Description:	Ltd etched 12" on Island, 1766095
	Format:	12" (vinyl)
	Genre(s):	Downtempo/Chillwave
	Label:	Island
	Price:	£4.49
	Availability:	Sold out / currently unavailable. Sorry!

4
...according to our Brian on 11 April 2008.

Portishead return after an 11 year hiatus with a rather stunning new single, 'Machine Gun' on an etched 1 sided 12". I saw them live in Manchester the other day and was thoroughly engaged by the new material, this lead track being the most alarming & uncommercial. It's got these juddering mechanised drum machine beats that remind me of early Caberet Voltaire crossed with the Terminator Soundtrack. Ant can even hear new skool German techno pioneers such as T++ in here. Beth Gibbons' vocals hang in the air like a ghostly shroud over this battered, alien landscape. It's really gonna divide people is this but with other new tracks having a profound krautrock/Silver Apples feel, It's a bit of a red herring initially (if you've not already stolen it from torrent like all the impatient types) A more than welcome back hug is in the offing for our our fave tragic futurists. Ant says "bombastic" in his finest Shaggy-esque guttaral voice.

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What their label says...

Portishead’s long-awaited new single “Machine Gun” will be available digitally from 7.30pm this evening March 18th via www.portishead.co.uk and www.islandtunes.com. The single will then be available from all other digital partners on March 19th while a 12” vinyl version will be released on April 14th.

“Machine Gun” is taken from the Bristol based trio’s hugely anticipated new album, “Third”, which is released on April 28th on Island Records. Portishead will be touring the UK and Europe in March and April