Dummy

An Album which distilled a genre from the musical, cultural, and social ether, Portishead's Dummy was such a complete artistic achievement that its ubiquitous successes threatened to exhaust its own potential. R.J. Wheaton offers an imagistic, in-depth investigation of Dummy that imitates the cumulative structure of the album itself, piecing together portraits and interviews, impressions of time and place, cultural criticism, and a thorough exploration of the music itself.

The approach focuses both oh the creation and production of Dummy and the reception and response it engendered. How is it that so many people have, collectively, made a quintessential headphone album into a nightclub album? How did they turn the product of a niche local scene into an international success? With fresh input from Portishead sound engineer Dave McDonald and collaborator Tim Saul, coupled with extensive research, this is the compelling story of how an innovative, experimental album became the iconic sound for the better part of a decade - and an aesthetic template for: the experience of music in the digital age.

R.J. Wheaton's writing on music, film, and literature has been published in the Oxford American, DaCapo's Best Music Writing series, and at PopMatters.corn, where he is Senior Producer. He currently lives in Toronto.