Pitchfork

Photo by Eva Vermandel

Portishead's Third may have been a good seventh of a lifetime in the making, but if post-punk icon Mark Stewart knows anything, the album will be well worth the wait.

The former Pop Group frontman and current Maffia leader received an advance copy of Third and waxed thoughtful on the disc for German magazine SPEX. Among Stewart's revelations: Third is no "straightforward rehash of [Portishead's] well-loved, trademark sound," it employs a marked degree of crate-digging, it has the band jacking funk the way Zeppelin jacked blues, and, oh yeah, its songs have titles! Who'd have thunk it?

"Small", "Magic Doors", "Deep Water", first single "Machine Gun" (Slowdive, where u at?), and a "very German-sounding" number called "We Carry On" are among the 11 new P-head tracks we can look forward to when Third hits UK shops April 14 via Island (U.S. release details forthcoming).

"Deep Water", in particular, sounds intriguing. Writes Stewart: "For the extraordinary one-and-a-half minutes of 'Deep Water' Portishead hired a male choir, arranged like one of those traditional barbershop choirs from the 1920s-- back in the days when hairdressers would not only cut hair, but also entertain their customers with pitch-perfect a cappella harmonies. For a brief moment, Portishead reference and revive an endearing English song tradition."

Stewart's complete musings can be found here, or in print in the forthcoming SPEX #313 (out February 22).

In other rumblings from camp Portishead, the Bristol bumout crew's long overdue 2008 tour has nearly doubled in size since our last dispatch. They also mention "filming stuff for the future" on their website. Ooh, perhaps a sequel to To Kill a Dead Man? Or at least another music video.

Finally, Mark Stewart has an album called Edit on the way via Crippled Dick Hot Wax! in May, and he and the Maffia are among the two or three bands added to the SXSW lineup yesterday.

Head o' Portis:

03-26 Porto, Portugal - Coliseum
03-27 Lisbon, Portugal - Coliseum
03-30 Milan, Italy - Alcatraz
03-31 Florence, Italy - Sashall
04-02 Munich, Germany - Tonhalle
04-03 Berlin, Germany - Columbiahalle
04-04 Copenhagen, Denmark - KB Halle
04-06 Cologne, Germany - Palladium
04-07 Amsterdam, Netherlands - HMH
04-09 Manchester, England - Apollo
04-10 London, England - Hammersmith Apollo
04-12 Edinburgh, Scotland - Corn Exchange
04-13 Wolverhampton, England - Civic
04-17 London, England - Brixton Academy
04-26 Indio, CA - Empire Polo Field (Coachella)
05-05 Paris, France - Zenith
05-06 Paris, France - Zenith
05-08 Brussels, Belgium - Forest National
05-29-31 Barcelona, Spain - Parc del Fòrum (Primavera Sound)