Steven Wilson S/D (Porcupine Tree, No-Man, Blackfield, the mixing desk, etc.)

never had much use for porcupine tree but his solo albums are jams. the first one ('insurgentes') has the looseness and swing i think you're missing frogbs. and the latest one is great prog rock for any era, just a hair under battles' 'mirrored', motorpsycho's 'death-defying unicorn,' and decemberists' 'crane wife' in my book for the best of the past decade. i disagree with jon about storm corrosion -- it's a grower. it's quiet, like a late talk talk album, and reveals itself over time

I'll have to check it out. Looking through his RYM pages and I had no idea he did so much, he's got almost kind of a Tatsuya Yoshida thing going on. I guess I'm finding the No-Man albums the most interesting right now, as they seem to hit on great ideas but then move onto other things - there's only one of say "Painter's Paradise" in their catalog while PT has an endless amount of doomy/funky jamtracks. Dunno if I'm convinced of Bowness as a singer yet, I wish he had more range and he always sounds like he's about to burst into tears.

Figured I'd give Stupid Dream another listen, it's really quite good isn't it? I think he really does transition into more of a pop artist there.

i disagree with jon about storm corrosion -- it's a grower. it's quiet, like a late talk talk album, and reveals itself over time

Fair enough. I actually don't have a problem with the quietness of the record, I appreciated that, but it just never grew for me. It just felt very lifeless to me. I also think I had huge expectations going into it though, based on how much I loved Wilson's solo work and Opeth's Heritage coming right before it.

my expectations were pretty big too, but tempered by being sort of disappointed by 'heritage' (which i should probably revisit)

I remember my first Wilson thing was PT's In Absentia. I found it distressingly poppy (I used to be bothered by very polished sound and singles chart radio friendly vocals), I had a similar reaction to Opeth (although growling and extreme metal elements were not very pop) and Frost (they have a pop producer and ended up being one of my favourite modern bands).
I still have reservations about all these things. I do find it slightly odd that Wilson is very anti mainstream homogenization but I find his sensibilities sometimes a bit too pop.

But I enjoy his music. In Absentia's "Gravity Eyelids" is amazing. Solo album Insurgents has a great dreampop song. The incident's title track is fucking great. Only have 4 of his albums actually, should get more.

I like his interviews, I thought his explanation of the decline of many rock bands was better than most peoples reasonings.

I just heard his remix of Close to the Edge and holy shit, this guy really knows what he's doing at the mixing desk. Never heard just how great Howe and Bruford's parts really were on that one. Should I shell out for his other remasters? (Thinking about picking up The Yes Album at least, kinda thinking about some King Crimson ones as well)

So far I've picked up his remasters of King Crimson's Red and Gentle Giant's The Power and the Glory, really loved them both. They both sounded amazing to me but, tbh, I've only ever known them previously through my old vinyl copies. I'll have to look for the Yes ones!

Comparing the remasters side-by-side it's kind of nuts how much he changes considering they're such "classic" albums (in a crowd that's pretty anal about everything) - Lizard is the most obvious example given that it uses parts that were never even on the original but all of them so far have a few moments of "whoa, I don't remember that"

Listening to Lightbulb Sun right now. The title track is so damn good, maybe my favorite song of his overall. I wish he would just let loose and kick out the jams but this album still rules. I think his approach works well with these sort of prog/pop tunes.

his best stuff is always, always the poppier material, the stuff that embraces its own softness as a primary component

a whole album of ambient pop a la Glass Arm Shattering wd be good

even from the beginning that was true - I always wondered why he didn't do more songs like "Small Fish" from Up the Downstair considering he's so good at it

kudos to his production (or whatever involvement) on the latest opeth album. it fucking slays. who else has ever been this involved in so many awesome projects at once? eno? jim o'rourke?

New album is pretty good, but doesn't scale the heights of the previous ones to me; and at times seems too reminiscent of P Tree, which makes me wonder why it's not just P Tree. Seems like it might be time for him to try something new; it's still good though.

Hmm, I had really high hopes for this after that last one. I was hoping for something as good, but I'll take even just plain "pretty good" Steven Wilson any day.

You might like it more than I do. I like it, it's just very similar to past things. The poppy title track is probably the one dissimilar thing (which I really like).

after living with it a few days any reservations I had about it are gone.

for my money he's 4 for 4 now with solo albums. i way prefer these to porcupine tree. it's almost worth prog rock getting mercilessly trashed for almost three decades to hear it sounding so fresh these past few years, like the slate was cleaned, palate cleansed, what have you, by all the slagging. that's the main reason i don't have the reservations about a 'calculatedness' some hear as expressed above in the thread -- you had to be brave to be making this kind of music when this guy was starting out, with only the likes of critical pariahs like marillion running around doing the same. for sure the advent of tortoise and radiohead didn't hurt, but the odds were way against anyone taking him seriously ever, and man did he pull it off

anyways the 'concept' with this new one is kinda engaging ~ an impressionistic narrative of joyce vincent, a youngish woman whose corpse decomposed undiscovered for a couple years in her apartment

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/26/steven-wilson-hand-cannot-erase-review

there's a documentary about it, too, from a few years back

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/09/joyce-vincent-death-mystery-documentary

yeah I actually don't see it having as much to do with her as was originally implied; I guess the concept of loneliness and disengagement is there.

I agree that all four of his solo albums are preferable to P Tree. In fact my favorite P Tree album these days is the last one (The Incident), which is the one no-one seems to like and is also the most like his solo records.

I liked The Incident, especially the title track. It's a good album.

Ok, any reservations I had about the new album are long gone. Another great one. I have a hard time ranking his solo records as I think they're all equally strong

Remix/remaster or Yes' "Relayer" is glorious.

oh man, can't wait to hear that, that album is completely nuts

I really enjoyed The Raven... album when I heard it in passing, but I've never listened to even that one closely, let alone the rest of his vast discography.

His new in-between solo release '4 1/2' is really catching my ears though. It's apparently a collection of 5 pieces that have kind of fallen by the wayside over the last few years which he's finally given the time to work up properly, plus one revisit of an old Porcupine Tree track, and there's some fantastic sounding stuff on it! The first track "My Book Of Regrets' and the mid-point 'Happiness III' in particular are so incredibly poppy and catchy, in a great way - the former being a 10 minute multi-faceted melodic prog piece.

I read a short interview on his site where he mentions a few times being afraid of indulging or allowing his pop sensibilities to really shine in the past and that he's trying to just let that happen when it seems right to do so. It definitely seems right here!

Interested to hear what anyone else thinks of this one and where it should lead me to investigate further...

The main bulk of two of the tracks are taken from live recordings, then finished up in the studio, but on "My Book Of Regrets" especially I would have no idea that this were the case from how it sounds.

Thanks for the rec, there's some lovely stuff on here. I really like the smooth changes of "Sunday Rain Sets In."

Listening to his most recent solo album "Hand.Cannot.Erase.," it sounds like a really strong fusion of late '70s Rush and early '70s Genesis, pretty cool.

I never got beyond Stars Dive, which had a bunch of Radio 1 airplay in the early 90s. Is there anything more like that? Not really a fan of a the squiggley proggier stuff.

Hmm. This new one doesn't seem terribly squiggly. Corny, sure, but not too squiggly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqQIAAkw_Gk

Frightened Inmate #21 day ago
Catchiest song in history that's in 9/4

That song really sounds like Manic Street Preachers to me! Not a comparison I'd expect, but it definitely does!

Yeah, tbh I've only dipped into Wilson's daunting oeuvre, but it's really all over the place!

probably my favorite musician these days.

Remix/remaster of Yes' "Fragile" is wonderful. Haven't jumped in to listening to his own recordings but this guy has a wonderful approach to the classic stuff. Not for everyone I would imagine but hits all the marks when remixing and remastering as far as I'm concerned.

sorry for the 2x "wonderful".

Would love to hear him tackle Japan's discography. Steve Nye's mixes are beautiful but as far as remasters go would probably be lovely.

acid hose, since you like the fragile remaster, you should give the raven who refused to sing a shot. for me it's the best evocation of early '70s prog since motorpsycho's death defying unicorn

I will check it out for sure!

agreed on that point. actually it has a lbit more of a Drama vibe to me; but yes. one of my favorite albums.

the new Blackfield album (V) is a surprise; the best since the first one, maybe even better than that. It's a full Wilson collaboration despite his earlier claims to be taking a backseat; not sure what spurred the deeper involvement but it's the better for it since the last several albums were spotty at best and awful at worst.

that's good news, still think that first album is pretty great as far as moody pop goes

yeah I like the first one a lot. the second one, not so much; 3 &4, not really at all. this one is fairly different from all of them. I think Parsons may have had a fair amount of influence in shaping the sound.

new album has leaked, despite his stance that it's highly influenced by the same things that influence me (talk talk, 80's peter gabriel/kate bush, art rock) it still sounds just like another Steven Wilson album, maybe slightly more poppy. It's very good. That's all.

I really liked the last LP and EP but this isn't doing anything for me yet

Listening to the Raven
Pretty impressed, had no idea anyone still made capital P prog like this,but also it doesn't completely feel like a retro throwback, there are modern elements

nothing epic like "the watchmaker" on this but intriguing first listen nonetheless

new album is #1 on the UK charts, congrats man

It was number 1 mid-week, but finished at 3 in the final count today, which is pretty amazing nonetheless!

"ask me nicely" starts out borderline progstep

I’ve been trying to get into this guy’s stuff after years of listening to (and generally being mightily impressed by) his remix work. But my attention tends to drift when I put Wilson’s own material on.

However, Schoolyard Ghosts is really hitting the spot. Other than one tune that has a big blaring crunch, this is a really rich, engaging listen. Bowness’s vocals are terrific, Wilson’s piano-based arrangements are great, and there are lots of good tunes and melodies here (not always prog’s greatest strength). 5.1 mix is terrific as well.

Good entry point.

Two prog quiz videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2InJpqo_bw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veOMUKQwjiY

I think he's got a great ear, his remasters are fantastic and every album he's done has been "good", albeit in kind of a lifeless way. everything he does feels so calculated to me. I think of King Crimson's original run from In The Court to Red and they're all marked with this sense of exploration, you don't know what they're gonna do next and in some sense it doesn't feel like the band does either. SW is really good at figuring out what worked well and why but his albums don't really feel like they're taking any real risks. Even the more exploratory 90s PT stuff feels like he's just vibing off The Orb. idk I guess some people like that and I see why his stuff is all highly rated but I tried hard to get into this guy and thus far it's eluded me.

I like the pop album he did just fine for the most part, and I think TTB is pretty good; neither as strong as Hand Cannot Erase though. Anyway, I'm sure he would have put Talk Talk on here if he could have, must have been a licensing issue, he is a giant fan. This seems like an outgrowth of his podcast with Tim Bowness.

I love that he put Twelfth Night on there, that song absolutely fits. Geoff Mann was a great vocalist. That song in particular reminds me of Sitting Targets (the Peter Hammill album from about the same time)

his remix of Songs from the Big Chair by Tears for Fears sounds amazing

get him into the caravan at watching trees! :)

100% would but probably would want too many £s. more pertinently, can we get you in there?

Haha, would totally be down for that along with fellow brighton crew

will report back then if we are doing it next year. we have a few issues we need to overcome before we'll know if it's happening again.

oh man, if you're serious, definitely count me in. might even play some slab!

:-)

Interesting counterpoint - https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/young-limbs-rise-again-the-story-of-the-batcave-nightclub-1982-1985/

I made a poll:

Best song on Intrigue: Steven Wilson presents Progressive Sounds in UK Alternative Music 1979-89

Regarding young people being into Steven Wilson - I'm in a few prog Discord servers and there are a good number of teens/twentysomethings there who love his work. Not sure if it's his music in particular or just another generation getting into prog, but the young fanbase does exist

(I suppose I count too, was born in 01 and like a lot of his stuff)

Everyone's got their own starting point! It is weird, though, thinking about how if it wasn't for that one No-Man single review back in 1990 I would always have had a much different view of his arc.

reminds me of the other, friend of mine was saying how shocked he was about mars volta london tickets being £65 last week. i said something along the lines of "teens are always gonna be into prog".

*other day

I was really into Porcupine Tree when I was a prog-obsessed teen in the 2000's. I think they have a very teenage appeal. A lot of their stuff pairs a vivid sense of drama and alienation with a sort of "I'm smarter than my peers" energy (particularly strong in Fear of a Blank Planet). Catnip for the kind of teen who loves complicated music their peers don't listen to!

this is one of the best songs he has ever done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmtyvKz8ubQ

That one is alright, but imo “Impossible Tightrope” blows it out of the water and shifted me from mildly anticipating the new one to really excited for it.

It's been several years since I've been taken by anything from his solo work but these are both terrific

holy shit that song is amazing too. I'm normally a massive fan, I don't know why I slept on these for as long as I did.

this is great. 3 for 3 so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRaspkaqR8o

yeah, this is great too!

another winner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCrACQP4AtI

Glad to see your endorsement of this one too. I've decided to hold off on more preview tracks until I can hear the whole thing.

i find this kind of gear talk offputting sometimes, but these guys are are so infectiously enthusiastic. and something deeply comforting about watching people so deeply knowledgable talking with each other

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkFCxO1HBp4

Blimey Steven Wilson has aged well

Ha, seriously, he's like the Paul Rudd of pasty British prog dudes.

btw the album is excellent. a real evolution on what he started with the Future Bites. Unsurprisingly prog whiners are hating it and claiming one song is 'rap'.

yeah it's a little freaky honestly

I haven’t heard it yet, beyond the first couple of advance songs, since I was hoping to pick up a copy first. But it seems to have piss poor American distribution, none of the stores around here got a copy in any format and even Amazon is showing early November at best to get it and that’s only from third party sellers.

Oh yeah, check the Hoffman forums
For more tales of fucked distribution for this. I ordered it from his own website and no idea when Townsend are shipping it.

Unsurprisingly prog whiners are hating it

I'm a prog whiner who abhors Wilson's repudiation of prog over the last two records. Like, why make good pop when you can make great prog?

I haven't listened to the new one properly yet but from what I've heard it sounds more proggy than TTB and TFB, which is fine with me.

have you guys seen the insane video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmd-MNCt6u8

wow that's magnificent

I know I've gotten cynical in my old age because my first thought was "jesus, I wonder what this cost"

But I love the video and the song. Looking forward to this album.

yeah the videos for everything have been awesome and they do not look cheap.

I know he gets some flack for doing a lot of expensive super deluxe edition stuff (even while writing tracks aimed directly at that exact corner of consumer culture) but I truly think everything he makes goes right back into his work so I'm okay with it. I mean his records just sound expensive somehow

throwin' that Jethro Tull remaster money around

I had the super deluxe editions of all his solo albums through To the Bone but sold them off recently (except for HCE) mainly because I never really listened to those bonus tracks and I don't have a surround system. The books were very nice though. Raven has a short story for every song (which I never read, and now I guess I never will)

The Album Years podcast with Wilson and Bowness is a lot of fun. Only heard of it when the videos started uploading on youtube