Never heard of this. What should I listen to first?

i'm not really a fan of the live album, but roads is definitely a fantastic track to start with!

i also recommend glory box, all mine, western eyes and magic doors.
get stuck into machine gun too if you're feeling gutsy. third is a very different album to the first two but probably the most interesting to listen to imo.

I've heard this live album more times than I remember. My mom's a huge fan. The alien soundscape on the first track used to freak me out. It's really good stuff.

but they sound far too pop-ish to me

and never as classy as Massiv-Attack or Cinematic Orchestra

by the way, do you guys have some examples of cool chip downtempo/ abstract HH ?

i like the first two albums, but sort of dont listen to them much anymore....
i played a show with this guy Doldrums a few years back who did a split 12" with Portishead that came out that month (late 2009 , called "Chase the Tear").. but since it was in a standard chicago show, there were only like 12 people there (including artists)... it was kind of fun though and after soundcheck Doldrums was was walking around humming the song i soundchecked with

They were the first "electronic" band I really got into as the 90's grunge thing kinda burned out. The third record is worth checking out. I'll admit I thought it was meh when I first heard it. I relistened  a couple years back and it really grew on me, especially after reading about their process of making it. Adrian Utley ( guitar) is just phenomenal. That spy/art trash/jazz/heroin chic thing he's got going is just too cool. So much guitar during that decade was mega meat head or crispy clean, I always favored the cobain, greenwood, moore, etc. school of beautiful twisted melodic noise.