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articles about "dummy" People, January 16, 1995 Magazine: People, January 16, 1995 Section: PICKS & PANS Some might want to listen to Dummy with the lights on, because Gibbons and Barrow create a world so ghostly you may think the CD player has channeled the musical netherworld. The opening moments of ``Mysterons,'' the album's first track, feature a theremin, the presynthesizer electronic instrument that produces the neck-tingling wail often heard in grade-B horror flicks. You'll also hear a cinematic reference in the bouncing '60s spy film bassline of ``Sour Times.'' On the dance-hall hit ``Wandering Star,'' Gibbons plays the dark diva role to the hilt, plaintively asking, ``Please could you stay awhile to share my grief/ The blackness, the darkness forever . . . .'' against the hip-hop thumping. But the album isn't all whacked-out woe: On tracks like ``It's a Fire'' and ``It Could Be Sweet,'' Gibbons becomes a honey-voiced temptress in the Sade mode, and her soulful delivery on ``Numb'' is simply amazing. Obscure and challenging, Dummy is also fascinating and deeply felt. (For the curious, Portishead is the name of a hardscrabble coastal shipping town near Bristol). (Go! Discs/London) |