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Porcupine Tree: The incident

29/04/10 || The Duff

My idolatry of Steven Wilson, as little as I know of his work outside of Porcupine Tree, is fairly well versed and documented; oh what’s this if not numerous shameless plugs of my own work (three reviews; there are three reviews there… did you read my three reviews? Three reviews…)? No space for Euth’s review, haha. Okay, here it is, somewhere around here . So PT get a lot of love around these parts, and for good reason – one of the most talented prog bands in existence, their only true false-step to disappoint some (including fellow PT enthusiasts, not just Rush fans who see no value in the band’s style of music) wasn’t in essence all that bad, just a departure from the greats “Stupid Dream”, “Lightbulb Sun” and “In Absentia” that mixed mellow, chilled-music, dreary atmospherics, acoustics and electronics to all-round moving effect. In practically no time, and within the same year as a solo album project, Steven Wilson (who has the title of major songwriter to his credit) is back with the follow-up to the masterful melancholic trip that was “Fear of a Blank Planet”, an album that was probably the best the band had released in some six/seven years.

You would be correct, having recently read my three reviews, that since being introduced to the band with “In Absentia”, I’ve become far more advocate concerning the pre-Opeth/PT collaborative era to the point where I prefer such albums to those that introduced me to the band, so I’m happy to say that traits of said albums have made a return on “The Incident”. Consisting of five tracks on two discs, disc one is the title track, a fifty-five minute or so track that you could say was a grand undertaking if it weren’t split up into fourteen separate tracks of varying quality, length and musical stylings, thereby making it overall about as easy to digest as I’m assuming it was to write and assemble, all things being relative – there’s not much out of the ordinary for a PT record here (most strikingly “The Yellow Windows of the Evening Train”, which sounds like a carry-over Sigur Ros inspired track from Steven Wilson’s solo album, and the closest Meshuggah-inspired riff to come from the band to date on one of the closers), the transition tracks between the larger chunks of music being one of few irregularities, but only because of their length, the writing of tracks seemingly having been abbreviated from what’s expected, where they feel half-complete for the sake of tying the pieces together along with one or two repeated segments to give the sense of an ongoing greater whole.

Taken out of the grand scheme, some of the ideas can appear half-assed – the opening couple of seconds are unstimulating, the tracks “Great Expectations” and “Your Unpleasant Family” don’t seem to have an ending or much of a beginning for that matter, “Drawing the Line” with its Clash-influenced, highly upbeat chorus is just plain wrong as it is unexpected coming from Steven “Every woman I ever loved was just a plain bitch to me” Wilson, lengthy album center-piece is far from the majesty of “Anesthetize” (off “Fear of a Blank Planet”) as it seems to be a moderately-proportioned track drawn out to epic standards with the inclusion of sombre Floyd worship, and finally the instrumentals towards the end appear pointless standalone. So you have to experience this as one piece despite its having been broken up, which is all fine by me as I’m a nerd at heart, collector of lesbian erotica and someone who will wrestle you to the death in defense of “Alien 3”.

The question you are trying to force out through the spaces between your inner mouth and my literary phallus of excellence is “Does it all gel?”, and my response would be “not really – but it flows real smooth”. The variety of music is the standard acoustic strumming, prog spaced-outness, metal, electronics, ambiance and solos (a bit of an antihero when it comes to the guitar is Steven, in my mind, as he speaks out against everyday practice, but I am still mighty impressed with his effects-heavy, tasteful and economic playing whereby he gets the most out of every note) – the recipe for epicness the Steven Wilson way circa 2009, so you may come back feeling slightly short-changed expecting Yes-styled seamlessness (Ha!) or perhaps progression from the band’s last effort, but “The Incident” is a solid piece of music, no doubt about it.

That said, it is definitely the second disc that comes out the stronger; even as four separate tracks, they appear less disjointed than the one track undertaking supreme, comprising exactly that which made the band’s last output such a relaxing, sombre piece of quality. Thankfully, the length is just right despite the chance of some expecting a little more of the regular PT feel being left wanting, this being in no small part to the rather consuming first disc – you shouldn’t have the patience to sit through anything longer before jonesing for that all good Immortal fix. Clocking in at around twenty minutes in length, the pace is a lot more natural, and it may enable you to appreciate “The Incident” all the more, much in the same way as The Ocean’s “Precambrian” where we had short and swift metal melanged with lengthy atmospheric, droned Neurisis to provide the perfect dual-album.

Altogether and sadly, “The Incident” does not benefit from such perfection, the tag “progressive” not quite fitting considering the evolution not nearly as revealing as from “Fear of a Blank Planet” to SW’s solo album “Insurgentes” or any past PT album to where we are with the band today; as mentioned, their is a lop-sidedness in that the consistency of the second disc is far greater, the first disc marred by addages to the band’s sound that come across jumbled and just plain scrappy. The band is still close to top form, and it’s not as if they’re likely to break stride any time soon all band members seemingly into genuinely fantastic music, so take this as a review written by a long-time PT fan who isn’t quite feeling the magic this time.

Information
Released: 2009
Label: Roadrunner Records
Website: www.porcupinetree.com
Band
Steven Wilson: guitars, vocals, keyboards
Richard Barbieri: synth, keyboards
Colin Edwin: bass
Gavin Harrison: drums

Tracklist
Disc 1:
01. The Incident
Disc 2:
01. Flicker
02. Bonnie the Car
03. Black Dahlia
04. Remember Me Lover

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