Porcupine tree

The group appeared in 1987 as a solo project by Stephen Wilson, and to some extent was nothing more than a hobby . Wilson took up this project as soon as he could afford his own home studio. Having his own space for experimentation, he turned to the progressive rock of the sixties and seventies .

Having decided to demonstrate the results of his work to several familiar and record companies , Wilson decided that solo recordings of one person in his own home studio would not be taken as seriously as recordings of this group. Therefore, he attached a booklet to his cassettes with notes in which he described a fictional story of a group that never existed. However, the people to whom he sent his tapes took them seriously.

By the beginning of 1989, Stephen had created enough material to record a full-fledged 80-minute tape called Tarquin's Seaweed Farm (Tarquin Algae Farm ), with an eight-page booklet that talked in detail about band members, such extraordinary personalities as Sir Tarquin Underspoon ( Sir Tarquin the Subrenal ), Timothy Tadpole-Jones ( Tadpole Timothy Jones ), and, of course, Linton Samuel Dawson.

Wilson sent copies of the tapes to several people who might be interested in her. One of them brought her to the underground magazine Freakbeat, which was led by Richard Allen and Ivor Truman. At this time, they were busy creating their own record company. Although the magazine’s cassette review wasn’t particularly warm, they invited Porcupine Tree to record the song for their first release, a compilation of the best underground psychedelic bands. 18 months or so remained before the project.

In 1990, Wilson was able to make music his main occupation - No-Man (his joint project with Tim Bones) received a contract from Little Indian Records . This group, whose ambient-like sound was very different from the Porcupine Tree, received a very warm press reaction. But, despite the commercial success of this undertaking, he did not lose interest in the solo project.

Freed from his daily routine, Wilson even more actively promoted the Porcupine Tree, sending out Tarquin's Seaweed Farm and the next cassette, The Nostalgia Factory , accompanying them with misinformation booklets about a fictional group. They fueled underground public interest in this name, even more excited by the release of the newly emerging company Delerium Records A Psychedelic Psauna ^{[ what? ]} , which sounded the song "Linton Samuel Dawson". Delerium also reissued the band's first two cassettes.

Soon after, Stephen became one of the first musicians to sign a contract with Delerium. He was offered to re-release both tapes as double albums, but Stephen decided instead to create one album from the best material, which was called On the Sunday of Life ... and became the third release of the new label.

On the Sunday of Life ... was published in July 1991 in a small print run of 500 copies. The interest in the album was so great that this circulation was bought up literally instantly. Among the compositions of the album there is the classic Porcupine Tree, which to this day sounds at their concerts - "Radioactive Toy". By 2000, total sales of On The Sunday Of Life were 20 thousand copies.

Having started creating new material, Wilson realized that he needed a more modern sound. The first result of these experiments was the 30-minute single Voyage 34 , published 1992 , which was similar to the work of such ambient trance bands as The Orb and Future Sound Of London , and at the same time combined it with a guitar solo, performed simultaneously with a recitation from LSD propaganda 60s. This single became a real underground hit, reached the independent twenty of the United Kingdom and became one of the classic examples of combining the styles inherent in a considerable part of the best music of the nineties.

In fact, "Voyage 34" was intended for the double album Porcupine Tree Up The Downstair . But be that as it may, by the time the album was released, it was decided not to include this single in it, and as a result the album was released in standard format. The album was met with enthusiasm, and was described in the newspaper “ Melody Maker ” as “a psychedelic masterpiece ... one of the best albums of the year”. On this album, Stephen continued to experiment with the combination of dance music and rock, on it you can also hear two invited musicians who later became permanent members of the group - Richard Barberi (a former member of the 80s rock band Japan ) and Colin Edwin .

In November 1993, Voyage 34 was reissued with a remix of Astralasia . Despite the fact that this composition did not receive a radio broadcast, it was kept on the NME indie chart for six weeks and became a classic example of a chillout .

The popularity of the Porcupine Tree has grown to the point where live performances could not be avoided for longer. In December 1993 , their first performance was as follows: Stephen Wilson as lead singer and lead guitarist, Colin Edwin on bass , Chris Maitland on drums and Richard Barbery on keyboards .

All three new members of the band used to work with Wilson on various projects over the past years (Barbury and Maitlent accompanied No-Man during the tour), and all were great musicians who liked the sound and direction of the Porcupine Tree. The new line-up immediately bore fruit, which is clearly shown on the Spiral Circus album (released in vinyl in 1997), which records from their first three live performances, including a session on BBC Radio One with their early supporter Mark Radcliffe .

New material was on its way. The next album of the group could not appear before the beginning of 1995, but was ahead of the classic single Stars Die / Moonloop , the last two songs on which were recorded while working on the album and were the first joint recordings of the updated group.

The band’s third number album, The Sky Moves Sideways, was released in 1995 and has been recognized by many fans of progressive rock. The Porcupine Tree was even called “ Pink Floyd of the Nineties, ” which Steven subsequently regretted: “I can do nothing about it. This is so, during The Sky Moves Sideways, I can say so, a little overdone in appeasing the Pink Floyd fans who listened to us simply because this group no longer releases albums. Now I'm sorry about that. ”Unfortunately or not, but after this disc the number of fans of the group has increased significantly.

The Sky Moves Sideways has become a wide field for experimenting with melodies and ambient , and from a certain point of view is a transitional work, half recorded before the formation of the group, and half after. Most of the album is occupied by a thirty-five-minute title track, which was originally destined to occupy the entire album (an alternative version, including some crossed out fragments, was included in the 2004 version). The album entered the charts of NME , Melody Maker and Music Week . Together with the single Moonloop, this album was the first work by Porcupine Tree, released in the USA in September 1995, and attracted considerable press attention in both the old and the new light. All year the group supported the album with many concerts .

But the group itself was unsatisfied with the position of the album, which became half collective, half solo work. Porcupine Tree set a goal to record the first real record of the whole group and the next year they worked on a more dense and pretentious sound.

Wilson: “It is clear that the practical goal of the live game was a provocative factor. But, I think, subconsciously, I also felt that I had delayed my solo career for too long, because I never liked working with drum machines . There are a couple of tracks on The Sky Moves Sideways where I first invited Chris and Colin: 'Stars Die' and 'Moonloop'. And this was a turning point - I realized that I liked these compositions most of all. I realized that I did not want to go back and reuse the drum machines. But I also always liked the idea of, well, you know, a “rock band”. The bands have such charm, appeal and such romance that a solo project will never have. ”

Thus, on the next album, Signify ( 1996 ) the whole group was already working. The musicians have now become full-fledged co-authors, which can be clearly seen in the composition “Intermediate Jesus”, which was spontaneously born from a rehearsal session (parts of this composition were published on Metanoia in 1998).

Wilson: “ Signify was rather strange in terms of recording: although it was an album of the whole group, we just couldn’t physically be in the same place at the same time and work on the album together, so apart from“ Intermediate Jesus “recorded outside , I just did high-quality demo tracks with synthesized parts, which the rest then replaced with their real recordings. So we can say that their contribution was not so great. "

After the release of the first real single, Porcupine Tree Waiting , which hit all the English indie charts, the UK national chart and aired throughout Europe, Signify finally hit the store shelves in September 1996.

By this time, the band's popularity had grown so much that Porcupine Tree could gather large sites. For example, in Rome, a team addressed a five thousandth audience; based on this concert, the album Coma Divine was made. The same period was marked by the group turning to song material, unlike the early instrumental music .

The whole of 1998, the musicians spent in the recording of their fifth studio album and in March 1999 the new Stupid Dream album ( Bad Dreams ) was released. Three songs from this album - Piano Lessons, Stranger By the Minute and Pure Narcotic received great recognition among fans and tabloids. Although the new record scared off many old fans of the group with its “poppin”, the new look of the team attracted new fans, and the level of sales increased significantly. The release of the Stupid Dream disc was accompanied by a global tour, during which the team traveled not only to almost all of Europe, but also traveled to the United States.

A few months later, the group was ready to record a new album dedicated to the change of the millennium , which was ready by February 2000. Having made string arrangements, Porcupine Tree on a new disc called Lightbulb Sun showed everyone a mixture of songs and the fateful energy of the Stupid Dream album, but in a more organic and powerful form with an even more confident sound. The album was released in May 2000 , and then began a short concert tour of Britain, continued the next year with performances at several European festivals and a large joint tour with Dream Theater, in which they performed at the opening act. The group continued to tour until the beginning of 2001, for the first time visiting Germany on a major tour. There, as well as in Israel, a special two-disc edition of the Lightbulb Sun album was released, and in May of the same year, the Recordings CD appeared - a compilation that included singles and selected items from two previous albums.

The following year, in February 2002 , the first line-up change took place at the Porcupine Tree - drummer Chris Maitland left the band after 8 years of collaboration. To replace him, the musicians invited a great drummer Gavin Harrison. In the meantime, sessions began for a new record, during which approximately 30 new songs were recorded.

The long-awaited album In Absentia was released on Lava records in September 2002 (in Europe - in January next year). It was the most complete and finished work in the discography of Porcupine Tree, and although some of the songs sounded harder and harder than usual, in general the music became more refined and beautiful. The album became a bestseller, hit the charts of many European countries, and the level of sales soon blocked 100 thousand copies.

In support of the album, the group staged a tour of Europe and North America. During the tour, the composition of the group was expanded due to the appearance of vocalist / guitarist John Wesley.

In 2003 , the Porcupine Tree organized their small Transmission label and online store , the first items on the catalog were live recordings for Radio XM in Washington . The main goal of this label was the release of well-designed, high-quality concert performances and exclusive studio recordings. In 2003, a lengthy campaign to re-release double albums of the band's early albums also began.

In early 2004, Porcupine Tree began recording a new album. Sessions for him ended in November 2004 (the total number of disc sales of the group by that time exceeded half a million copies). Deadwing's new album was released in spring 2005 both in Europe and the United States, simultaneously with version 5.1 and the singles Shallow and Lazarus in Europe. Deadwing is an album focused on contemporary mainstream rock music. Some believe that this is the best album in history, while others attribute it to a certain desire of the group to become more popular.

The album was followed by a world tour, two concerts of which, held on October 11 and 12, 2005 in Chicago, became the basis for the band's first official concert DVD , Arriving Somewhere ... , which was released in 2006 .

The penultimate album, Fear of a Blank Planet , was released in 2007 . Stephen Wilson mentioned that the title of the album is a direct reference to the 1990 album Public Enemy by Fear of a Black Planet . He explained that racial relations were the main problem of the time, and that he currently considers the "problem of information technology as the main problem of the 21st century ." The album aroused mixed feelings among the listeners. Many accuse him of the simplicity of lyrics and avoiding the usual topics. Others note the versatility of the compositions, the strong musical component of the album, which includes the simple pop song Fear Of A Blank Planet , and the complex and monumental Anesthetize , which many listeners consider the best on the album, as well as lyrical and sentimental, like Sentimental and My Ashes .

The Tour of a Blank Planet tour, as the band’s managers christened it, became even longer: during these long tours the group managed to circumnavigate the globe twice and also visit countries where the Porcupine Tree has never performed before. These countries were Australia, where the group gave a series of concerts in late April 2008, as well as Russia .

The latest album by Porcupine Tree The Incident was released in September 2009 . According to Stephen Wilson, the album was very conceptual. The basis was taken of criminal incidents from police reports. The task of the musicians was to retell the story of the incident on behalf of the victim - the occasion was the personal feelings of the group leader: once, driving past one of the houses, Stephen saw a sign “police - an accident”, next to which all the cars slowed down, and their drivers peered and tried to understand what happened. “I thought“ incident ”was too unemotional a word for something so destructive and wounding,” says Wilson.

In 2013, Porcupine Tree went on indefinite leave. In an interview with Something Else! Reviews Stephen Wilson said he decided to concentrate on his solo career ^[1] :

To be the main author, and to steer the whole activity of the group, and to be the initiator of everything, because without me there will be nothing, is quite problematic. I do not have time at the same time for this, and for what I am doing now. <...> However, this does not mean that the group broke up or something like that. It always remains possible that we will return together in a year, or in five years, or ten.

Refusing to answer questions, Stephen Wilson thereby created the basis for a variety of theories about the origin of the name of the group. The word porcupine is translated as “ porcupine ” ^[2] , in particular, there is a species of American porcupine ( North American porcupine , Erethizon dorsatum ), which is also called porcupine .

Usually Porcupine Tree is spoken of as a progressive rock band . Almost anyone familiar with the work of the group gives him such a definition. At the same time, Stephen Wilson expressed some dissatisfaction with this trend ^[3] . However, later, Stephen began to feel more relaxed about this term, saying that the term has recently become “broader” ^[4] . And yet, Wilson continues to express dissatisfaction with the comparison of his group with neo-prog groups and the name "new Pink Floyd": "It makes you live in the shadow of someone else. I would not want to be new to anyone. I would like to be just an old Porcupine Tree or a new Porcupine Tree ” ^[5] .

Первоначально группа состояла из одного лишь Стивена Уилсона, который исполнял все партии гитары и вокала, большинство партий бас-гитары и клавишных, а также программировал драм-машину . Практически единолично Уилсон записал и выпустил под вывеской Porcupine Tree три альбома ^{[ what? ]} .

Начиная с Signify Porcupine Tree имеет формат полноценной рок-группы.

Последний состав

• Стивен Уилсон — вокал, гитара, банджо, клавишные, фортепиано, семплеры (1987—2010)
• Ричард Барбьери — клавишные, фортепиано, обработка звука (1993—2010)
• Колин Эдвин — бас-гитара, контрабас (1993—2010)
• Гэвин Харрисон — ударные (2002—2010)

Former members

• Крис Мейтленд — ударные (1993—2001)

Сессионные музыканты

• Джон Уэсли — гитара, бэк-вокал (2001—2010)

Временна́я шкала

Studio Albums

• 1991 — On the Sunday of Life…
• 1993 — Up the Downstair
• 1995 — The Sky Moves Sideways
• 1996 — Signify
• 1999 — Stupid Dream
• 2000 — Lightbulb Sun
• 2002 — In Absentia
• 2005 — Deadwing
• 2007 — Fear of a Blank Planet
• 2009 — The Incident

Live Records

• 1997 — Coma Divine — Recorded Live in Rome
• 1997 — Spiral Circus
• 2001 — Nearfest
• 2004 — Warszawa
• 2006 — Rockpalast
• 2008 — We Lost the Skyline
• 2010 — Atlanta
• 2012 — Octane Twisted (2 CD)

DVD

• 2006 — Arriving Somewhere…
• 2010 — Anesthetize ^[6]
• 2012 — Octane Twisted

• porcupinetree.com (англ.) — официальный сайт группы
•   На Викискладе есть медиафайлы по теме Porcupine Tree
• Профиль Porcupine Tree на Last.fm
• Русский фанклуб Porcupine Tree и Стивена Уилсона
• Биография и обзоры многоканальных дисков Porcupine Tree
• Немецкая страница о прогрессивном роке
• Официальная биография No-Man
• Рецензия на альбом группы «The Sky Moves Sideways»