My Discovery of Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree
I have been meaning to write about my musical idol for some time and @jalayn’s recent excellent article pulled the trigger for me.
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Both the band and solo artist have been creating music for so long that when I did discover them, I was a more than a little aggrieved. It had come too late for me; the band had split 6 years prior which meant that I could never see them live.
The year was 2015, and I was in a local game store in Blackburn, Lancashire which sells comic books and Magic the Gathering cards amongst other non-standard items of merchandise.
The Bat Cave is an independent store, one of those rare diminishing species we have in the plethora of clone stores that populate every English town and city. Finding it is a challenge, but helped by this sign.
Heading up the alley, one could feasibly get mugged if venturing under the wrong conditions and arriving at ones destination the prospective visitor is not exactly welcomed by a dazzling store entrance. Does it look a little like a scene from Gotham City?
The owner, an Asian guy is a complete non-conformist and tends to greet his customers with Mikael Åkerfeldt’s growling vocals resounding from the Hi-Fi entertainment system that plays almost constantly.
Opeth - Godhead's Lament – Typical music from ‘The Bat Cave’ in Blackburn, Lancashire
Yes walking into the Bat Cave is not for the likes of most old ladies, Frank Sinatra or Jim Reeves fans, but it's still the finest store in the entire town.
One day Nas, the owner was playing some of his typical music and I picked up on a riff. I have no idea to this day what the track was but casually mentioned -
‘Who is that playing?’, Of course it was Opeth, who else?
Noting my interest, Nas sent me a playlist of some of the bands more serene tracks. This band is not your typical death-metal band. They are very technical and have a lot of different sounds, and Mr Åkerfeldt has quite a decent ‘regular’ voice when he decides to use it.
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I noticed that a lot of the songs on the playlist came from their album, ‘Damnation’. No songs contained growling vocals and they are quite progressive in nature.
I picked up on the track ‘Windowpane’ right away. What a great song!
Months went by and the album ‘Damnation’ got into my head, but I didn’t check out the band any further as it was all ‘that noisy stuff’.
Then something happened that I cant explain.
I noticed the producer of the ‘Damnation’ album was a guy named Steven Wilson. To be honest what do I care who produces the music. It’s all about the artist right? I have never taken any notice of producers before.
Was it some kind of fate that was leading me to discover who I deem to be the most talented ‘still writing and performing’ artist ever?
I found myself on Wikipedia next and looking at the page for Porcupine Tree.
Why didn’t I check out Steven Wilsons’ solo discography first? Again, I have no idea.
The Wikipedia page is extensive. These guys have been around and created a lot of music. There are some clips halfway down the page, and the first one is "The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1". I listened to this and to my amazement I heard something I loved on my first listen.
Is this Pink Floyd back from the dead?
I was to discover later that Steven Wilson (the band’s vocalist and songwriter) is a huge Pink Floyd fan, such is the similarities to ‘Wish you were here’ in terms of the number of tracks on the album and in particular the Part One / Part Two of ‘The Sky Moves Sideways’ vs ‘Shine on you Crazy Diamond’.
The Sky Moves Sideways became a success among progressive rock fans and Porcupine Tree were hailed as the Pink Floyd of the 1990s. Wilson later lamented this, stating, "I can't help that. It's true that during the period of The Sky Moves Sideways, I had done a little too much of it in the sense of satisfying, in a way, the fans of Pink Floyd who were listening to us because that group doesn't make albums any more. Moreover, I regret it."
I did listen to the full album of ‘The Sky Moves Sideways’ and initially was really only taken with the title track. Was this one of those bands where there was just a single song that I liked again?
Another two months or so went by and then again as if something was pulling me toward some more listening, I discovered this song and was instantly hooked. The resemblance with Pink Floyd again caught my ear and that soaring guitar was incredible. This just doesn’t happen to me!
That was it; I was hooked this time. I started hunting down songs using YouTube and next on the list was this 12 minute long absolute masterpiece (below). It still gives me goose bumps listening to the extended introduction.
I had simply never heard a band like this before. Progressive melodic music and then proper METAL, followed with more of those melodies. Metal music is usually just that, all metal and little else. This was very different and fresh.
Listen to this one and tell me. After 3 minutes of listening would you be expecting METAL riffs later on during the song?
During the following months I went through the entire discography of the band. I was to learn that Steven Wilson is extremely well respected in the progressive community and has worked with respected artists such as Robert Fripp, Alan Parsons and Adrian Belew.
I have since seen Steven Wilson live twice and both have been the finest concerts I have attended. If I was to have a wish it would simply be to meet this guy, shake his hand and thank him for all the great music over the years.
Hopefully he wont remember me from this concert and chin me instead for distracting him while performing!
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If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, resteem, engage me or all of these things.
Hey @slobberchops, excellent post!
I think you've both with @steevc mentioned Steven Wilson before very recently. I've never listened to Porcupine Tree before, although I had heard of the band's name. Before today, the name somehow made it sound to me like it would be something way beyond my "noise" threshold.
Turns out you are spot on - again - about the close relationship to Pink Floyd.
I had upvoted you right away after reading your post and listening to the songs, but I wanted to listen to more songs before writing this here. I've listened to Signify twice already and find it very close my taste, except for a few passages/songs that are too close to metal. But there is definitely something here, and I think I will build myself my own playlist of "gentler" songs. Also, some of the solos are totally Gilmouresque except for the type of guitar which I guess is not the same and the sound is just slightly different.
And yeah, Waiting is just an excellent piece of music. I've been playing it a few times already. It kind of makes me think of Goodby Blue Sky.
Excellent post again, 👍
ps: I really need to listen more to solo Steven Wilson too...
They do have distinctive era's the last one being my favourite, the 'Metal era', which is not so Metally actually. Signify is one of their earlier albums and more experimental. I find that album a little patchy, and strange at times.
In Absentia and Deadwing are probably my favourite two. I do plan to do some more articles on them and other bands in the future.
Your will probably like the 'Stupid Dream' album.. try this.
Thanks man, I will try the Stupid Dream album. From the allmusic.com review it looks like an unanimously praised album, be it from the users or the critics!
As the name implies, its more of the 'dreamy' type of music and less metal. You will probably like it. I prefer the last 4 albums but tend to play Stupid Dream a lot too.
Great post. I always enjoy reading about artists/bands that others absolutely love. There is something about finding that thing that speaks to you. Very cool that you have been able to see him live. It's always exciting to be able to share the same space with someone you admire, even if you aren't able to actually meet them.
I'm hoping one day that I can shake this guy's hand. He came to a city close to me last year (Preston) and was signing his records at an Indie record store but I found out the day after... doh!
That sucks. I am sorry to hear that. I am listening to one of my jazz playlists right now, but as soon as that is done, I am going to dig into his footprint on Spotify.
Loved it. I even put some albums and tracks you mentioned on my queue with Google Play. I'm going to check them out on the way to work this morning.
This is manual music curation. Very cool!
Good to hear you like them, music is very subjective and everyone has their own tastes.
I listened to them on the way to work. Great stuff..thanks.
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In Deventer you have a similar record store. Independent with the music which is not in the regular stores.
I do know Pocupine tree, but never got in to the musician's themselves. Now i will for sure :) Thanks
Thanks for reminding me about Porcupine Tree. I first heard about them from a young guy who worked in the juice and smoothie cafe I used to run. He was a lovely guy, a kind of "proud to be a nerd" type who enjoyed 1970s prog rock and a genre called "math rock".
I LOVE Porcupine Tree (and Pink Floyd). I just don't listen to music enough these days. I should make more time for it in my life!
I'm amazed you have heard of them, not many have.
What amazes me is how often the best music is hardly known!
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