29 May 2024

A couple of weeks ago Portishead‘s vocalist Beth Gibbons launched her debut LP
and now Geoff Barrow, founder of Portishead drops, out of the blue a new album
with his BEAK> project. It’s the trio’s 4th full length titled >>>>.

A > fight

Beak> : “At its core we always wanted it to be head music – listened to as an album,
not as individual songs. This is why we are releasing this album with no singles or
promo tracks.

The recording and writing initially began in a house called Pen Y Bryn in Talsarnau, Wales
in the fallout from the weirdness of the COVID days. Remote and with only ourselves
and the view of Portmeirion in the distance, we got to work.

With the opening track, “Strawberry Line” (our tribute to our dear furry friend Alfie Barrow,
who appears on the albums cover) as the metronomic guide for the album, we then resumed recording, as before, at Invada studios in Bristol, whilst still touring around Europe and North/South America.

After playing hundreds of gigs and festivals over the years we felt that touring had started to influence our writing to the point we weren’t sure who we were anymore. So we decided to go back to the origins of where we were at on our first album – with zero expectations and just playing together in a room.

Hopefully we have achieved this.

We begin touring the album in November playing the album in full, which
we’ve never done before. Yes, we will probably still play “Wulfstan II”
at the end.

See you there.”

TUTV‘s first impression: BEAK> do what they do best. Playing with your mind
and your ears with alternating repetitive Krautrock-driven trips, otherworldly
meditations, and trip-hop vibes.

The layered soundcapes resonate both versatile and coherent and danceable at times, but as >>>> just dropped out of the sky unannounced and without warm-up tracks, I need more spins to really get my head around it. Join me if you want. Btw, they will play the album in full on their upcoming Fall tour.

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