Porcupine Tree: Rock Lessons at the Academy

Going back to the Manchester Academy to see Porcupine Tree live was like visiting a friend that I hadn't seen for a long time. Four and half years in fact. When I got to that part of Oxford Road I even discovered that that friend had moved house! It seems that finding locations where PT performs is as problematic as trying to find their CD's in local shops! The first time I saw them was back in 2002 at Academy 3 and when I recognised the familiar steps leading up to the main doors I thought I'd find them in there again. Getting our tickets out I heard a voice saying that there was a queue, and so there was. A queue going back so far I didn't know whether to feel pleased for PT for attracting such support or trepidation for the prospect of being squashed into aphyxiation when we got in. Luckily my son Simon's bladder intervened so we nipped into a MacDonalds over the road. Going back I noticed another building which had an 'Academy' look to it, and what appeared to be an A4 sheet on the glass covered entrance with Porcupine Tree and North Atlantic Oscillation start times on it. Oh joy! No queue. This is more like it, but a part of me was wondering why there weren't more people. Most of the venues on this current tour promoting the album 'The Incident' have been sell outs, which had prompted me to think that the big queue down the street was for PT. Anyhow, as I was walking in I remembered that this was just the same feeling I had when I first saw them in 2002. Plenty of personal space around, a bar in the foyer and music filtering through from the auditorium. The support act, North Atlantic Oscillation, had already started their set and I then realised how late we were. We had a bit of a struggle getting to Manchester that day. Missed the direct train from Colwyn Bay by minutes, luckily got a train not long after to Chester, changed for Crewe, then got a connection to Manchester. In the end we were 20 minutes later than we had planned, not too bad considering, but there was no stop for the Oxford Road station. Therefore we had to hike it from Picadilly. The other dampener to our evening was the fact that the last train from Manchester to North Wales was at 10:35, so we knew before we left home that we would not see the entire show. Another throwback to my first PT show. What was so annoying is that the timetable has been changed since the summer, which had the last train leaving at 11:15, which me and Simon got home from a trip to Old Trafford. If this had still be running we would have probably seen the whole show. Never mind, seeing half of PT live is better than not seeing them at all. Or for that matter some other bands in full.
Of what I heard of the support act, which must have been a good half hour, I was impressed. North Atlantic Oscillation have a good sound, catchy melodies and not predictable. I like to be surprised by bands, to make me wonder where the music is going to go. They did that. There are too many bands who tend to follow a familiar path with their music, especially with progressive music, and veer towards areas already covered by bands they are trying to be like. N A O are, I believe, ploughing their own furrow, and planting the seeds to some promising music in the future.
Porcupine Tree planted their seeds way back in the early 90's, and it has taken a long time to bear fruit but they have finally broken through the barrier of musical prejudice that once gripped the progessive rock genre. They broke through for many of their fans years ago because their albums have been consistently good since 'Up The Downstair' in 1993. Since then the Porcupine Tree sound has matured into a category that cannot be defined. File it under Porcupine Tree music!
By now the venue was pretty full, with a few hundred having joined the rest of us to see the main act. A voice spoke to the audience about the group policy of asking fans to refrain from using any type of recording devices or they would be escorted out of the auditorium. Throughout the time I was there I could see the odd jackass trying his luck to record snapshots for his posterity (one in front of me even had the nerve to stick his SLR above his head to take a shot of the band playing!) How he didn't get chucked out I'll never know. The band came on to a tremendous applause amidst a foggy stage and unleashed 'Occam's Razor', the first track of 'The Incident', whose power almost took me by surprise, even though I knew what was coming having listened to the CD often enough. The band have been playing the album in its entirety throughout the tour, which started at Seattle on September 15th. Colin Edwin's bass guitar sound was like a wave which makes your chest and stomach areas tremble! Simon was concerned of the dreaded 'brown note'! Porcupine Tree progressed through 'The Incident' flawlessly. I have to also mention the images of Lasse Hoile which were displayed in perfect synch throughout. Both disturbing and beautiful the images tend to distract you from the band, so your eyes are constantly in motion. I love the images that accompany the track 'Time Flies'. I can definately identify with my past, growing up, and experiencing the effects of the advancement of time. Personally, it has a poignant significance for me after the passing of my father last August. My first hearing of it coincided with that sad event. Back to the concert and the tracks 'Drawing the Line', 'The Incident' and 'Octane Twisted' absolutely rocked and sound even better live. Simon, being his first rock concert, was a bit taken aback with the noise and the sheer power of the band, Colin Edwin's bass rippling into us like a shock wave, and Gavin Harrison's drums booming with every beat. Steven Wilson's mastery on the guitar always amazes me. His fingers dance along the frets so effortlessly I swear he could be as good asleep! The closer 'I Drive the Hearse' is a beautiful ballad reminicent to me of something the Goo Goo Dolls were doing some years back. I knew that this song would be the last full song we would hear tonight, and I wondered where the time had flown, but it truly does go quicker when you are enjoying yourself. Reluctantly our time was up and a train had to be caught in order to prevent us from wandering Chester station all night waiting for the mail train! The 10 minute countdown of the band's re-emergence on stage was displaying on the screen and we left the auditorium with the strains of 'The Start of Something Beautiful' in the air. In fact as we were walking away from the building and with an ambulance rushing past us in full siren we could still hear the band. We managed to catch the train home at Oxford station in plenty of time in the end and practically devoid of other passengers. Overall, despite only seeing half of the show, the trip was worthwhile and anyway I needed a T-shirt!

Time Flies

Steven Wilson talks about the song 'Time Flies' on the Roadrunner site.

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk/page/News?news_id=80332

Clip from forthcoming DVD of No-Man

No-Man - Wherever There Is Light (from Mixtaped DVD) from Kscope on Vimeo.

Boris

Viewing a recent Steven Wilson interview I decided to check out a band he mentioned that he was a big fan of called Sunn O)) on You Tube. While I like my rock music diverse and different, droning loud guitars which seem to last for ever will take a while to catch on with me. However, Sunn O)))collaborated once with the Japanese drone rock band BORIS and so watched a few clips and you know what I like them. Do not get confused with another band called Boris, apparantly from the US who do not sound anything like their Japanese namesakes. The lead guitarist Watta is one of the best lady guitarists I've seen. In their early albums their trademark was definately drone, but lately their sound is more contemporary and worth listening to.

Insurgentes review

Steven Wilson’s first official solo album (I still like to refer musical pieces of work as ‘albums’ even though they are ancient history now that we are in the digital age) came out last month. A couple of trailers were released and widely available to watch on You Tube, which had diehard fans salivating for more (including me), ready to fork out whatever it cost to purchase the CD. Actually the price was too much even for me (a diehard fan remember) even as an indulgence, so I was resigned to wait until next February when the much reduced priced retail version comes out. However, it is at the moment available to pre-order and you can get a download version until the actual CD arrives. So I have succumbed to the temptation of the download I have it safely tucked away in my iPod.
Speaking of indulgence, Wilson has mentioned several times that he writes music for himself, and if the fans love it…great. If not…tough shit! It’s so refreshing to know that there are such artists out there, who don’t pander to the record executives and mass marketing pressures, and produce under the direction of whatever creative force that surrounds them. There is so much anyone can write about love and getting ‘your woman between the sheets’. It’s been done to death for the last 5 decades! Wilson writes about what he sees around him. A great example is the last Porcupine Tree album ‘Fear of a Blank Planet’ (2007). A concept album (heard of them before?) about the state of the disaffected youth of today, it is a social comment on how Wilson sees most of the youth of today behave and spend their existence. The songs deal with their preoccupation with computer games, iPods (yes even the fantastic iPods!), MTV and dependence on prescription drugs (and illegal ones I may add), which result in the aggressive and unpredictive behaviour that we read about and see on the news everyday. Pretty gloomy state of affairs really, but who can argue with him. On the day the album was released a student went on the rampage in an American University and killed many, just because nobody was paying attention to him! This subsequently resulted in the video for the opening track being withdrawn for a while because of the scenes depicting young kids wielding guns, but Wilson’s point was hammered home well and truly.

This album takes a few listens to really get into it (as do all albums really), but the opening track blew me away from the first listen. True the 1st trailer Wilson released did constitute pieces from this track, called Harmony Korine, so I had an advanced warning. It encapsulates what Wilson’s music is all about. His music always makes you wander what is round the corner, for example if he starts all mellow at the beginning, I can almost guarantee that it won’t end up mellow! A couple of minutes into this track he lets rip with trademark heavy guitar riffs, then goes back to mellow, but doesn’t forget the riff because it keep coming back. A fantastic opening track.

So, I’m thinking, if it carries on like this then I’m in for a treat, and continuous play on the old iPod. True to form, a completely different track for the second! It’s the one that is slowly growing on me, and sort of reminds me of No-Man, the band he collaborates with Tim Bowness. A haunting song, it almost ends with a heavy drone, which I think spoils the song. Overall my least liked track.

The third track, Salvaging, is back to rock territory, layers of guitars for a maximum power riff, and again you wonder where the track is going to take you. More guitars! A sort of a later Rush sort of song, and transforms to a lovely mellow and violiny direction towards the end. But that’s not the end. The final part builds into a crescendo of noise, rather like some of the tracks on his Bass Communion albums. Interesting track to listen to.

The next track starts like a re-working of the ‘The Sky Moves Sideways’ track, a 1995 album of Porcupine Tree, and the lyrics could come out of a ‘Blackfield’ album, another project of Wilson’s. This is a very well arranged track, plenty of instrumental overlays (as all of them are really). No rock parts, the track almost takes you away to a far flung island somewhere.

‘No Twilight Within the Courts of the Sun’ is the 5th track as the name suggests this is a progressive rock track, but progressive Steven Wilson style. Brilliant guitar work embedded with a killer background rock riff, a la Led Zeppelin, it takes you to No-Man territory, circa ‘Wild Opera’ for a while, then gentle harmony, which remind me of Mike Oldfield’s ‘Incantations’, with a little bit of piano that reminds me of ELP’s track ‘Trilogy’.

The sixth track ‘Significant Other’ is gorgeous and second favourite track. Brilliant opening, melodious and catchy echoy guitar, leading to a wonderous guitar riff which eventually gets heavier as the track progresses. In this track, Wilson proves that he can write brilliant catchy melodic songs, as he has done on numerous occasions with PT, Blackfield and No-Man. The track ends chaotically, imagine hurtling down to earth at great speed, and finally with a gentle xylophone. Honestly!

Only Child opens quite lazily and plods along like a Kings of Leon song. So what can Wilson do to pep it up? Not much I’m afraid. It also reminds me of later Genesis somehow, something that they did as a B side, but I can’t think of the track. It’s ok, nothing special. One of the few occasions that Wilson doesn’t follow his own template of changing music styles within a piece of music.

Twilight Coda is a lovely instrumental piece that could easily be a piece in a film soundtrack, a direction that Wilson will surely sample in the near future. In fact a lot of his music could easily find its way into film.

Some of the pieces from the next track ‘Get All That You Deserve’, was used for the second trailer and I wasn’t that enamoured with the music when I first heard it, but the track has to listened to fully to appreciate it. Again it starts off slow, painfully slow really, but builds up to a magnificently moody rock piece with Gavin Harrison’s heavy drumming complementing the chaotic and sometimes painfully sounding almost out of control guitar that ends the track. Definitely 21st century progressive rock.

The title track ends the album and it’s amazing how often Wilson will have a sad, slow and mellow track to end his albums. Refer to ‘Stop Swimming’ on the Stupid Dream album, and ‘Feel So Low’ on Lightbulb Sun. The piano at the beginning reminds me of Sarah McLachan’s ‘Possession’, a great track and one of my favourites.

Overall a very enjoyable journey into Wilson’s first foray into solo territory. I look forward to receiving the CD in a couple of months which also has an excerpt from a forthcoming documentary he made with long term collaborator Lasse Hoile which will be shown at various film festivals next summer.