Portishead's Geoff Barrow is to premiere his sprawling hip-hop side project this spring. Quakers, comprising more than 35 members, will release a debut album in March or April on Stones Throw Records, featuring work by rappers Dead Prez, Prince Po and Aloe Blacc.
Quakers reportedly centres on a trio of producers: 7STU7, aka Portishead studio engineer Stuart Matthews, the Australian DJ Katalyst, and a knob-twiddler known for these purposes as Fuzzface, but who is actually Barrow himself. For the group's first record, these three have created 41 tracks featuring verses by MCs including Phar Kat, Pharcyde's Booty Brown and Smif-N-Wessun rapper Steele.
Katalyst first described the album to Australia's Triple J radio in 2008. "Basically the concept is anyone can download the beats off MySpace, do their raps, send them back to us and if we like it we're going to put it on the record," he said. Even today, there are a handful of grim hip-hop loops at Quakers' MySpace, giving a taste of the album to come. "[It's] a pretty dirty, heavy, kind of lo-fi hip-hop record," Katalyst said in October.
Elsewhere, Barrow will soon release a second album with his experimental rock band, BEAK>. He is also set to debut music by Drokk, his collaboration with composer Ben Salisbury. Samples of both are available on Invada Records' free 2012 compilation. Finally, Portishead have reportedly returned to the studio, recording the follow-up to 2008's acclaimed comeback album Third.
