimately due to their desire to be the real thing. On Portishead, the trio retained their hip-hop elements only in principle-- they played every sound themselves, pressed the results to dubplates, and then cut and looped them into backing tracks. In practice, Portishead had abandoned the sampler's art..-- the recontextualization of sound and the creation of history from history-- and so, the thrill had gone. It's no coincidence that the best post-Dummy release from the Portishead camp remains DJ Andy Smith's eclectic mash-up, The Document

Beth Gibbons, one assumes, was never much into hip-hop. Hers, after all, was the bleeding heart at the center of it all, and her remarkable, tortured voice (equal parts Billie Holiday and Sandy Denny), remains capable of gravitas for any occasion. "Mysteries" opens Out of Season brilliantly, folk arpeggios plucking their way around Beth's gasps while a cadre of gospel singers in the background oooooh the record into being. "Tom the Model" takes that cue and runs with it, answering delicate folk verses with a nicely retro big-band soul chorus. Beth attacks the song with verve, and even the hint of self-pity in the lyric is kicked into touch by her defiance.

If only the rest of Out of Season displayed that energy. Instead, we're quickly plunged into moodiness for the sake of moodiness, overwhelmed by Gibbons' frankly unpitiable obsession with her own misfortune. At their best, Portishead turned this kind of smoky cabaret blues into an invigorating showpiece. But replace crackling vinyl and subwoofer bass with somber piano and mournful cello, and all you're left with is… well, a pretty goddamn miserable woman who happens to have a great voice. That's "Show" for you, and for all its miserable pleading, it's as forgettable a song as Gibbons has ever crooned.

"Romance" tries some moaning french horns on for size, and frankly looks ridiculous in them. Chrissakes, who suggested a 90-second french horn solo was a good idea? And again, if Gibbons' Billie Holiday routine was engaging in Portishead's hip-hop context-- reconstituted blues that fit their mix perfectly-- here it threatens to go a little pantomime.

And now to the issue of Rustin Man: What is the deal with calling yourself Rustin Man? Are we supposed to let that slide? Turns out it's an alias for ex-Talk Talk bassist Paul Webb. Now, Talk Talk did some wonderful things-- Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock both proved what can be achieved with emphasis on mood and atmosphere. Here, however, Webb allows Gibbons to dictate both, and it just doesn't work. Striking as her voice can be, she does little to prove that it has the emotive range to match its power.

Elsewhere, "Resolve" is a pretty but inconsequential folk tune, and "Drake" and "Funny Time of Year" waltz their way in and out of the frame without forcing you to take much notice. Which leaves "Rustin Man" the song, a frustrating hint of what might have been. Its pure ambience (think Dot Allison's recent album, if produced by Tim Friese-Greene) sounds remarkably modern next to the trad fare that precedes it, and the warbling and sizzling of the synths forces Beth to be a little more active with her vocal-- she slips in and out of the mix, allowing atmosphere to build rather than overwhelming it with her moods. Sonically, of course, it's no less bleak than the rest of this album, and though it does bring in some much-needed excitement at the end, it's just not powerful enough to save the whole from its vanilla dejection.
By Jesse Fahnestock

muzycy:
Beth Gibbons – acoustic guitar, arrangements, vocals, vocoder
Paul Webb – percussion, piano, accordion, arrangements, electric guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Rebecca Lublinski - flute
Rachel Samuel - cello
John Baggott – piano, Wurlitzer
Gary Baldwin – organ
John Barclay – flugelhorn
Martyn Barker – percussion, conga
Mark Berrow – violin
Rachael Brown – backing vocals
Lurine Cato – backing vocals
Ben Chappell – cello
Clive Deamer – drums, tympani
Philip Dukes – viola
Simon Edwards – bass guitar, double bass
Mark Feltham – harmonica
Andrew Findon – alto flute
Pete Glenister – acoustic guitar
Leo Green – horn Section
Lee Harris – drums
Nick Ingman – conductor, orchestration
Mitchell John – backing vocals
Patrick Kiernan – violin
Boguslaw Kostecki – violin
Peter Lale – viola
Martin Loveday – cello
Neill MacColl – acoustic guitar, Ebow
Perry Mason – violin
Lorraine McIntosh – backing vocals
Frank Ricotti – vibraphone
Eddie Roberts – violin
Nina Robertson – alto flute
Joy Rose – backing vocals
Mary Scully – double bass
Chris Tombling – violin
Jonathan Tunnell – cello
Adrian Utley – organ, acoustic guitar, bass, guitar, electric guitar, Moog synthesizer, Ebow, baritone guitar
Bruce White – viola
Dave Woodcock – violin
Gavyn Wright – violin
Warren Zielinski – violin

utwory:
1. Mysteries
2. Tom the Model
3. Show
4. Romance
5. Sand River
6. Spider Monkey
7. Resolve
8. Drake
9. Funny Time of Year
10. Rustin Man


total time - 43:46
wydano: 2019-10-11 (2002)
more info: www.universalmusic.com
more info2: www.portishead.co.uk