Portishead - Dummy

Released in 1994, Dummy fused hip-hop breakbeats, jazz samples and cinematic strings into something entirely new, and in doing so effectively defined trip-hop as a genre. Alongside Massive Attack, Portishead turned Bristol into the era's most important musical postcode. Dummy won the Mercury Prize in 1995 and has influenced everything from downtempo electronica to modern pop production, but its real legacy is atmosphere — few records have ever sounded this haunted, or this cinematic.

Portishead formed in Bristol in 1991 around producer Geoff Barrow, guitarist Adrian Utley and vocalist Beth Gibbons, taking their name from Barrow's hometown just outside the city. Notoriously private and famously slow to release new material — just three studio albums in over two decades — the band have never chased trends, preferring instead to disappear for years between records. That scarcity, combined with Gibbons' singular voice, has only deepened their reputation as one of British music's most quietly influential groups.