Photo by Philip Cosores

The Guardian reports that Portishead member Geoff Barrow is set to release another album without the Portishead moniker. But, the album will not be under his Beak> name (who are apparently releasing their second album soon, though). Rather, Barrow has set up hip-hop project called Quakers, which is said to feature over 35 members, and will release their debut album on April 9th via Stones Throw Records.

The idea behind Quakers is that a series of beats were posted on the band’s Myspace for anyone to download. They were then encouraged to rap over these beats and send them back to the band, who, if they liked what they heard, would include it on the album. There were obviously plenty of responses and plenty of interest as the end product reportedly has 41 tracks, boasting the work of Aloe Blacc, Phar Kat, Dead Prez and Prince Po. The record also has a total of three producers behind it: 7STU7 (Portishead studio engineer Stuart Matthews), the Australian DJ Katalyst, and another fellow who calls himself Fuzzface, but who is actually Barrow himself. Should be interesting. Stay tuned for more information.