Portishead released their debut album Dummy on this day in 1994, an album that is often credited as introducing the trip hop genre to a mainstream audience. They created the unique sound by using hip-hop techniques like sampling and looping, and even went as far as recording their own music to be used as samples. They recorded the sounds to vinyl records and then physically distressed them before processing the audio (sometimes through a broken amplifier). The result is an intentionally distorted and vintage, yet futuristic, signature sound.
Dummy was an immediate success, warmly received by critics and audiences alike. It won the 1995 Mercury Music Prize, and has been included in countless lists ranking it among the greatest albums of its time and all time. This video finds St. Vincent reviving the iconic Dummy song “Glory Box” with The Roots on an airing of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
