Steven Wilson/Porcupine Tree

[jdurso]

Didnt see any topics on Steven so i figured I'd start one, as to me he is one of very few in the last 10 years to make some really amazing tunes. For those not familiar with Steven Wilson he's the genius behind Porcupine Tree and one of the best producers out there IMO. He plays guitar, piano, melatron, sings, etc etc.... basically a one man show that has an amazing ear and sense of melody. If anyone is familiar with Opeth's work on Blackwater Park, Deliverance and Damnation, he produced those albums, as well as helped with some of the vocal harmonies, melatrons and keyboards. Most importantly his guitar tones are amazing... whether they're super wet or super dry he finds a way to always make them seem to fit perfectly in the context of songs. Porcupine Tree is his flagship band but he has also done many more projects such as Blackfield, No Man, Bass Communion as well as his production duties for a few underground prog and prog metal bands. I hear he and Porcupine Tree get a lot of acclaim in the UK but i find most people in the US dont know or have never heard anything by him/them.

I just picked up his new album Insurgentes and man its like ear nirvana. Whats cool is the cd comes with 2 discs... one mixed regular and one mixed in 5.1 and right now i'm listening to it through my high end Shure ear buds via my new Vaio which outputs in 5.1. He has such a knack for creating these beautiful soundscapes that you get lost in and everything is mixed perfectly.... quite possibly this album has the best mix I've ever heard. So if your looking for a new CD to pickup I highly recommend Insurgentes if your into the whole modern prog rock, classic rock type vibe in the vein of Floyd and King Crimson.


So whether I'm preaching to the choir or if you guys have never heard of them here are a few of my favorites by Steven/Porcupine Tree in no particular order (they're all great):

- Harmony Korine (off Insurgentes)
- Trains (PC - In Absentia)
- Strip the Soul (PC - In Absentia)
- Heart Attack in a Layby (PC - In Absentia)
- Deadwing (PC - Deadwing)
- Shallow (PC - Deadwing) features Mike from Opeth on guitar
- The Start of Something Beautiful (PC - Deadwing)
- Shesmovedon (PC - Deadwing)
- Anesthetize (PC - Fear of a Blank Planet)
- Fear of a Blank Planet - (PC - Fear of a Blank Planet)
- Blackfield (Blackfield)
- Scars (Blackfield)
- Open Mind (Blackfield)

 

[Elpelotero]

+1 to the whole thread!

 

[MetalMatt]

Great post! I agree 100%

Its funny, I was just going to start a thread about Insurgentes. I just picked it up myself...and I LOVE IT! His 5.1 mixes are just epic. My brain had orgasms! :lol: The song Significant Other is outstanding! with that vocal melody that rises (3:07). It gave me chills the first time I heard that tune.

I must say Porcupine Tree and Opeth are, by far, my favorite bands out there these days.

 

[jdurso]

Great post! I agree 100%

Its funny, I was just going to start a thread about Insurgentes. I just picked it up myself...and I LOVE IT! His 5.1 mixes are just epic. My brain had orgasms! :lol: The song Significant Other is outstanding! with that vocal melody that rises (3:07). It gave me chills the first time I heard that tune.

I must say Porcupine Tree and Opeth are, by far, my favorite bands out there these days.

Dude i hear ya on that 5.1 mix. Its funny because i was in a **** mood before i put it in for other reasons, and after listening to the whole disc (and buying a new treble booster :twisted: ) i felt more at ease and while it may sound stupid i attribute a lot of that to the music and the mix. The way that disc is mixed it keeps your ears/brain stimualted almost like having your brain massaged. There is definitely other music that effects me like that, but none that ever felt like a brain massage.

Also I fully agree about Porcupine Tree and Opeth... two of the best bands i've found in the past 5 years or so. Aside from the incredible music they write, their tone is top notch. To me Michael's Opeth tone is the best heavy, high gain tone I've ever heard.... its so tasteful.

 

[MusicManJP6]

Man, add me to the list of PT/Steven Wilson fans! His new CD is pure genius as is all his work in Porcupine Tree. I've never heard mixes that sound so good and are so smooth. I saw them live here in the states and they blew me away!!

 

[MetalMatt]

Music that can change your frame of mind and surroundings is incredible to experience and rare to find these days (IMO).
A musician that is worthy of a mention is Dan Swano. From his prog rock band Nightingale to his former death metal residence with Bloodbath, his epic masterpieces of Crimson I and II with Edge of Sanity and the awesomeness that is Moontower. He always has great melodies and brutal riffs, his guitar tone never disappoints. He also possesses another great growl and singing voice.

Whether I have these guys playing through my home/car stereo or on my MP3 player when carving up the twisties on my motorcycle they truly bring me to another place.

Brain message, thats a good one! And a BIG +1 on Mikael's guitar tone!

These guys are just awesome! :mrgreen:

 

[MusicManJP6]

A musician that is worthy of a mention is Dan Swano. From his prog rock band Nightingale to his former death metal residence with Bloodbath, his epic masterpieces of Crimson I and II with Edge of Sanity and the awesomeness that is Moontower. He always has great melodies and brutal riffs, his guitar tone never disappoints. He also possesses another great growl and singing voice.

Ah, yes, Swano. I absolutely love 'Alive Again'. Awesome stuff.

 

[jdurso]

Music that can change your frame of mind and surroundings is incredible to experience and rare to find these days (IMO).
A musician that is worthy of a mention is Dan Swano. From his prog rock band Nightingale to his former death metal residence with Bloodbath, his epic masterpieces of Crimson I and II with Edge of Sanity and the awesomeness that is Moontower. He always has great melodies and brutal riffs, his guitar tone never disappoints. He also possesses another great growl and singing voice.

Whether I have these guys playing through my home/car stereo or on my MP3 player when carving up the twisties on my motorcycle they truly bring me to another place.

Brain message, thats a good one! And a BIG +1 on Mikael's guitar tone!

These guys are just awesome! :mrgreen:

Never heard of Dan swano but I'll have to check his stuff out.

Yeah i thought of brain massage a few years ago while "in another state of mind", blasting Dark Side after a great night of drinking after our college graduation.

 

[Riff Blister]

Jduso!
Thanks so much for this post. Count me in as a huge Wilson fan too!
As a matter of fact I invited my kids over this past weekend (son 27 and daughter 24) to watch my Blackfield Live in New York DVD. It gave me the chance to stand on the coffee table and preach to them about Steve Wilson’s genius. Ha!
Two years ago my buddy and I drove almost five hours to Milwaukee to see Porcupine Tree live. Awesome show! I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Porcupine Tree lead me to Blackfield and then on to Opeth. These are three bands I now have on my list of all time favorites. I’ve seen Opeth live twice just last year.
Oh yeah, if you don’t have Porcupine Tree’s concert DVD “Arriving Somewhere” I would suggest that you get it.

Another band that is also on my list these days is Witchcraft. Different from the bands we are talking about but I can’t get enough of the album by them called the “Alchemist”
These musicians give me hope that great music is still being made.

 

[jdurso]

Jduso!
Thanks so much for this post. Count me in as a huge Wilson fan too!
As a matter of fact I invited my kids over this past weekend (son 27 and daughter 24) to watch my Blackfield Live in New York DVD. It gave me the chance to stand on the coffee table and preach to them about Steve Wilson’s genius. Ha!
Two years ago my buddy and I drove almost five hours to Milwaukee to see Porcupine Tree live. Awesome show! I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Porcupine Tree lead me to Blackfield and then on to Opeth. These are three bands I now have on my list of all time favorites. I’ve seen Opeth live twice just last year.
Oh yeah, if you don’t have Porcupine Tree’s concert DVD “Arriving Somewhere” I would suggest that you get it.

Another band that is also on my list these days is Witchcraft. Different from the bands we are talking about but I can’t get enough of the album by them called the “Alchemist”
These musicians give me hope that great music is still being made.

Thats kind of funny in the sense that since i discovered Porcupine Tree, i found another band my dad and I could both listen too and appreciate. I grew up with his and my uncle's favorite bands; pink floyd, king crimson, zeppelin, black sabbath, the eagles, beach boys, ELO, chicago, aerosmith, etc... and not that PC sounds like all of them, but i think it shares the depth that era of music protrayed. Outside of the whole concept album thing, bands like floyd and crimson had this heaviness that had nothing to do with the gain their amps threw out which is part of today's "heavy" standard, but it had a density to it that i think a lot of bands influenced by those guys still show. To this day I still think one of the biggest songs i've heard is eclipse off dark side.... it has so many layers that when combined is just as heavy to me as Sad But True (and that **** there is heavy).

Anyway back to my point... the fact that your kids are around my age and my dad is probably around your age, and the sharing of PC can go both ways is really cool. Whenever music has relevance across generations (especially to mine) I think that means a lot. Something tells me the Dark Sides and Hotel California's have been written, but listening to albums like Watershed or Fear of a Blank Planet gives me hope that someone in my time will create that album that reaches beyond genres and generations. The only thing that sucks is it may be so under the radar, it wont get the acclaim it deserves.

 

[jdurso]

BTW since Opeth was brought up and this is a gear forum, does anyone have any tricks for getting Michael Akerfeldt's guitar sound in the beginning of the song Burden off of Watershed. It reminds me of when i had my Fernandes Ravelle which had a sustainer pickup and could just sustain forever. I've tried many compressor/sustainer pedals but none do it that naturally. So if anyone knows of a good pedal to create that super long sustain without killing your tone i'm all ears.

 

[73h Nils]

Add "Arriving Somewhere" to that list!

Awesome band. Lots of songs don't really strike a chord with me, though. There's always about 3-4 I skip on each album (not FoaBP, though).

 

[MetalMatt]

BTW since Opeth was brought up and this is a gear forum, does anyone have any tricks for getting Michael Akerfeldt's guitar sound in the beginning of the song Burden off of Watershed. It reminds me of when i had my Fernandes Ravelle which had a sustainer pickup and could just sustain forever. I've tried many compressor/sustainer pedals but none do it that naturally. So if anyone knows of a good pedal to create that super long sustain without killing your tone i'm all ears.

That sustaining guitar sounds like an Ebow in use. I know he uses an Ebow throughout various Opeth records. I have one, and that seems to do the trick. The one problem he had was creating that sound live, he didn't want to have it hanging around his neck while playing. He found some patch on the boss GT multi effects pedal that emulates that sound. I have no clue what that might be.

 

[Red Barchetta]

I have to agree...particularly the Porcupine Tree tunes. I was turned on to Porcupine Tree while reading one of Neil Peart's books...he mentioned them, and spoke very highly of them. The first album I got was In Absentia. Great tunes, great production. Highly recommended.


RB

 

[jdurso]

BTW since Opeth was brought up and this is a gear forum, does anyone have any tricks for getting Michael Akerfeldt's guitar sound in the beginning of the song Burden off of Watershed. It reminds me of when i had my Fernandes Ravelle which had a sustainer pickup and could just sustain forever. I've tried many compressor/sustainer pedals but none do it that naturally. So if anyone knows of a good pedal to create that super long sustain without killing your tone i'm all ears.

That sustaining guitar sounds like an Ebow in use. I know he uses an Ebow throughout various Opeth records. I have one, and that seems to do the trick. The one problem he had was creating that sound live, he didn't want to have it hanging around his neck while playing. He found some patch on the boss GT multi effects pedal that emulates that sound. I have no clue what that might be.

Hmmm interesting. I've been toying around with the axe-fx to create that effect using various other effects. Right now i just have it in the loop but i'm thinking maybe i'll have to bust out the 4CM and see if i get better results.

 

[jdurso]

BTW, for those that dig Porcupine Tree, one of the local bands that my band used to play with has a very similar vibe... there name is The Postman Syndrome. They're not together any more (actually formed into a band called Day Without Dawn... now called Biclops), but they were very progressive with a sound that was like Tool mixed with Radiohead mixed with Opeth and Dillinger Escape Plan (actually they used to tour NJ with Dillinger back in high school). When they were Postman it was the coolest because all three guitarsist sang and they blended all these different genres with some very intricate song writing. The only reason I mention them is because when i first heard the song Blackest Eyes I thought it was a new postman song (at the time they were signed to Now or Never records and use to get airplay at Seton Halls Pirate Radio).

Biclops -
http://www.myspace.com/biclopsisaband
http://www.biclops.net/

Postman Syndrome -
http://www.biclops.net/postman/
http://www.myspace.com/ThePostmanSyndrome <-- never heard that one before and it might have been a demo... there actual album they released sounded better

Day Without Dawn -
http://www.myspace.com/DayWithoutDawn

EDIT: BTW they're also Mesa users. I dont think they ever had the chance to record with them but there was a Road King (when it first came out), a rack mounted Mark IV and a Nomad. Jim (the one with the RK) is the one who first ever uttered the words Mesa/Boogie to me and that was where my obsession with Boogie began. Now granted when he first mentioned Boogie we were still broke high school/college students.... eventually when we were playing gigs with each other it was just a huge collection of boogies and eden (both bass players) gear in a corner of these bars. Definitely a site to see

 

[Riff Blister]

As long as we are rolling along pretty good on this thread. I picked up Steve Wilson's new solo CD "Insergentes" this weekend. It sounds great (no surprise there) but like most "prog" music it will take multiple listens (listens?) to really appreciate it. It's a lot to wrap your head around right off the bat.

 

[MusicManJP6]

As long as we are rolling along pretty good on this thread. I picked up Steve Wilson's new solo CD "Insergentes" this weekend. It sounds great (no surprise there) but like most "prog" music it will take multiple listens (listens?) to really appreciate it. It's a lot to wrap your head around right off the bat.

Agreed. It sounds better and better with every listen.

 

[jdurso]

As long as we are rolling along pretty good on this thread. I picked up Steve Wilson's new solo CD "Insergentes" this weekend. It sounds great (no surprise there) but like most "prog" music it will take multiple listens (listens?) to really appreciate it. It's a lot to wrap your head around right off the bat.

agreed... Harmony Korine in the 5.1 mix is especially good (when the vocal harmonies come in in the verse its like a mind orgasm). If anyone has this please make sure at some point you check out the 5.1 disc through a decent system or pair of 5.1 headphones. Steven really out did himself witht hat mix. Him using spacey, droning noises to add some emotion to his music is nothing new, but when heard in a 5.1 mix its mind blowing. I wish more music was mixed in 5.1.

 

[MusicManJP6]

Which reminds me - there is a 30th anniversary Dark Side of the Moon album that came out a few years ago that is remastered in 5.1 audio. I've yet to hear it... Prob pretty cool!

I'd like to hear Steven's 5.1 mix... no 5.1 system though... I might be able to rig one up some how though...