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

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

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.