In early 2000, Robert and Pat were feeling

like trying something new.  They had been very interested in the “trip-hop” movement started years before by band like Portishead, Massive Attack, Björk and others and set about writing material in their spare time in this vein.  Enter star vocalist Ceci Castelblanco, originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, who entered the call for a vocalist that the band put out in NY’s Village Voice.  The result: the very promising EP/single P0rtal.  Sadly, after just recording 4 songs and finishing 2, Ceci returned to the west coast.  “I still look back very fondly on these few songs” says Robert “and I think if we made a full-length album we would have had even better stuff than what we finished.  It’s amazing how just the following year was the debut album by Zero 7.  I think the 3 albums they’ve made are a really good indicator of what we were setting out to do.  Too bad they did it instead of us!”  Ceci has now relocated to L.A. and has her own myspace page.  She sings with Novacaine and others in the Los Angeles area.