This past Friday Portishead played its first full set in almost a decade in the unlikely locale of Minehead, U.K., serving as main attraction for an installment of the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival that the elusive band members curated themselves. Since their self-titled sophomore album was released in 1997, Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow, and company have been hidden away, elevated by absence into the sort of madly tinkering geniuses that you never think will never again be motivated enough to commit songs they can live with to tape. But here, through the instant gratification of the Internet, we not only have evidence that a projected April 2008 Portishead record might not be another cruel taunt, but that it could be a challenging, forward-thinking collection to boot.

Dummy and Portishead are gorgeous but fairly homogenous listens. Beth's wounded torch singing evokes real emotional scars, and yet the soundscapes created by Barrow (and Adrien Utley) were always cooly immaculate. String samples hung in the air like perfectly lit smoke through a venetian blind. The mood felt dangerous, but there was never a horn pop or a record scratch out of place.

This untitled new track is something else entirely. It's brutal and relentless -- even ugly. Gibbons couldn't sing poorly on a bet, so her haunted tones remain smooth and smoky, but the distorted beat loop behind her is a sludgy, punishing crunch (which isn't helped by an imprecise camera microphone). The less than ideal live MP3 rip below is too compromised to allow comprehensive dissection of this surprisingly industrial move. What you can make out now is the sound of the plot thickening considerably.