OFF: Porcupine Tree

[Tony]

Jon
When did the Boatrace in Cambridge close?  I used to go there a fair bit
when I lived in Cambridge!
Didn't PT just play The Junction?
Tony

-----Original Message-----
From: BOC/Hawkwind Discussion List [mailto:BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET] On
Behalf Of Jon Jarrett
Sent: 11 April 2005 14:45
To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET
Subject: Re: OFF: Porcupine Tree

On Thu, 7 Apr 2005, Tony wrote:

> What does this list think of Porcupine Tree?  I'm only a recent convert to
> them, only having heard a couple of tracks from their last album - In
> Absentia.  But I have to say I'm now a fan!  I saw them last weekend
during
> their UK tour and they were magnificent.  What's more Steven Wilson
> (songwriter, guitars, singer and all round genius) likes Hawkwind too.  On
> his personal website he lists "In Search Of Space" on his March playlist.
> http://www.nomansland.demon.co.uk/playlist.html
> Cool!

        I'm kind of ambivalent about Porcupine Tree these days, which is
sad because they're the band I own most records by after Hawkwind by a
pretty clear margin. The trouble is partly that a lot of that material is
duplicated because they went through a period between record deals when
they were really milking the fanbsase with re-release stuff with only a
few new tracks on it, and I got sufficiently fed up of this that when _In
Absentia_ came out in the US and was only available here on import I
didn't get it because by then was sure that the eventual European release
would have bonus tracks on it.

        The other reason is that I got into the band just after they
released _The Sky Moves Sideways_ which point Steven Wilson played guitar
like Dave Gilmour, they were doing huge long atmospheric prog pieces and
tended to play fairly small spaces with Fruit Salad Lights who have also
got less interesting since then, not tailoring their illuminations to the
material and so on. The gig of theirs I saw in the late lamented Boat
Race in Cambridge, which held about 200 people if you packed them in like
sardines, and they were, with full light show, has got to be one of the
most intense gig experiences I've ever had. And _Signify_ and so on held
out the promise at this was going to be the band that did something new
with the whole English psychedelic progressive crossover field that
no-one's otherwise got over early Floyd in. Then everything went quiet
except for re-release rarities and so on, they left their label (which
died) and when they finally re-emerged it was with what I felt was a
terribly uneasy attempt to mix the old lengthy prog with a new set of
poppy singles which all sounded alike (this was _Stupid Dream_--unlike
Keith H. I think this easily their worst album and is far worse than
_Lightbulb Sun_ which actually managed to blend the styles
convincingly) and from then on it just never got as interesting again.

        I do like _In Absentia_, and there's no doubt that Steven Wilson
is developing all the time as a songwriter, but there's something
distinctively his about PT material, and indeed the stuff he's written
with Opeth, which these days I find dampens any excitement. The
I. E. M. stuff and Bass Communion stuff also have their distinctive
flavours but I haven't yet got bored of those; I imagine I easily could
though. The early stuff, where each album was effectively by a different
band, and that `voice' wasn't as set, still interests me much more. I play
all the albums except _Stupid Dream_ now and again, and I'd hold up
_Signify_ as one of the best albums Delerium ever released. The triple LP
_Coma Divine_ is a gorgeous thing to own, and _Stars Die_ is a proper
obsessive's box-set at bargain price for what you get. But, I am no longer
very fanatic. Haven't seen them in ages because I don't expect to be
surprised any more. I really should, but it seems difficult to believe
it's going to be worth the effort because they won't do what I associate
with the name.

        When I finally get round to getting the new one I may change my
mind, but reviews so far don't make it seem likely. Let me see if I can
frame this simply. When _Signify_ came out, there was nothing else around
which did that and this was a band at the top of its game. When _Stupid
Dream_ came out I got it at roughly the same time as Blur's self-titled,
and the Britpop darlings had the supposed champions of the British
underground out-psychdelicked in the first fifteen minutes. (That Blur
album I would still say is really a great little pysch album, especially
once you get the earphones on and start listening to what the guitar parts
actually *are*.) Likewise, when _In Absentia_ came out it was more or less
at the same point as Queens of the Stone Age's _Songs for the Deaf_, both
bands with a mixed history going determinedly for the MTV2 jugular without
compromising their actual quality of material as I saw it, and _Songs for
the Deaf_ is by far the better album for me. These days PT are no longer
the biggest and shiniest fish in a small pool but averagely remarkable
fish in a much bigger sea, and they're not doing what made them stand out
any more. So it seems to me, anyway, yours,
                                            Jon

ObCD: Farflung - _Nine Pin Body_
--
                Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College, London
    jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk/ejarr01 at students.bbk.ac.uk
  "As much as the vision of the blind man improves with the rising sun,
       So too does the intelligence of the fool after good advice."
       (Bishop Theodulf of Orleans, late-eight/early-ninth century)