PNYC

11/03/1998 3:00 AM, LAUNCH
Ken Micallef

Portishead have always leaned heavily on studio production, on banks of samplers and elaborate turntable cut-ups. So when they played at NYC's Roseland ballroom last summer, everyone thought the pasty-faced, nicotine-sucking Brits would fall flat on their faces. Surrounded by a 16-piece string section, eight horns, and a full instrumental combo, singer Beth Gibbons and DJ Geoff Barrow looked their typically nervous selves. Well, this is music about fear and loathing, right?

Surprise. PYNC documents what a shockingly powerful live band (and what calculated control freaks) Portishead really are. Including the bulk of last year's macabre Portishead album, as well as such underground hits as "Glory Box," "Strangers," "Sour Times," and "Mysterons," PYNC may actually be better than the band's two albums. The strings which are so anemic on recordings are bold and beautiful here, soaring over Gibbons's anguished vocals like some whimsical death angel. Likewise for Barrow's visceral turntable eruptions, which quack and crackle with brilliant perversity. Freed from the small-scale palette of the studio, these ominous trip-hop gems take on new breadth and weight, with incredible detail.

"All Mine" kicks like Ann Peebles with the Stax horns, while "Mysterons" rides on a bed of cracking snare drum accents and theramin howls. The marvelous "Half Day Closing" is pure Hammer horror soundtrack sheen, given greater depth by Roseland's large hall ambience; "Over" is a nightmare of brooding strings with a manic turntable solo; "Glory Box" a sexy, sad soul masterpiece. PYNC is easily the best live album of 90s, a dazzling moment frozen in time.