Out Of Season

Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man

A collaboration between Beth Gibbons, one half of Portishead, and 'Rustin Man' AKA Paul Webb once part of Talk Talk.

This is an album of feelings, mostly of isolation, being out of kilter, of our own mortality, out of season. Melancholic but not downbeat Gibbons extraordinary voice is here partnered with acoustic guitar, piano, brass, strings, but not a beat in earshot. For anyone who wondered what she would sound like against a folk or smoky jazz soundscape this recording answers them.

"The thing that I'm into is the philosophy of the music. I love the surprise of things, the accidents.just the sound of a word, to try to express them in the best way, so that the emotion is totally revealed" (Beth Gibbons) - That's how she could make a single word the most important sound in the universe. What is revealed is how central her performance was to the Portishead sound (they haven't split, there's a third album in the works). There is still the otherworldly, spooky inflection but here it's turned on the passing of time, a sense of serenity tempered with the knowledge that everything ages.

The whole recording is deliciously dark in outlook, whilst heart rending in its passion it's equally uplifting. Sadly, it seems to have been a one off. Gibbons and Webb have been friends for some time, Out Of Season has the assured feel of a recording well into a groups career. One can only hope they will get together again.

The background notes on their website sum it up neatly "...this is a different record to Portishead or Talk Talk. For one, it's 'beats'-free, and has more of a timeless, feel. Those who love Nick Drake, or Nina Simone, or even Radiohead's 'Exit Music (For a Film)' should unconditionally love Out Of Season."