Porcupine Tree - The Incident

First listen of this band, ever. Whoa...

I'm a huge fan of this band, and I listened to this a couple of times when it first came out & haven't put it on since. :rolleyes5:

Giving it a complete listen, start to finish, on Rhapsody. On track 12 at the moment.

My favorite current band.

They're like a cross between Pink Floyd and Metallica. It's a formula that makes most fans of those kinds of bands salivate freely.

If you like it, try Deadwing or In Absentia next. I think those albums are overall, better listening experiences than The Incident. I like the earlier incarnations of the band even more. Less metallic, more spacerock, but still heavy and dense.

Finch, I agree that The Incident is too long and drawn out. Make a playlist with:

Blind House
Drawing the Line
The Incident
Your Unpleasant Family
Time Flies
Octane Twisted
Seance / Circle of Manias
I Drive the Hearse

and it will cut out about 15 minutes of filler.

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Originally Posted by Troy

If you like it, try Deadwing or In Absentia next. I think those albums are overall, better listening experiences than The Incident. I like the earlier incarnations of the band even more. Less metallic, more spacerock, but still heavy and dense.

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I second that recommendation. Like both Finch and Troy, I spun this a lot when it first came out, but not since it's been a couple months old. I still go back to their other disks regularly though.

Wow, this just came up over at PE. Glad to see this band get some run, even if I'm not as enamoured with the new album as with past albums. Once again, I second everyone here, their best stuff is past them, though a not-so-great PT album is still better than many a bands' best efforts - Wilson really set a high bar a long time ago and even he falls short of his own standard sometimes.

That being said, I definitely recommend visiting their back catalog. Wilson is quite the tunesmith and albums like Stupid Dream, Lightbulb Sun, and In Absentia really nail that aspect of his work home. And the great production has always been there.

[soapbox]For some reason Wilson has eschewed putting anything that resembles a single on the last two albums and personally, I think its a mistake. But then again, its not like you'll here many new bands' "singles" on a radio so, who knows whats right or wrong. I think that the spacier, rockout stuff is better when you have some contrast to go along with it.[/soapbox]

You haven't experienced this band until you listened to Wilson's 5.1 mixes - and you think "whoa" now...

CD 2 sucked, CD 1 was pretty good. I'll try some more titles...

Might want to look up some other Wilson side projects, though you might have a different reaction to those if you though CD2 sucked. I love CD2 the best. Wilson produced the beautifully ethereal, non-CMV Damnation by Opeth, an album I love. He's done a couple of albums with an Israeli singer (whose name escapes me) in a project called Blackfield. Those albums are not as rock oriented and have two, maybe three great songs on them but the rest is languid, weepy stuff. And then there's the stuff he does in No-man, which used to be a sort of ambient, beat oriented Talk Talk or Roxy Music, but has been way too sedate for my tastes on the last few albums.

Again, YMMV.

I've yet to hear a side project that I've liked.

I love that Opeth disk though.

I liked Wilson's recent side project..Inusgentes? Much better than the "The Incident" IMO. PT is one of my favorite bands still going today, but the last 2 albums have felt more like a trip to the past than anything new. Which is ok, it's just for years there was something new and a bit different on each successive album and that was quite a run.

Signify, The Sky Moves Sideways, In Absentia and Deadwing are probably my favs, but like 3LB says, even a bad PT album is pretty solid.

I, too, am I big fan of PT. And FWIW, I tend to agree with Troy regarding the Deadwing and In Absentia discs. Awesome stuff, and a good place to start. Lightbulb Sun and Stupid Dream are very solid as well, with the more recent Fear of a Blank Planet just a small tick beneath those.

The Insurgentes solo album took several listens before it started to work for me. It's a significantly better listen with the 5.1 mix, IMO.

the latest video concert Arriving Somewhere, Not Here is well worth a watch for further appreciation even tho the filming / presentation is a bit weird. I liked them even more after watching them play.

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Originally Posted by Hyfi

the latest video concert Arriving Somewhere, Not Here is well worth a watch for further appreciation even tho the filming / presentation is a bit weird. I liked them even more after watching them play.

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Ah yes, recorded live at the Park West in Chicago. And the sound quality is decidedly better than the video, you're right.

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Originally Posted by ForeverAutumn

I've yet to hear a side project that I've liked.

I love that Opeth disk though.

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Yeah, we were teased with a Wilson, Portnoy, Akerfeldt project for a while, but it must just been a rumor...wished Opeth would do another one like Damnation.

I like No-man's early stuff, as it was more ambient sounding, like Talk Talk or Depeche Mode with some really cool guitar. How I wished I could get my hands on a copy of Loveblows and Lovecries: A Confession - OOP and never seems likely it'll get reissued.

I'm a fan of "The Incident" and "In Absentia". I recently discovered the Porcupine Tree, awesome group.

Ditto on IN ABSENTIA............it is their best work.

I think STUPID DREAM is the next best.............and they are all better than most stuff out there these days.

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Originally Posted by MasterCylinder

Ditto on IN ABSENTIA............it is their best work.

I think STUPID DREAM is the next best.............and they are all better than most stuff out there these days.

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I have a love/hate relationship with Stupid Dream. It definitely has some of their best work on it (most notably, "Even Less" and "Stranger by the Minute"). But some tracks leave me a little flat. The whiny chorus on "Don't Hate Me" makes me want to.

"The whiny chorus on "Don't Hate Me" makes me want to."


LMAO !