PNYC

Portishead: Beth Gibbons (vocals); Adrian Utley (guitar, Moog synthesizer); Geoff Barrow (drums, DJ).
Additional personnel includes: Israel Chorberg, Richard Clark (violin); Alfred Brown(viola); Stephanie Susie Katayama (cello); Ben Waghorn (alto flute, alto & tenor saxophones); Will Gregory (oboe, baritone saxophone); Dave Ford, Andy Hague (trumpet, flugelhorn); John Cornick (trombone); John Baggott (keyboards); Jim Barr, Jeffry Carney, David Finck, John Miller (bass); Clive Deamer (drums, percussion); Andy Smith (DJ).
Engineers: Dave Hewitt, Sean McClintock, Phil Gitomer.
Recorded live at Roseland Ballroom, New York, New York on July 24, 1997; The Quart Festival, Kristiansand, Denmark on July 3, 1998; The Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, California on April 1, 1998.
PNYC captures Bristol, England's Portishead live, a situation which presents a particular challenge to a band so closely associated with studio experimentation. Portishead's sound, however, is built around the otherworldly vocals of Beth Gibbons, who immediately dispels any notion that such a performance needs to have anything canned about it. The spontaneity is helped along by a stunning palette of guitars, which combine with the the band's imaginative turntable work to create a thrilling, bombastic and unpredictable live experience.
PNYC opens up with the swell of a string section, and quickly dissolves into the menacing, orchestrated strains of "Humming," over which Gibbons gives a stirring vocal performance, every bit as spontaneous as the rhythmic scratching which weaves in and out of the song's organ-based backdrop. "Over" features a particularly seductive voice-guitar intro, which mutates into an epic, gargantuan bass-synth groove. Guitar textures are, in fact, a prominent feature throughout PNYC, notably on the rocked-up, tremolo-soaked six-string that dominates the live version of the band's signature tune, "Sour Times."

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