{"id":41722,"date":"2009-10-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-incident\/"},"modified":"2009-10-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-06T00:00:00","slug":"the-incident","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-incident\/","title":{"rendered":"The Incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

Porcupine Tree, the joke that became a band<\/a>, has become one of the most exciting and original bands at work today. Great artists evolve. They grow and change, and in doing so hopefully get better (or at least stay vital). PT has done this better than most bands ever could. The most common comparison one hears when evaluating PT is Pink Floyd. It\u2019s a logical one if you take a thousand-foot view of their respective careers. Trace a line from the Floyd\u2019s Piper At The Gates Of Dawn<\/i> to Division Bell<\/i> and you see such evolution, progression in its truest form. To plot founder Steven Wilson\u2019s path from his atmospheric, psychedelic origins to The Incident<\/i>, one sees a similar arc, an artist constantly challenging himself and expanding his vision.<\/p>\n

Wilson has always shunned the label of progressive rock \u2013 or any sort of categorization for that matter. \u201cProgressive to me means evolution, it\u2019s not a label I want applied to my work,\u201d he says. \u201cAdding new ideas and stretching your own boundaries, that\u2019s progressive to me. I don\u2019t want a label; I don\u2019t want to be the new Pink Floyd. I want to be the new Porcupine Tree, or the old Porcupine Tree\u2026 not someone else\u2019s shadow.\u201d He\u2019s achieved that by any measure. <\/p>\n

One of the keys to my personal fascination with the band is that they create complete albums, not collections of singles. Wilson still holds to the ideal of the strength of a cohesive album that is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Fortunately for him, and us, those parts end up being great songs in their own right, and The Incident<\/i> is no exception. It\u2019s a true win-win situation.<\/p>\n

The two-disc album follows that code perfectly. The entire first disc encompasses the fifteen-song cycle that makes up the title piece. Wilson weaves a typically (for him) dense and sprawling concept that is both engaging and inscrutable lyrically, but musically is a captivating, energetic listen that holds its focus through the myriad textures and themes that flow in an out. He never spoon-feeds you a story; instead, he doles out images and feelings, mood, and color to create a feeling of place and personalities. Musically, Wilson builds largely on the more aggressive style featured on his recent releases Deadwing<\/i> and Fear Of A Blank Planet<\/i> on tracks like \u201cDrawing The Line\u201d and \u201cCircle Of Manias,\u201d but effortlessly insinuates some quiet melancholy and a little psychedelia into the mix on the atmospheric \u201cKneel and Disconnect\u201d and \u201cYellow Windows Of The Evening Train.\u201d Rounding out disc two are four additional tracks, highlighted by the excellent closer \u201cRemember Me Lover.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson always treads a lot of ground musically. As is his norm, the key is in the exquisitely layered sound and pristine production. Case in point is the centerpiece track of The Incident<\/i>, the expansive \u201cTime Flies.\u201d Wilson and keyboardist Richard Barbieri create a cyclic, pulsing groove of acoustic guitar and gentle keys, which Wilson uses as a springboard for atmospheric flourishes and strong chorus. Throughout the album, his mix flows from heavy metal blast beats to striking melodic passages and ambient soundscapes, creating ever-shifting spaces and moods. The beauty of the end result is something experimental and challenging that still remains accessible to anyone with an ear for great music. So far this is one of the finest releases of 2009, another bright jewel in the crown of one the most creative and vital bands of our time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":30085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7098],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41722","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-porcupine-tree","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41722"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41722"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}