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

btw if you're wondering how Steven Wilson's older fanbase is taking this song, here's the answer: not well

friendly reminder that SW kind of BEGAN with electronica - and *huge challop* Up The Downstair, where this element is at its most prominent, might still be his best overall album

predictably this is sounding like one of the best things he's ever written to me :D

I dig that album a lot but c'mon now

He gots the money now finally, he can do the kinda music that the 50 yr old prog blokes are sniffy about, they'll still buy the super deluxe box set and the live blu-ray all the time bitching and moaning on forums.

He's been making electronic music with No Man, Bass Communion and whatever the hell else since the early nineties, sure.

oof what is the bridge of this song doing though lol

I'm not even that huge of a fan, I liked the last record well enough and he seems like a nice enough dude, but it's very bad sixth-form art, all of it and it's preachy and obvious and disingenuous all at the same time.

Thankfully for the sake of SW's dignity as a 50 year old man this is more Italo or 80s synth pop than what "pumping EDM" had brought to mind. I like those chords.

I'm a 50-year-old prog bloke and I defend my right to be sniffy about his recent direction. Sure, he can do as much electronica and 80s pop stuff as he likes as long as he also does the grandiose prog stuff I love him for. The first four solo albums were fantastic but he's been coasting since Hand Cannot Erase.

Deluxe edition of PT's In Absentia album now out:

https://kscopemusic.com/artists/porcupinetree/

Enjoyable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbtvzJdKYTc

New album is mediocre, standout track 12 Things I Forgot excepted. Hopefully he's got the '80s prog pop thing out of his system now after two albums and can go back to doing what he does best, i.e. neo-prog.

Yeah, I feel like he’s too talented to make an outright bad album, but this is just... blah. It’s not quite as awful I feared based on “Personal Shopper”, but easily his most disappointing solo record and I hope this is the end of the road for his art pop thing. The hectoring lyrics don’t really help me love the best parts either. Feel like I might add “Eminent Sleaze” and “Follower” to “12 Things” for some comp of this era someday and forget the rest. Not worth an additional year wait.

https://www.superdeluxeedition.com/interview/sde-talks-to-the-man-who-spent-10k-on-the-steven-wilson-ultra-deluxe-tfb-box/

At least he's giving the money to charity, still kind of a dick move though.

Making something so rare and expensive?

I'm not a fan of the general conceit, SW's preachy criticism of consumer culture that results in the production of an irresistible geegaw for hare-brained collector types with the strong urge of sole ownership.

I mean, yeah, the layers of irony are piling up with this one, when he spends part of one song railing against consumers wasting money on luxury items, one of which is specifically named as "box sets", as he ships out multiple deluxe versions of a mediocre album.

Like he's done with every solo record/live recording and a good deal of the PT back catalogue and will, no doubt, continue to do until he's amassed enough money to retire.

don't hate the player, etc etc

One thing I will say is that I'm very much looking forward to seeing what he does with this live, if the shows scheduled for this autumn end up happening. He said in one interview I read that he had originally booked arenas but has now had to downsize to theatres because the arenas are booked for three years ahead. He's been dropping hints about the shows being "immersive", not sure what that means but it sounds intriguing, like some kind of Punchdrunk thing.

curious. would he sell out arenas?

Originally he was booked to play the O2 in London. I was surprised as well.

New album is mediocre, standout track 12 Things I Forgot excepted. Hopefully he's got the '80s prog pop thing out of his system now after two albums and can go back to doing what he does best, i.e. neo-prog.

Sums it up, really.

he's an incredibly talented dude but the melodies he writes are just so unmemorable, outside of maybe that 2000-2002 period of PT. I can't quite place why that is exactly, it just sounds like library music to me, the stuff you get when you *want* King Crimson on your soundtrack but don't want to pay to license it so you pay someone $300 to write something with a similar atmosphere & chord progression. it doesn't surprise me his synthpop album is really well-made but ultimately something I don't have much desire to hear again.

I've only heard Hand Cannot Erase, and found it completely unmemorable, and later The Incident which was a decent emulation of his influences. Wilson's voice lacks any sort of character.

I'm listening to The Incident now, and it's so much about imitating older prog, it's like a more tasteful version of Spock's Beard.

Like he's done with every solo record/live recording and a good deal of the PT back catalogue and will, no doubt, continue to do until he's amassed enough money to retire.

― Maresn3st, Friday, February 5, 2021 7:03 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

don't hate the player, etc etc

― frogbs, Friday, February 5, 2021 7:04 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oh of course he will, I'm not knocking him for that, fans are clearly willing to shell out for it all. Good for him, just noting the irony given the entire concept of this album.

His mentioning deluxe box sets in Personal Shopper is likely just an acknowledgement that he also succumbs to the same temptations. To me, he's complaining more about the appeal of shiny but unnecessary consumer products than suggesting that he's above them and we should be too.

I love the title track on The Incident. There's usually a few good tracks on his albums. I still really don't think he sounds like 70s prog bands.

OK, he imitates Radiohead too.

I heard the Radiohead way more

I only just now found out that's Elton John doing the spoken word bit on "Personal Shopper".

Gotta admit that I'm intrigued by this new compilation he curated:

Demon Records release Intrigue - Steve Wilson Presents: Progressive Sounds In UK Alternative Music 1979-89, a new compilation assembled by acclaimed musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer, Steven Wilson. The collection explores the creativity, experimentation and progressive spirit of alternative British music from 1979-1989. Artists include Wire, XTC, The Stranglers, Ultravox, The Durutti Column, Cocteau Twins, Kate Bush, Tears For Fears, and many more.

tracklist:

CD 1
1. I Should Have Known Better – Wire
2. A Better Home In The Phantom Zone – Bill Nelson’s Red Noise
3. Back To Nature – Magazine
4. Complicated Game (Steven Wilson 2014 Mix) - XTC
5. Careering – Public Image Limited
6. The Raven – The Stranglers
7. Puppet Life – Punishment Of Luxury
8. Astradyne (Steven Wilson Stereo Mix) – Ultravox
9. Contract – Gang Of Four
10. I Travel (Extended Version) – Simple Minds
11. Sketch For Summer – The Durutti Column
12. Health And Efficiency - This Heat
13. Burning Car – John Foxx
14. Cognitive Dissonance (Steven Wilson 2022 Mix) – Robert Fripp And The League of Gentlemen
15. Fatal Day – In Camera

CD 2
1. I Can't Escape Myself - The Sound
2. The Eternal - Joy Division
3. Big Empty Field - Swell Maps
4. Enemies - Art Nouveau
5. The Joy Circuit - Gary Numan
6. The Gospel Comes To New Guinea - 23 Skidoo
7. All My Colours - Echo And The Bunnymen
8. Ghost Town (Extended Version) - The Specials
9. They All Run After The Carving Knife - New Musik
10. The Him - New Order
11. White Car In Germany (Single Edit) - The Associates
12. Hit - Section 25
13. Sealand - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
14. Talking Drum - Japan
15. Faith - The Cure

CD 3
1. Three Dancers (Steven Wilson 2021 Mix) - Twelfth Night
2. Airwaves - Thomas Dolby
3. Are You Ready? - Crispy Ambulance
4. The Outsider - Rupert Hine
5. Knife Slits Water - A Certain Ratio
6. Memories Fade - Tears For Fears
7. Patient - Peter Hammill
8. Donimo - Cocteau Twins
9. In A Waiting Room - Mr And Mrs Smith And Mr Drake
10. Close (To The Edit) - The Art Of Noise
11. Dalis Car - Dalis Car
12. Rawhide - Scott Walker
13. Brilliant Trees - David Sylvian
14. Dream Within A Dream – Propaganda

CD 4
1. Waking The Witch - Kate Bush
2. Ivy And Neet - This Mortal Coil
3. Beehead (7” Version) - Perennial Divide
4. This Corrosion – The Sisters Of Mercy
5. Ascension - O Yuki Conjugate
6. No Motion - Dif Juz
7. Gutter Busting – SLAB!
8. Murderers, The Hope Of Women - Momus
9. The Host Of Seraphim - Dead Can Dance
10. R.E.S. - Cardiacs
11. Good Morning Beautiful - The The
12. Omega Amigo - The Shamen
13. Night Sky, Sweet Earth - No-Man
14. The 3rd Time We Opened The Capsule - Kitchens Of Distinction

Yeah he's got crazy broad tastes and that's to the good; anyone -- especially some fans, frankly -- who just want him to be 'the prog guy' are severely misunderstanding him.

he'd be a good ILM poster

not a bad price for the cd edition either.
however, there is a concern that the broad range of styles and genres makes the target audience for a seemingly random selection of tracks somewhat selective.
but i guess steve has a following a la bob stanley, and so a lot of people will just buy this cos of his involvement.

I mean, as an American who missed out on quite a bit of that stuff, either from being a little too young or for it not really registering on this side of the Atlantic, I'm intrigued.

Not sure why this compilation has to exist. Unlike Bob Stanley, who compiles with a narrow genre focus, or sometimes with a whimsical concept of a time and place where the tracks might be played and sound good together, these tracks seem jarringly random. It doesn't make much sense that Omega Amigo, This Corrosion and Murderers the Hopes of Women exist together on a disc - is it because they are "progressive"? Or is it a way for Wilson to try to escape the prog corner that many people have painted him into (with good reason, btw)?

Honestly, I think it's him tweaking the nose a little of his prog fans that have really hated his more recent turn to art-pop and 80s influenced material on his recent solo albums. There's been some real vocal moaning from his fans about the '80s sound, the press release I saw says he's trying to guide listeners to good material from the decade.

Stanley's comps are what I thought about when I saw this; in either case, I don't purchase these things, but in Stanley's I did go and create some playlists that matched his selections (when I couldn't find his comp on apple music) and I'll likely do the same here. This frankly reads like some mixtapes I would have made people in the 90's. There isn't much here that isn't already familiar to me, but a few things I've not heard of before (SLAB! and Mr and Mrs Smith and Mr Drake for instance).

'Mr and Mrs Smith and Mr Drake' are three members of Cardiacs and a pretty surprising selection.

Bob Stanley would not compile huge obvious tracks like Ghost Town, I Travel, This Corrosion or Close To The Edit. And he wouldn't do a compilation that covered a whole decade unless it was some laser-focussed genre thing. This is more akin to one of those late-career moves where we get the tracks that supposedly inspired the compiler to become a musician (plus a couple of tracks they first heard on BBC6 last year).

Idk, I don't think he's trying to be a Bob Stanley here, just compiling a version of the '80s music that influenced him. Don't see that as a bad thing. Obviously this is not for people who were already knee-deep in this type of thing at the time anyway, but could be a cool way to introduce younger listeners who gobble up anything by Wilson to a hidden gem or two. I mean, aiui no one is being forced to purchase this.

Interesting that he includes his own group at the end of the last disc, like: "this is where I came in".

Porcupine Tree played the Greek not long ago, I heard good things

Genuine question - are there younger listeners that are super into this guy?

I guess it depends on what you consider "younger", I suppose. But I've been surprised to see a lot of SW/PT fans on reddit or other forums that seem to be in their 20s or younger. His fixation on the physical packages he puts together seems to have given him another wind with the younger "just getting into vinyl" crowd for sure.

I only have a cursory knowledge of Steven’s musicianship/Porcupine Tree, and I’m distrustful of 90% of the vinyl remaster cash grabs/snake oil, but I can say with certainty, Wilson’s half speed remasters of Tull’s TAAB & Benefit are ear candy aural delight.

That comp looks pretty great too.