Portishead have started brainstorming sessions for a fourth studio album less than a year on from their critically lauded comeback Third.
The cinematic trip-hoppers went on hiatus in 1999 following the release of sophomore platter Portishead in ’97, only to get suddenly mean with the industrial and doom metal-influenced Third this year.
And the creative roll looks set to continue apace with live dates in the offing and the creative direction for a new record having been agreed upon between members of the band.
Says lynchpin Geoff Barrows: "When everyone’s had a bit of a break, I think we’re just going to plough onto it," he explained. "I think we’re kind of there now. We’ve sat down and we’ve talked about the direction and stuff like that.
"Everyone seems really positive about it. And I think everybody at some point wants to get back out on the road, because we didn’t really do an awful lot of live stuff. What’s really interesting is that we’re in this lucky position now. We haven’t got a record company; our deal ended and so did our publishing deal.
"So we pretty much own all of our own rights now, which is scary as well as exciting really, so we’re thinking of loads of different ways of doing things."
