A decade after the release of their last album and 14 years after their debut provided the soundtrack to hundreds of dark and smoky mid-90s nights, Portishead are back with a new record and a string of UK tour dates. The trip-hop band, who won the Mercury music prize in 1995 for Dummy, played the Manchester Apollo last night to showcase songs from their new album, Third, released on April 28.

Together with Massive Attack and Tricky, Portishead brought the Bristol music scene into the mainstream by fusing hip-hop with house, dub and electronica. But the members of Portishead - Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley - created their own distinct sound by interweaving Gibbons' world-weary vocals with spy film samples and setting them to hypnotic beats.

Last month Utley said that while the new album would be a departure from their two studio records, it would not be totally unfamiliar to fans. "It sounds nothing like Dummy or Portishead, but it's definitely its older brother or sister," he told Billboard.

Dave Simpson, a Guardian music critic, said that their return with a dark and sometimes difficult album had come at an odd moment. "Their influence over current music is a lot less than it was. This year's bands are the opposite of what Portishead was about; slow beats, jazz, fairly depressing and mournful lyrics. Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse are a million miles away from that, which is what makes Portishead's return so interesting."