Spending time on the same web site, taking issue, picking fights
August 6, 2024 6:20 AM Subscribe
The Harmony Codex (YouTube playlist, full album): Having grown up with Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Yes and King Crimson, it staggers me that I've managed to get to 2024 without previously having encountered Steven Wilson. Headphones, an ad blocker and a little over an hour of distraction-free time strongly recommended. Music and visuals are both extraordinary.
Very cool. Thanks for sharing!
posted by star gentle uterus at 6:42 AM on August 6
posted by star gentle uterus at 6:42 AM on August 6
remixing/remastering old classic albums (ELP, Tull, Crimson, XTC, etc)
into 5.1 surround sound formats, if I understand correctly. How I have missed this man's existence until now is a complete mystery to me.
Steven Wilson - Whole "Raven" Album Live (55m13s): Marco Minnemann just killing on drums.
posted by flabdablet at 6:56 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
into 5.1 surround sound formats, if I understand correctly. How I have missed this man's existence until now is a complete mystery to me.
Steven Wilson - Whole "Raven" Album Live (55m13s): Marco Minnemann just killing on drums.
posted by flabdablet at 6:56 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
It's not like he's obscure.
The Steven Wilson Interview: The Modern Rock Producer (Rick Beato, 1h9m43s)
posted by flabdablet at 7:02 AM on August 6
The Steven Wilson Interview: The Modern Rock Producer (Rick Beato, 1h9m43s)
posted by flabdablet at 7:02 AM on August 6
omg the Raven Live performance has Guthrie Govan on guitar as well (swoons)
posted by flabdablet at 7:08 AM on August 6
posted by flabdablet at 7:08 AM on August 6
The record label to which he is signed, Kscope, is on Bandcamp if you prefer to stream or purchase his music there.
posted by ElKevbo at 9:39 AM on August 6 [2 favorites]
posted by ElKevbo at 9:39 AM on August 6 [2 favorites]
and here's his page on Kscope's own site, where the Buy links take you to Apple or Amazon.
Kscope doesn't seem to have set up any Artists pages on Bandcamp, but the search and tag functions narrow things down tolerably well.
posted by flabdablet at 10:42 AM on August 6
Kscope doesn't seem to have set up any Artists pages on Bandcamp, but the search and tag functions narrow things down tolerably well.
posted by flabdablet at 10:42 AM on August 6
Having spent the last couple of years exploring Wilson's discography, I highly recommend "Hand. Cannot. Erase." and the Porcupine Tree album "Fear of a Blank Planet". But pretty much everything he's done in the last 20 years is worth checking out.
posted by epimorph at 11:02 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
posted by epimorph at 11:02 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
The Incident double album is on constant rotation for me.
posted by Pig Tail Orchestra at 12:55 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]
posted by Pig Tail Orchestra at 12:55 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]
something I've been meaning to ask for a while. What Steven Wilson and/or Porcupine Tree tracks do you consider essential? If you were making a mixtape for somebody, what would definitely be on it?
posted by philip-random at 2:51 PM on August 6
posted by philip-random at 2:51 PM on August 6
This is, perhaps, the perfect (and the only) time to post this: a poem I made years ago by stringing together song titles from Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree albums. Plus a skeleton of extra words I added to connect all the titles together in a coherent way.
--
"Fear Of A Blank Planet"
How is your life today?
It's our last chance
to evacuate planet earth
before it is recycled.
This is no rehearsal.
Don't hate me, but
I'm going to ask you to stay.
(There's nowhere else to go,
anyway.)
Stay with me, and
we'll be the refusal,
we'll be the people who eat darkness.
If you take my hand,
all of the rest will flow.
Drive home with me.
We'll strip down to the bone.
I'll kiss your lips of ashes,
your gravity eyelids,
and you'll be my slave called shiver
as you feel my coil unwind.
It's the end:
We'll be the start of something beautiful.
I have this stupid dream
of where we would be,
if the world wasn't ending in September —
it's nothing, an idiot prayer,
but it's what I need to get by.
I dream of where we would be
when the future comes,
and how you'd write poetry
while I wrote my songs.
Our perfect life. Our routine.
Always the summers,
slipping away.
A Polaroid of you and me,
hair blowing in an open car,
a country road, a horizon —
we're arriving somewhere, but not here.
One day soon, this all will end.
One day soon, the sun
will collapse the light into earth.
The creator has a mastertape
and it doesn't include us anymore.
He wants to strip the soul:
to return us to ancestral dust,
till nothing remains of humanity
but a halo.
Maybe there's more.
Maybe it's only the start.
Maybe we'll rise like Lazarus
from our sleep of no dreaming
into a world of light.
God, the Devil, the Watchmaker, He says:
"It's time for you to go."
But His hand cannot erase this love.
Our world,
the time I spent with you:
it goes on after it's gone,
permanating.
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 3:07 PM on August 6 [4 favorites]
--
"Fear Of A Blank Planet"
How is your life today?
It's our last chance
to evacuate planet earth
before it is recycled.
This is no rehearsal.
Don't hate me, but
I'm going to ask you to stay.
(There's nowhere else to go,
anyway.)
Stay with me, and
we'll be the refusal,
we'll be the people who eat darkness.
If you take my hand,
all of the rest will flow.
Drive home with me.
We'll strip down to the bone.
I'll kiss your lips of ashes,
your gravity eyelids,
and you'll be my slave called shiver
as you feel my coil unwind.
It's the end:
We'll be the start of something beautiful.
I have this stupid dream
of where we would be,
if the world wasn't ending in September —
it's nothing, an idiot prayer,
but it's what I need to get by.
I dream of where we would be
when the future comes,
and how you'd write poetry
while I wrote my songs.
Our perfect life. Our routine.
Always the summers,
slipping away.
A Polaroid of you and me,
hair blowing in an open car,
a country road, a horizon —
we're arriving somewhere, but not here.
One day soon, this all will end.
One day soon, the sun
will collapse the light into earth.
The creator has a mastertape
and it doesn't include us anymore.
He wants to strip the soul:
to return us to ancestral dust,
till nothing remains of humanity
but a halo.
Maybe there's more.
Maybe it's only the start.
Maybe we'll rise like Lazarus
from our sleep of no dreaming
into a world of light.
God, the Devil, the Watchmaker, He says:
"It's time for you to go."
But His hand cannot erase this love.
Our world,
the time I spent with you:
it goes on after it's gone,
permanating.
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 3:07 PM on August 6 [4 favorites]
philip-random: Here's my list of essential Steven Wilson/Porcupine Tree tracks (each representing an essential album), in chronological order.
The Sound of Muzak (In Absentia)
Arriving Somewhere but not Here (Deadwing)
Sleep Together (Fear of a Blank Planet)
Drive Home (The Raven...)
Home Invasion/Regret #9 (Hand. Cannot. Erase.)
Harridan (Closure/Continuation)
Staircase (The Harmony Codex)
posted by epimorph at 4:32 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]
The Sound of Muzak (In Absentia)
Arriving Somewhere but not Here (Deadwing)
Sleep Together (Fear of a Blank Planet)
Drive Home (The Raven...)
Home Invasion/Regret #9 (Hand. Cannot. Erase.)
Harridan (Closure/Continuation)
Staircase (The Harmony Codex)
posted by epimorph at 4:32 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]
Also check out his more ambient side in Bass Communion with Theo Travis.
Porcupine Tree's Even Less will always be one of my favorite songs. "But you're a martyr, for even less, for even less", and on comes the most monstrous riff this side of Tony Iommi.
posted by Ber at 5:51 PM on August 6 [1 favorite]
Porcupine Tree's Even Less will always be one of my favorite songs. "But you're a martyr, for even less, for even less", and on comes the most monstrous riff this side of Tony Iommi.
posted by Ber at 5:51 PM on August 6 [1 favorite]
I discovered him through Porcupine Tree's In Absentia album, which also introduced me to one of my favorites drummers, Gavin Harrison. He also worked with Opeth and produced one of my albums from them, Damnation. Thanks for this great post, I sort of lost track of him recently, so now I'm going to go listen to his more recent stuff.
posted by Billy Rubin at 7:43 PM on August 6
posted by Billy Rubin at 7:43 PM on August 6
Links to remixes to buy or stream from his website - mine opened in Apple Music on my phone. Some interesting surprises there! I didn’t know SW was doing Atmos mixes.
posted by cybrcamper at 8:51 PM on August 6
posted by cybrcamper at 8:51 PM on August 6
Oops - only some of them. Quite a few for sale or even out of print. But still some surprises… sorry ‘bout that
posted by cybrcamper at 8:56 PM on August 6
posted by cybrcamper at 8:56 PM on August 6
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posted by whatevernot at 6:25 AM on August 6 [4 favorites]