The band Portishead isn’t usually synonymous with the word “Guitar” but the band is pretty cool in my opinion. Also, the fact that Portishead hasn’t released an album in 10 years is a pretty signifcant reason to cover them now that they’ve released the album “Third”.

I have given the album a preview listen, but I could not even begin to do a proper review at this time as I haven’t listened to it enough. From my first listen, I noticed that it is not much of a trip-hop album. I think this is a good thing, as that style was cool, but has kind of faded from relevance and now sounds a little dated. The album features distorted bass guitar in several places, which could very well be the result of the “OM influence” the band cited in a Billboard.com article (in that article, billboard, obviously not knowing who OM even is, wrote their band name as “ohm”).

I’m interested in giving this album a few more listens, as I think its the type of album that deserves that before fully analyzing it.

-Positive Pitchfork media review of “Third”

-Billboard.com article referenced in this post

OM is a band I’ve been listening to for a while who is really amazing and yet may or may not be together at the moment and is also pretty much unheard of outside of certain circles. OM, (pronounced like the chant), is a 2 member band founded from the remnants of San Francisco stoner rock band Sleep. More specifically OM was Sleep’s rhythm section, the band is comprised of only a singer/bassist and drummer, there are no guitars.

The band’s sound could also be described as stoner rock, (slow, heavy songs in 4/4 time that make you nod your head and pay homage to black sabbath), but by listening closely to them a lot more is revealed. Their songs feature not only heavy abrasive moments, but quiet meditative passages that give-way to chant like vocal melodies. OM songs usually feature only a few riffs per song, yet most of their songs clock in over the 10 minute mark. On the surface this seems repetitive, but these few riffs evolve within the song, changing and mutating as the song progresses.

I saw them at the Echoplex here in LA about 2 months ago and they were great, ridiculously loud and hypnotic. Recently though, it has been reported that after 3 albums, the drummer Chris Haikus is leaving the band. Supposedly the bassist/singer Al Cisneros will continue on. Definitely a band worth checking out if you’ve never heard of them before. Below are the titles to their albums and links to their website and myspace page, where you can hear a few tracks.

- (2005) Variations on a Theme

- (2006) Conference of the Birds

- (2007) Pilgrimage

Omvibratory.com

http://www.myspace.com/variationsontheme

Video of OM performing live at Amoeba Records - San Francisco