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

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.

My wife’s cousin was really big into PT, especially In Abesntia. I later realized she was born the same year it came out lol

Lightbulb Sun is all killer, no filler.

They've always had great cover art, also.

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

Had absolutely no idea he was half of No-Man. Love their debut album

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

You can count me among those moaners, the last two SW albums have been abysmal

Nice to see him sneaking a bit of 80s neo-prog in there in the form of Twelfth Night, since that was actually the scene he started out in. Clearly he ran out of room for LaHost, Tamarisk or Citizen Cain.

He's missed a few things out (Astronauts, any Cope, Chameleons, Left To My Own Devices haha cmon it is the prog song of the 80s, Talk Talk idk, maybe a Peni bit, Camberwell Now maaaybe, cd there have been some Cocteaus or MBV, and surely a Fall song innit) but a pretty fab selection (read: pretty close to my own understanding of what was good about the UK progressive alternative in that era)

It is quite a lot of paperwork putting something like this together, especially when the acts/publishers involved may be a little less well-known and harder to track down, I'd imagine his wish list went through a few iterations.

There is a Cocteaus song. xp

oops, need new glasses

It's easy to pick holes in this - This Corrosion feels like a particularly jarring selection, but there is much to love here and it goes quite deep. Must have been a mammoth licensing job. Also the first time I have seen anyone pay attention to SLAB! or Perennial Divide in a long, long time, and full marks if it introduces a new audience to the wonders of The Gospel Comes To New Guinea.

get him into the caravan at watching trees! :)

You can count me among those moaners, the last two SW albums have been abysmal

I really, really didn't like the latest, but thought To The Bone was decent. Neither of them get anywhere near the amount of replay that Raven or Insurgentes do.

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