Beak>
Beak>
(Invada Records, 2009)

Portishead founder Geoff Barrow assembled Beak> in January 2009 with fellow Bristolians Billy Fuller (bass, worked with Robert Plant and Massive Attack) and Matt Williams (keyboards, also known as a solo entity called Team Brick). Twelve days later, they had a punchy, streamlined record in the can.

Just like Wagner’s famous drone prelude to Das Rheingold, which evoked the murky genesis of the universe, Beak>’s opener, “Backwell”, begins with a heartbeat of a bass line—130 bars of unswerving bass, pulsing and waiting for the right time to explode. While Wagner’s piece turns into operatic aria, Beak> kicks in a straight-ahead drumbeat. If Wagner were still around, he’d probably see the wisdom in this approach: The drone streams on, but is pumped more forcefully. And that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for medley; only that here it’s handled by synth arpeggios.

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