First off, let me start by saying that my dad got me into Porcupine Tree back in 2003. I, like my dad, find driving to be the best time to listen to music. I remember hearing 2002′s In Absentia one day while my father and I were driving to some sort of family event. As soon as the first note hit, I was instantly pushed into a nonplussed state of amazement. I had NO idea a band could sound so good. And by good, I mean scrumtrulescent: so great that any other word employed would be woefully insufficient, and would serve only to limit the sheer magnitude of the greatness of that album. The feelings are entirely mutual after hearing The Incident, the most recent anthology from England’s top neo-prog export.
Now, I’ll admit, I wasn’t a huge fan of Deadwing or Fear of a Blank Planet. As much as I could find a few parts of a song here or there (maybe even a full song or two), I just didn’t find myself connecting with those efforts as much as I did with In Absentia. I still listened to both of those in-betweeners a few times every once in a while, but they never grabbed my attention. As a matter of fact, I nearly postponed listening to The Incident because of my temporary lack of interest in Porcupine Tree due to the staleness on the previous records.
Yet here we are. 2009 inches closer and closer to the end of the year, and I’m sitting here, reviewing a Porcupine Tree album. I always wondered if it would be possible for good ol’ Porcupine Tree to outdo the 2002 masterpiece. I didn’t find that to be entirely possible until the double feature The Incident landed on my desk about a month ago. “The Blind House” opens up with a ferocity aiming to scare away the faint-of-heart ninnies looking for a soundtrack to accompany a quaint dinner date. Now, that doesn’t mean there aren’t moments of musical beauty, minus the aggression. There’s absolutely plenty of hypnotic arias hidden in plain view throughout the entirety of the album. These guys just know how to add just the right amount of Earth-shaking, monstrous, heavy grooves, and a myriad of softer colours, tones, and vibes to choose from.
If there’s one thing I can give this band beyond anything else I can give to mass of uncontrollable births of repetitive, exhausting bands, is Porcupine Tree will NEVER cease to amaze you. Whether it be the lack of blueprinted, formulated musical composition, or the ability to create vocal melodies with a unique dreaminess enclosed in each line, this 22-year-old band (that’s right, 22 years strong) continues to write exceptionally beautiful music.
Each time the tape flips (trust me, this album is on repeat at the moment), I notice more and more influences shining through. David Bowie (circa 1. Outside, 1995) seems to have had and impression on Steven Wilson to some degree. I think it’s fair to say that U2 guitarist The Edge ought be jealous of the guitar sounds created in “Drawing the Line”. One of the influences I find to be prominent is most certainly Meshuggah. The title track is a prime example of some Meshuggah-influenced guitar riffery. As much as I hear the influences, I don’t get the vibe that they’re ripping anyone off, which has proven to be much harder than one would expect (see: American music scene). There’s surely a difference between applying an influence to your music, and tracing your influences nearly note-for-note. Porcupine Tree manage to take an influence and style of music, and make it their own.
Moving along. I find it arguably imperative to point out the musicianship. Some people listen to a band and rate the music based on the incredible speed and amount of notes played per millisecond. Some people have no idea what the guitarist and drummer are doing, but they sure know they like it. To those in search of a band capable of melting your face with instrumental ability, and song-writing abilities that come off as though each member of the band earned a Doctorate in composition: Porcupine Tree is that band. Steven Wilson might not be mopping (way more insane than Sweeping) thousands of notes, but his ability to arrange notes, time signatures, and chord progressions, far surpasses most of the high-on-ultra-talent bands roaming the musical frontier. Gavin Harrison is finally catching a good ray of spotlight in the drumming community after performing at the 2008 Modern Drummer Festival (a great honor, after winning the 2007 “Best Prog Drummer” title; rightfully so). The bass playing is absolutely in the pocket and spot on, adding the perfect touch and texture to each layer of euphoric musical alchemy. The keyboard and synth parts add both haunting and somber layers to the already beautiful sounds coming from the group, collectively.
Like most of the Porcupine Tree albums, The Incident is a collection of scenarios. A rarity in its genre, this is an album well worth investing the time into actually sitting down and listening to the music, whilst reading the lyrics. This particular vignette reads as a depiction of an incident (get it?) involving the evacuation of a group of girls from a religious cult. Steven Wilson breaks it down as a story, “…about the evacuation of teenage girls from a religious cult in Texas, a family terrorizing its neighbors, a body found floating in a story river by some people on a fishing trip, and more. Each song is written in the first person and tries to humanize the detached media reportage.”
Accompanied with an electrifying, Nikola Tesla-style barrage of high voltage riffing, disc one comes to a close with a not-so-quiet bang. Now how about that! Disc one ends, and disc two sits there, eagerly awaiting its spin. Part two opens with “Flicker”, a tune that brings you back to the In Absentia-era Porcupine Tree we all know and love. Beautiful, melancholic lead notes pour over the tasteful rhythmic arrangement, accentuating the atmosphere created by multi-textural genius, Richard Barbieri.
As disc two spins in its 200 RPM range, I ask myself, “Why two CDs?” Easy answer: because they can, and will continue to create music so great, so naturally, that they decided to give you more bang for your buck. Roadrunner Records probably threw their hands up in the air, screaming, “COULDN’T THEY JUST SAVE THIS FOR ANOTHER ALBUM FOR US TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF?!”
The softer side of the mighty Porcupine really shines through the darkness with disc number two. So for the above said ninnies who plastered their backdoor exit upon hearing the mass of heavy riffing with disc one: grab your teddy bear, crack open a wine cooler, snuggle up in your day bed, find some Facebook friends from high school, and throw on disc two. It wont bite, and it certainly wont suck.
The Incident is definitely going to make it into my monthly rotation of music I need to listen to in order to feel complete. I can’t really say that I was a huge fan of the CDs created during the In Absentia-The Incident interim, but I have completely restored faith in Porcupine Tree. Aw, who am I kidding, I never lost faith. I just…temporarily hibernated that faith : )
(9.0/10)
You may also dig:
Pingback: Jesse’s Top 10 of 2009 | hearwax