Last year, Portishead said they’d be clearing their schedules in order to work on new material. Though fans have received such teases for years — in 2010, and again in 2011 — only to be let down, it looks like the English outfit might finally be making good on their word.
According to a new post on the band’s official website, Portishead have contributed a song to High-Rise, the new drama from Ben Wheatley starring Tom Hiddleston, Sienna Miller, and Elizabeth Moss, which screens today at the London Film Festival. The track is said to be a cover of the 1975 ABBA hit “SOS”.
While it’s technically not a new song, it does mark Portishead’s first new recording since the 2009 one-off charity single “Chase the Tear”. It also means the band has successfully carved out time in their busy schedules recently — which couldn’t have been easy. If you’ll recall, Geoff Barrow has kept himself occupied with this year’s Ex Machina soundtrack and a new Beak> EP; also, not too long ago, Beth Gibbons doled out a badass Black Sabbath cover. Whenever the new album does arrive, it will serve as the follow-up to 2008’s Third.
For a very rough idea of what this newish song might sound like, revisit Portishead’s “Machine Gun” and then ABBA’s “SOS”.
