Beak>

Beak | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 17, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ipecac Recordings
• ASIN: B002SAJ6H8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #203,087 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Backwell

2. Ham Green

3. Battery Point

4. Iron Action

5. Ears Have Ears

6. Blagdon Lake

7. Barrow Gurney

8. The Cornubia

9. Dundry Hill

10. Flax Bourton

Editorial Reviews

Pitchfork, October 30, 2009

What a defiantly strange album Portishead's Geoff Barrow has made here. Beak> sounds like almost nothing else going around in 2009, though admittedly some of it sounds an awful lot like 1971. It's menacing and even potentially alienating. It's a work of loving pastiche with none of the deadening, touchy-feely hesitancy you can get when musicians attempt to wrestle with their heroes and wind up embarrassed by their own hubris halfway through the process.

Beak> is off the cuff in the best sense, a burst of itchy inspiration. Many of the same influences colored Portishead's Third, but Beak> unshackle them from singer and song structure, gaining intensity for what it loses in memorability. There's a ruthlessness to Barrow's writing here, especially in regards to rhythm. Barrow understands the appeal of Can in full-tilt flow-motion far better than the average band who earns the comparison because they swipe a Jaki Liebezeit drum pattern every now again

But while the stamp of Cologne's finest is all over Beak>-- mixed with a little Neu! on "Iron Action"-- Barrow's more interested in figuring out what gave Can's records their vibe, rather than Xeroxing their jams. "Pill" evokes that classic krautrock feeling of wandering clammy castle halls, getting dripped on by condensation as you try to find the band you could swear you heard jamming on one fierce, hypnotic note. All the vocals on Beak> seem to emanate from the far end of one of those hallways, like the mumbly moans of "I Know", vocals that don't suggest dread or terror so much as a low-grade but fully saturated eeriness. There's something plain off about Beak's tense vibe -- a creepy hollowing-out of rock's usual boundless energy.

In one sense it's a vibe not so far removed from Portishead proper, minus Beth Gibbons' drama-queening. But it's hard to imagine Portishead ever writing "Ham Green", which noodles for a while before dropping the boom with 1970s doom metal's "let's drink Cisco by the train tracks and call it a seance" camp menace, funny and coarse in a way you just don't associate with the trio that made Barrow famous. Of course, Beak> don't have Portishead's moments of mannered majesty, either. There's certainly nothing as emotionally overwhelming as "The Rip" on Beak>, and compared to Third, this is obviously the "lesser" work.

But that looseness and liberating inconsequentiality is kind of the point. You're getting Barrow's obsessions here, unfiltered, and Beak> is as full of odd, compulsive energy as you'd expect from something cranked out in two weeks, made by a guy who probably had creative fuel to burn, considering that his day job took 11 years between their second and third albums. This is Barrow off the leash and free to chase the beat.

Product Description

2009 debut album by this new project from Portishead producer and multi-instrumentalist Geoff Barrow. He formed Beak> earlier this year with two fellow Bristol musicians, Billy Fuller and Matt Williams. So, how did Barrow make an album so quickly after spending more than a decade on Portishead's Third? Easy: He forced himself. The band has some pretty rigorous guidelines in place. They record all their music in one room and they don't use overdubs. The band wrote their entire album over the course of one 12-day session. In a statement about Beak>, Barrow says, "It's really good to create music under different conditions than you're used to."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Put A Motor[ik] In Yourself, December 9, 2009

By 

M. Perry (Rowche Rumble... That's Rumble, Missouri United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beak> (Audio CD)

Wowee wow!! Normally I don't write reviews and I'm certainly no Lester Bangs (or even Richard Meltzer), but I have to make an exception on this one. No idea how helpful anybody is going to find this, but whatever. Beak> is a new project from Geoff Barrow- who I believe was/ is the DJ in Portishead- and they fit very snugly in with the Neu!/ Harmonia/ La Dusseldorf school of motorik/ Krautrock doings. Motorik being more or less a human drummer playing like a machine, or as close as he/ she can manage. Nothing about this record sounds particularly recent- I think it might even fool a lot of Krautrock heads- and I found it particularly interesting that the record was played entirely live with no overdubs and then constructed/ arranged via intensive editing. Incidentally and/ or crucially, it DOES NOT SOUND LIKE the product of intensive editing; the music flows very naturally, with only slightly more precise repetition than would be achieved with a completely live recording. I myself often construct my music via intensive and/ or destructive edits and it fascinates me to do such in a guitar/ bass/ drums format such as is done here. Don't know what else to say, other than it's an INCREDIBLY rare occurrence for me to listen to any new record in its entirety three times in a row on the day it arrives; but I've already listened to this one three times in a row and I may end up going for four. Three times in a row for this record= THREE HOURS, folks; yes, it actually is that good. Again, a great choice for fans of the Neu!/ Harmonia/ La Dusseldorf school and/ or more recent Krautrock-influenced folks like Stereolab and Broadcast. Kudos to Mike Patton and Ipecac as well for releasing this record Stateside so I didn't have to pay $30 or whatever for an import; yes kids, I still listen to music on vinyl and CDs [Captain Caveman up up and away and things like that]. Again, wow!!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Portanotpotty, December 13, 2009

By 

D. J. Galante Jr. "GoaT" (watchcity, Ma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beak> (Audio CD)

I buy tons of music, you know, the kind that comes in plastic. Tangibleness, I dig it. I make a list every year of all my favorite crap that I bought. I figured I was done with the list around October...then THIS thing comes out of NOWHERE. I love it. It massages my brain, makes it work in ways most contemporary music doesn't.

(Intermission: If you own NO albums by the group CAN...WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE???)

I'm just a music fan who gets a little bold after a few adult beverages, I never denied that. All I know is that this album reminds me why I love music so much-the adventure, the quest, the discovery, the surprise.

(Intermission: SILVER APPLES...Google is your FRIEND)

I don't care who is in this band, I don't care where it came from, I'm just glad that it is here.

Thanks.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ian Curtis, this album is for you, May 21, 2010

By 

The Blue Raja (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Beak> (Audio CD)

Trippy, throwback, groovy, spacey and certainly not pretentious, Beak> is an experience. There is music you listen to and then there is music you experience. Think Joy Division or Radiohead. Hey, why not even mention Portishead? Beak> is a blend of all three, in my opinion. According to discogs, this album was recorded live in one room with no overdubs or repair, with only edits to create arrangements. You truly get that sense as this is an ALBUM. Albums were meant to be listened to in their entirety, and not have a random track pulled out in some shuffle play mix. So experience the genious of Geoff Barrow, as if you hadn't already with his masterpiece work under the name of Portishead.

The vocals on this album are minimal, and haunting. Sometimes used more as instruments, with the occasional howling or wailing. Retro organs, creepy spine-tingling strings (almost off-key), droning bass lines, tambourine hits and chamber reverberated effects give this album an almost drug-like hypnotic feel. This album is truly a journey. Be sure to hunt down the IMPORT version of this CD, as you'll get two extra tracks "Pill" and "I Know" (both ESSENTIAL cuts, not throwaways) and more importantly, the rare BOX SET which includes an additional EP with 4 more tracks; "Green Machine," "Globus Hystericus," "Clutton," and "Oh" plus a 12" single with yet two MORE tracks "Nash Hill" and "Grandy Hill".

To me there is one throwaway cut on this album, "Barrow Gurney," which sounds like an electric guitar being tuned for 2 minutes... perhaps it is to set the stage for the following cut, who knows but I always skip it.

I hope Beak> isn't a one-album experiment and will continue with more material. The bonus EP and 12" are proof that they have a lot to offer.
I would not be surprised if Thom Yorke had this album in his collection.