December 17 - Shesmovedon

The song is Porcupine Tree's beautifully haunting Shesmovedon, originally on Lightbulb Sun from 2000 with Chris Maitland on drums, but rerecorded in 2004 in time to make the 2005 album Deadwing featuring the unimitable Gavin Harrison on drums. As I am writing this, I am reminded of the thought of talking about musicians I would want to play on my album, and from yesterday, Tony Levin would definitely play bass with Gavin Harrison on drums. I am growing more and more fond of his playing - he's got the jazz inspiration that really makes everything he plays very interesting. Deadwing is a great Porcupine Tree album, and I am really hoping that they do find their ways back together for another album. To me, their crowning achievement is still Fear Of A Blank Planet from 2007 - but I am confident Steven Wilson can top that while maintaining Porcupine Tree's sound rather than take it in the direction of his solo career.

Now, on Deadwing, there is a guest singer who has collaborated with Steven Wilson quite heavily. Wilson has produced music for this man's band, but the collaboration even went to the point of releasing an album that is a musical project completely different than anything either of them has done before. What is the name of that album? And what is the name of this mystery man's band? I am also looking for both a song and an album title that reflects on tradition - but the song I am looking for is not the title track. I think that should be enough. So - musical project album, band, song, album, and year. Is it clear? As mud, you say? Well, I can't give them all away either...

October 12 - Radioactive Toy

There are some songs that just find their way to your mind and stick. Sometimes, that's really bad - when you just can't seem to shake a song you really don't like (Motorpsycho called those songs nerve tattoos, which to me really is a good description of it). However, sometimes those songs are the "ins" to an otherwise great album that it just takes a little while to get into. For me, Porcupine Tree's On The Sunday Of Life is an example of that kind of an album. After the intro, Music For The Head, the next song is Jupiter Island, and while it is an ok song, it's naiveté and cheesy drum machine sound is a little too much for me to really get hooked. So on my first listen to this album, I had it on in the background, and it was largely ignored until I reached the 8th track, and at that point, something really clicked. The song was Radioactive Toy, and it has a soothing quality that gets broken up by a rather noisy guitar riff - and for those of you who have been reading what I have to say about music and what I look for, you will recognize this as my need for contrast that I so often come back to.

August 25 - Anesthetize

8 days. That's how long it took from me introducing Porcupine Tree to playing them for a second time. It might be because I am getting just about full frontal prog right now - after all, that's where a lot of the long songs come from - but regardless, this is a beauty. Anesthetize from Fear of a Blank Planet lasts 17:42, and not a second is wasted in building up and calming down - and then there is Alex Lifeson of Rush with a guitar solo that starts right around 4:04.

The first part sets the song up - and frankly, if that was all there was to this song, it would still be a winner. However, the second part further enhances the song, providing a heavier edge, before the anesthesia sets in with a coda that ebbs and flows in sedated waves. The musicianship is stellar throughout. Gavin Harrison switches between establishing rolling grooves and intricate embellishments, Colin Edwin's bass drives it forward, and Richard Barbieri's use of soundscapes and organs alternates between atmospherics and adding pure fatness to the sound. John Wesley is heard especially in the third part which is more atmospheric in general - and Steven Wilson is all over this beauty of a song.

I believe this is one of the very best prog songs ever written - it is my personal Porcupine Tree highlight and well worth listening all the way through. Prepare to be sedated.

August 17 - Fear Of A Blank Planet

I really can't believe that it is August and I haven't played any Porcupine Tree yet. I know I have played Steven Wilson and Gavin Harrison, who sing/play guitar and play drums for Porcupine Tree, but that I haven't played any of their songs yet is almost unforgiveable. To start rectifying that, I will go back to the first Porcupine Tree album I purchased. I know I was working at Alma College at the time, because I remember unwrapping the cd in my office before putting it in the office computer and playing it as background music while I worked (although I have a feeling that the background became my primary focus at times). The album was Fear Of A Blank Planet, and I think one of the main reasons I got it was that I had discovered Steven Wilson the producer - and then this album has Alex Lifeson of Rush and Robert Fripp of King Crimson as guest artists (I think I will find my absolute favorite track of the album, Anesthetize, for inclusion later this year - it is the track featuring Alex Lifeson).

I was not prepared for what I heard when I played the album for the first time. The acoustic guitar riff that opens it blew me away - and then the drums entered and turned my rhythmic sense of the riff upside down. I have always liked songs that start out that way - and for me, I still get tripped up by where the beat really lies from time to time.

What I find somewhat unfortunate is that Porcupine Tree is on hiatus at the moment. Colin Edwin (bass) has been busy with a variety of side projects and Richard Barbieri (keyboards - originally from new wave band Japan) has been collaborating with Steve Hogarth of Marillion fame. Gavin Harrison has done his big band project and joined with both King Crimson and The Pineapple Thief. And then there is Steven Wilson, whose solo career really has taken off. Unfortunately, it sounds like his interest in Porcupine Tree is a little low at the time, but I am still hoping from a new album of this great constellation of musicians (I didn't forget John Wesley, who helped out on vocals and guitar, especially live, and who has a solo career filled with interesting music more in the singer/songwriter tradition), but until that day comes, I will revert back and listen to Fear Of A Blank Planet.

January 5 - Hatesong/Halo

When I was born, I have a feeling that my parents dropped a giant rock in the ocean. This rock was my musical starting point. It had The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Abba, Simon and Garfunkel, Paul Simon, and Chris de Burgh. That was music both of them liked - although my mom was more Beatles and my dad was more Rolling Stones. Then my dad brought in some songs that were more out of left field, and the one that really sticks with me was Norwegian new wave band The Cut and their version of In Dieser Stadt (I'll have to include that later). That was on the fringe of the rock, but it was definitely part of it. There was probably more to the rock as well, but the pieces that entered the ocean were definitely the ones I remember best.

What happens when you drop a rock in the ocean - or water in general? Waves... Waves form like rings way, way out. And that is what my musical life has been all about - chasing those wavy rings... I found a rock of my own to toss in and create some disturbances in the pattern when I discovered Kiss in 1980, my music teachers tossed in a rock of some classical music, especially Die Moldau by Smetana, which still stays with me, and then Arve started tossing in country music. These disruptions in the patterns didn't stop me, they made me look farther and farther - always seeking the new and the different. The fascinating thing is when you discover rings from rocks that had been tossed in earlier - such as my middle school music teacher Reidar Fiske's love for 10CC - or when they merge unexpectedly, creating new starting points for yet other rings to explore.

The reason I went to such great lengths to describe how I found Opeth, and then in turn Steven Wilson, is that this is once more a set of rings that both separate and unite. From Porcupine Tree I discovered the extraordinary drummer Gavin Harrison, who in turn has been playing for King Crimson, whose records have been remastered and mixed for 5.1 surround sound by Steven Wilson again - and who use Tony Levin as a bass player, whom I first encountered when listening to Peter Gabriel. And, as I previously mentioned, Steven Wilson worked with Fish - and I decided to see what those two albums were all about and found that I had given up on him too soon. I keep chasing those rings in the water, and by following them once more, I found Gavin Harrison's release from 2015, Cheating the Polygraph. It turned out that he had taken some of Porcupine Tree's compositions and arranged them for big band. Now, my experiences with big band music have been limited, but watching the movie Whiplash really made me appreciate some of it a little bit more - and I have had a taste for the work of Mingus and his big band for some time - so this sounded interesting to me. And then I listened, and my mind was blown away. This is challenging music, but man, is it good... Please, give mr. Gavin Harrison a chance and listen to Hatesong/Halo...