Steven Wilson catch-all thread (Porcupine Tree, No-Man, Blackfield, Bass Communion)

[onthewall2983]

Mentioning No-Man earlier and listening to the Schoolyard Ghosts album for the first time in surround reminded me I wrote about them here before. and figured it was time for the much belated follow-up.

The album is one of my favorites of Wilson's, in what was probably the most productive point in his career up to that point. Coming out before Insurgentes and after Fear of a Blank Planet, Ghosts stands manages to stand well apart from everything he had mostly been associated with but is no less engaging for it.







The success of the album critically (and it even sold decently compared to their previous records) likely emboldened them to take the stage for the first time in well over a decade. Managing to translate the specific atmospheres of the studio recordings to a live setting, the performances showed the depth of the material to it's fullest and sometimes even topping the originals.

[onthewall2983]

His recent interview with the BBC

[onthewall2983]

[seasonsinthesky]

Dat Coil shirt tho.

[henryeatscereal]

"Dark Matter" live? damn... wish i could go to one of those shows!

[onthewall2983]

Per some info on reddit, he said in concert recently that the new EP will be released early next year. Sounds as if it will be not that different from what Nil Recurring was to Fear of a Blank Planet.

Also it's not looking like the RAH shows will be filmed, from several accounts. Still, fingers crossed for an audio document of it.

[onthewall2983]

[seasonsinthesky]

Anyone get the Mojo issue with the "Lazarus" re-recording on CD? It isn't sold where I am, and getting it shipped here is ridiculously priced. Maybe SW will put it up for download once the Transience LP sells out.

[onthewall2983]

I say get it while it's hot, it'll only increase in value.

[simonn]

I'm at the 2nd RAH show tomorrow night. I'm a fairly casual fan of Wilsons tbf, and got kinda talked into it by a work colleague, so it's possible I might've stumbled upon a landmark event and not even know all the songs being played - I'm really only familiar with Deadwing, Planet, Incident, Grace, Insurgentes and HCE...should be 'interesting'...!

[armogi]

Anyone get the Mojo issue with the "Lazarus" re-recording on CD? It isn't sold where I am, and getting it shipped here is ridiculously priced. Maybe SW will put it up for download once the Transience LP sells out.

not sure if it can help but transcience has leaked so lazarus 2015 is out there...

[onthewall2983]

Raven swept you off to some place, part Victorian era and part abstract modern place, to tell its ghost stories. Hand.Cannot.Erase is the very real here and now. Your daily binary dose of high resolution monitors, social networks and television for you to swim through. Perhaps why you're not connecting is because your already swimming in it. The protagonist is female, but she represents a piece of all of us living in a society driven more and more about what is occurring online than what is occurring outside your front door; and the physical isolation of a new world anybody can achieve, yet still be "connected."

I've begun to understand just how jarring the difference between the two is. Raven is really kind of a breeze to listen through now, where HCE is a bit emotionally difficult to complete. It's no less satisfying, but at least for me it's been significant in kind of understanding my place in the world, and what I've done in it so far. I'd never call his music escapism or purely entertainment, as there's always been a bit of his mind and soul at display which makes it all the more engaging for me at least.

I'm disappointed that this record didn't make a bigger dent on the charts then it did (in America anyway, predictably it has done way better in Europe I believe), as I think beyond it's musical value it touches on something that is relative to just more than SW's dedicated audience. With material as vapid as it's in competition with in Billboard (for the most part), it was utterly predictable that an effort this chalk full of substance would sink like a stone and it's brief stay nothing more than a fluke.

[seasonsinthesky]

I couldn't connect very easily with Raven. Not just because it's all ghost stories lyrically, but musically too; it doesn't doesn't live up to his solo catalogue imo, where even the King Crimson-influenced "Raider II" is still uniquely atmospheric and so, so dark. I would say only "The Watchmaker" and the title track truly fit stylistically, as well as parts of "Luminol" that aren't direct Yes ripoffs. The rest tries hard to be '70s prog and falls short, imo.

HCE takes the bravado of the '70s prog approach and perfectly, so perfectly, combines it with SW's contemporary interest in Boards of Canada-style electronic stuff and his own moody rock styles. It started alright and then grew and grew on me. Once "Ancestral" clicked, the album became on par with GFD for my favourite solo outing, and HCE easily competes with my top favourite PT albums – in time, it may surpass them too.

[onthewall2983]

I would be more critical of Raven if the next thing he did was just more of the same. But he's never really done that. What you're saying in a sense validates my point about how different the two are. Using what I said in the No-Man post on this page, he made three very different records within a span of a year and a half. Everything he does has similarities but they are in the best sense vague compared to the differences.

[onthewall2983]

I'd like to add that what I enjoy the most about Raven is that it really captures the feeling of what they did (minus Niko Tsonev and plus Guthrie Govan) on Get All You Deserve, as he was inspired by his band to write new material right away when he started touring behind GFD. He wrote it all, but in their hands it elevated the material to such a finite level of musical heights that it's something I've only appreciated more and more with time.

[onthewall2983]

Drummer Craig Brundell tweeted this image last night. Awesome image but alas no camera crews in sight. Oh well, I'm sure at least that it's been professionally recorded on audio.

[onthewall2983]

Monday Night's setlist

First Regret
3 Years Older
Hand Cannot Erase
Perfect Life
Routine (with Ninet Tayeb)
Home Invasion
Regret #9
Ancestral
Happy Returns
Ascendant Here On...

Set 2
Drag Ropes (with Mikael Åkerfeldt)
Index
How Is Your Life Today?
Lazarus
My Book of Regrets
Harmony Korine
The Watchmaker
Sleep Together

Encore:
The Sound of Muzak
The Raven That Refused to Sing

And tonight's

No Twilight Within the Courts of the Sun
Shesmovedon
Routine (with Ninet Tayeb)
Open Car
Don't Hate Me
Home Invasion (with Guthrie Govan)
Regret #9 (with Guthrie Govan)
Drive Home (with Guthrie Govan) (& Theo Travis)
Sectarian (with Theo Travis)
Insurgentes (with Theo Travis)
No Part of Me (with Theo Travis)
Raider II (with Theo Travis)

Encore:
Dark Matter

Encore 2:
Lazarus (with Gavin Harrison)
The Sound of Muzak (with Gavin Harrison)

[pulse]

Gavin Harrison appeared on stage with Steven Wilson for the encores tonight. He exploded on The Sound of Muzak. Oh my god do I miss him.

[onthewall2983]

Facebook update

And so another leg of the Hand. Cannot. Erase. tour has come to an end, and although reasonably short (12 shows) there were some unforgettable evenings, concluding with 2 fantastic nights at one of the most special concert venues in the world, The Royal Albert Hall in London. A big thank you to everyone that came along to any of these shows. Special mention and praise has to be given to the 2 new guys joining myself, Nick, and Adam for their first European tour; Craig Blundell on drums, and Dave Kilminster on guitar, who not only had the daunting task of filling extremely large shoes, but had to learn over 4 hours of music in just over 4 months, which they then proceeded to play brilliantly and make their own. I’d also like to thank all my special guests at the 2 RAH shows for helping to make these shows such a memorable experience. My personal highlight (among many) would have to be the performances of Routine - relieved of vocal duties I was able to step back, and the combination of one of my favourite songs, the band’s stellar performance, Jess Cope's amazing animated video on the big screen, and Ninet Tayeb’s astounding vocal performance and charisma, all conspired to create a powerfully emotional moment that made me think maybe I did something pretty good with my life after all (-:

Next up for me is to assemble and record a mini album of previously unreleased material, mostly from the HCE writing sessions, including the fairly long piece My Book of Regrets that we played on the recent tour. This project will essentially be album "4 and a half", a companion to the main album, but also a stepping stone to the next album proper. I’m proud of the pieces on it, which are by no means “leftovers”, more like pieces that just didn’t fit in at the time, and subsequent reworking and additional composition has taken place since. This should be released in January, at which point we will be back on the road for another major touring period that will continue on and off until the Summer, and take in a lot of countries for the first time. I have also invited Ninet to join me and the band for this part of the tour, although exactly how many and which shows she will appear at will depend on her availability, as she has a very active career of her own - you can watch her new video here:



During this period we're also planing to shoot a live performance film. These days I’m not so enthusiastic about the standard filmed live concert format, so myself and Lasse have been looking at a way to do something really different and to perhaps push the envelope a bit with regard to what a live performance film can be.
But the bottom line is that there will be a visual live document of the HCE era, and hopefully a very special and unique one.

[onthewall2983]

[onthewall2983]

22nd January will see the release of a new Steven Wilson album “4 ½”, so titled because it forms an interim release between Steven’s recently released fourth album Hand. Cannot. Erase. and the next studio album.

4 ½ comprises 6 tracks with a total running time of 37 minutes. 4 of the songs originated during the sessions for Hand. Cannot. Erase., and one from the recording sessions for the previous album The Raven that Refused to Sing. The final track is a version of Don’t Hate Me, a song originally recorded by Porcupine Tree in 1998, and is based on a live recording made on the recent tour of Europe with additional recording later done in the studio. The vocals on this new version are sung as a duet between Steven and Ninet Tayeb.


Also appearing on the album are members of Steven’s band over the last few years; Adam Holzman, Nick Beggs, Guthrie Govan, Dave Kilminster, Craig Blundell, Marco Minnemann, Chad Wackerman, and Theo Travis.
4 ½ will be released by Kscope on CD, 180 gram vinyl, and blu-ray, with all formats housed in a beautiful die-cut sleeve photographed by Lasse Hoile and designed by Carl Glover. The blu-ray (audio only) edition includes high res stereo, a 5.1 mix of the album, and a bonus 5.1 mix of the new version of Lazarus (recently included on the Transience vinyl compilation). The vinyl edition will include a download code for the album in a choice of FLAC or mp3. The album will also be available digitally on 22nd January from iTunes, Amazon.com, Google Play & Apple Music.

Steven Wilson - "4 ½"
1. My Book of Regrets (9.23)
2. Year of the Plague (4.15)
3. Happiness III (4.31)
4. Sunday Rain Sets In (3.50)
5. Vermillioncore (5.09)
6. Don’t Hate Me (9.34)

[onthewall2983]

Some more details about my forthcoming European tour, which starts in mid January: The show will be divided into 2 halves with an interval. The first half will be a complete performance of Hand. Cannot. Erase. (including Transience which has not been played live before), and the second half will be based on music from the forthcoming album 4 ½ and older repertoire, some of which we played at the recent Royal Albert Hall shows but have not yet toured.

Those that attended the RAH shows won't have forgotten Ninet Tayeb's incredible performance, so I'm happy to announce that she is able to join me at some of the shows to sing Routine, Don't Hate Me, and perhaps something else too. Ninet will be with us for the following dates: January 12 - Stuttgart, 13 - Munich and 14 - Bochum, 18 - Berlin, 19 - Frankfurt, 20 - Leipzig, 21 - Hannover, 25 - Brighton, 26 - Bristol, 27 - London, February 1 - Paris.


See here for full tour dates and ticket information:
http://stevenwilsonhq.com/sw/tour-dates/

He's also putting out a new monthly email newsletter, which you can hook up to on his website. First one came out a few weeks ago, talking about the new songs. One good thing I gleaned from the interview in it is that he's more comfortable playing lead guitar again, which is a bit of a relief for me. He has a a pretty signature sound and it would have been a shame to lose it.

[onthewall2983]

There's a winter sale going on at BurningShed, and among them you can get Porcupine Tree's Octane Twisted (2CD), SW's Drive Home EP (CD/DVD), Get All You Deserve (DVD) and the Insurgentes movie all for some pretty cheap prices.

[onthewall2983]

Tues 1st March – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall
Weds 2nd March – Montreal, QC – Théâtre St-Denis
Thurs 3rd March – Albany, NY – The Egg Performing Arts Center
Fri 4th March – Boston, MA – Orpheum Theatre Boston
Sat 5th March – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre
Mon 7th March – Chicago, IL – Vic Theatre
Tues 8th March - Chicago, IL – Vic Theatre

[onthewall2983]

A rather kick-ass live version of "Drive Home" comes as a free download if you subscribe to his newsletter

[onthewall2983]

[henryeatscereal]

Holy crap, Magma!

[henryeatscereal]

Getting ready to watch him for the 4th time (7th if we count Porcupine Tree)

[onthewall2983]

Have all his Mexico shows been in the same venue?

[henryeatscereal]

Have all his Mexico shows been in the same venue?

Nope, at least not the Mexico City dates...

First Porcupine Tree Shows and the first two "solo" shows (Fear of a Blank Planet/The Incident/Grace for Drowning and The Raven that Refused to Sing tours) were at Teatro Metropolitan (an old but beautiful theatre), this venue is were he recorded the "Get all you deserve" DVD.

The most recent show (plus the upcoming date) is going to be at "Plaza Condesa", an old cinema building turned into a concert hall recently, the venue is much smaller than the Metropolitan, that's why they did 2 dates the last tour, i guess he'll end up opening a second date just like last time.