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Steven Wilson: Insurgentes

28/07/09 || The Duff

I genuinely love Steven Wilson, eighty percent in a butch way like “He totally fucken rocks, dude; one of the few true musical geniuses we have left”, and twenty percent homosexually, where I envision myself lying next to him in a field, gently cajoling his libido by running my fingers through his hair and asking him questions like “So how do you write songs, Steve?”, much like in the infamous scene in the four hour blockbuster “Armageddon”; no confusion as to who the pretty-boy with a predominant manly chin is and who the giddy school-girl giggling enthusiastically at the thought of being penetrated to many orgasms, I can only pray that Steven is as experimental with his lovers as he is with his music, oh yeah baby, booya!

“Insurgentes” I guess is his breath away from main outfit Porcupine Tree, aside from the recruiting of the band’s drummer Gavin Harrison on an handful of cuts; I don’t understand this, as Steven writes the majority of the material for a Porcupine Tree effort to the best of my knowledge, and it would have been quite refreshing to have this released as a PT album, but oh well. This album sees him diversifying the sound he’s most associated with more so, discontinuing his commonly tying tracks together within an album – this has the variety of something like “Deadwing”, but is a lot more spaced out and atmospheric/electronic-sounding, much like PT’s “Recordings”. Not something you’ll be used to, I reckon, if you’ve known the band only from “Lightbulb Sun” and onwards; think “Sleep Together” (off “Fear of a Blank Planet”), reduce the full nature of the music and add more atmospherics.

Steven has brought many guest musicians together for his first official solo output, including Tony Levin of King Crimson (not his first collaboration with a musician from said band, as track “Anesthetize”, off “Fear of a Blank Planet”, features a solo by Robert Fripp), Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater, plus a whole bunch of other people who dabble in styles of music altogether more ambient (I think one of them is considered a drone artist) and one female vocalist. Steven is the most prolific artist on the planet, it would seem; after reading reviews of this album, it turns out “Insurgentes” is in fact a conglomeration of all his side-projects (No-Man, Bass Communion, Blackfield) and Porcupine Tree – so there you go; I had no idea the guy had his name to so many pieces of music, yet I’m making the assumption that this album should serve as an introduction to the many other styles of music he dabbles in outside of Porcupine Tree, maybe saving you some money in the process.

The guy is seriously diversifying though if you only know him for his PT work, and it is such fans who will benefit the most from “Insurgentes”; the music is so more textured much like post-rock bands and electro-ambient acts like Ulver (and I’m sure many others I know nothing about). The end of “Salvaging”, for example, displays just how variant the album can become, as we’re lulled by quiet strings and atmospherics, much in a Sigur Ros kind of way, only to be confronted by a wall of sound that develops into one terrifying, dread-inducing noise that I would liken to knowing you’re final seconds are at hand, only to have it cut out entirely leaving you with the hope that the lumpy sensation in your pants is your testicles, yet deep down you know they retracted into your body a long time ago, friend. Then you hear a track like “Get All That You Deserve”, and get the feeling that when you die, it will be alone with your testicles in a vice and a cock inches deep in each ear; add to this the rock-heavy riffs and tremendously uplifting sections – beauty and ugly as all buttfucking dark coalesced to show yet another side (i.e. a “quite positive/depressing beyond drab” side) to a multi-faceted, exceptionally gifted man.

If you’ve seen the trailer for this album, you’ll already know how the opening track sounds – generally, this is how the cuts of the record are presented: not too many ideas, focus more on soundscapes and largely keeping the noise to a minimum, have a central theme and build around it. Such themes range from heavy riffs, Sabbath inspired, to electronic ambiance to big lead-up-to-chorus moments such as the soaring, beautiful female vocals of “Significant Other” or the aforementioned opener. There are minor drawbacks, though; the dude is getting a tad repetitive, even though for the most part he is breaking new ground and giving more than sufficient reason for a fan of his other projects to give this a spin or two – then there’s “Abandoner”, that sounds suspiciously like something off Opeth’s “Damnation”. COINCIDENCE?!?! That’s about it in terms of gripes; I support the campaign in promoting this album which condones shooting the shit out of IPods. That was a fun fucken looking campaign – an album’s gotta have a point right? Oh, and the artwork is downright creepy as fuck.

There’s no doubt anything Steven Wilson puts his mind to is likely to become contender for album of the year, and “Insurgentes” is no different; “But Duff, what about Putrid Fistula Vaginal Excrement’s new release?”, I hear you say. Well, I love death metal as much as the next guy, but you can’t deny how much more intelligently created, in-depth and wondrous music like this is when compared to bands like PFVE. This album blows my mind when I’m in the right mood (sunset, lips wrapped about my shaft, Domino’s Texas BBQ pizza…), and yet I shall be so bold as to say the album is a disappointment by Steven Wilson’s standards. How can you therefore go wrong in buying this if you’re into ambient music and PT when I still claim it to be contender for album of the year? I am omni-fuck-to-the-scient, so not wrong at all is the answer. Just don’t be expecting much prog, and we’ll be right as chips.

Information
Released: 2009
Label: KScope
Website: www.swhq.co.uk
Band
Steven Wilson: Did most of everything; some guests, quite a few actually

Tracklist
01. Harmony Korine
02. Abandoner
03. Salvaging
04. Veneno Para Las Hadas
05. No Twilight
06. Significant Other
07. Only Child
08. Twilight Coda
09. Get All You Deserve
10. Insurgentes

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