Porcupine Tree
Signify

SIGNIFY (September 1996, Delerium CD)

Tracks
01. BORNLIVEDIE (1:41) [instrumental]
02. SIGNIFY (3:26) [instrumental]
03. THE SLEEP OF NO DREAMING (5:24) [Words: At the age of sixteen I grew out of hope I regarded the cosmos Through a circle of rope So I threw out my plans Ran on to the wheel And emptied my head Of all childish ideals The sleep of no feeling I married the first girl Who wasn't a man And smiled as the spiders Ran all over my hands Made a good living By dying it's true As the world in my TV Leaked onto my shoes]
04. PAGAN (1:34) [instrumental]
05. WAITING - PHASE ONE (4:24) [Words: Waiting... to be born again Wanting... the saddest kind of pain Waiting for the day when I will crawl away Nothing is what I feel Waiting... for the drugs to make it real Waiting... for the day when I will crawl away Waiting... to be disciplined Aching... for your nails across my skin Waiting... for the day when I will crawl away
06. WAITING - PHASE TWO (6:15) [instrumental]
07. SEVER (5:30) [Words: Telepath Carbon trapped under stone Brother mother pale body is thrown Only way I know to have fun Fill up my blood, my veins, my lungs ESP city - rainy and blue Burn down this town, I give it to you Aero shallow, photograph blind Stage fright, black light, coma divine No sense of time Sever tomorrow Exitless mind - ESP Sever tomorrow School out invective, losing my voice Film shredding on in multiple choice America calls, I must go Oprah saviour, I feel that low]
08. IDIOT PRAYER (7:37) [instrumental]
09. EVERY HOME IS WIRED (5:08) Modem load and failsafe Electric teenage dust Hit the solvent keypad Start the neural rust Power on the highway Data in my head Surfing on the network Part of me is dead Every Home is Wired Swimming in the circuit Somebody has expired This world will be the future Every home is wired]
10. INTERMEDIATE JESUS (7:29) [instrumental]
11. LIGHT MASS PRAYERS (4:28) [instrumental]
12. DARK MATTER (8:57) [Words: Inside the vehicle the cold is extreme Smoke in my throat kicks me out of my dream I try to relax but its warmer outside I fail to connect, it's a tragic divide This has become a full time career To die young would take only 21 years Gun down a school or blow up a car The media circus will make you a star Dark matter flowing out on to a tape Is only as loud as the silence it breaks Most things decay in a matter of days The product is sold the memory fades Crushed like a rose In the river flow I am I know]

The Porcupine Tree is a musical cultivation of an eclectic artist who responds to the name of Steven Wilson. Multi-instrumentalist and dissembler in the creative sense of the term, Steven Wilson is, first and foremost, a guitarist strongly influenced by Barret and Gilmour as the real debut (preceded by demos in "Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape", 1991) in the double album "On The Sunday Of Life" (1992) testifies unequivocally: a true solo project advocating an evolution of Pink Floyd's psychedelic rock (see Jupiter Island), while also nodding to the English progressive of the '70s (see Nostalgia Factory).

The success obtained more here than in the homeland is consolidated by the subsequent "Up The Downstairs" (1993) and "The Sky Moves Sideways" (1994): in the latter work, in particular, the former Japan (historic group of David Sylvian) Richard Barbieri collaborates (and you can hear it) on the keyboards. After the taste of the EP "Waiting" (1995), behind the Porcupine Tree project, we find a real band, with Colin Edwin on bass and Chris Maitland on drums joining the two, expressing themselves with a great album which is the subject of this review.
"SIGNIFY" (1996) has the merit of bringing the name of Porcupine Tree, already known in Italy, to the attention of critics, especially English ones: a sort of second homeland for Wilson and company. The intro "Bornlivedie" seems to trick us somewhat because it reminds us once again of the love for Pink Floyd's 'Ummagumma' in particular. But already the next and still instrumental "Signify" officializes the transition to progressive: in this track, precisely, the point of reference is the baroque rock of the best Yes (the guitar technique is very close to that of the legendary Steve Howe in the '70s).

The words appear for the first time in "Sleep Of No Dreaming" in which, musically, Wilson and Barbieri remain equidistant between the Art Rock of King Crimson and the Romantic/Fairy Tale Rock of the early Genesis (obviously the ones of Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett). After the Floydian reminiscences in the instrumental Pagan, the text reappears, darker than ever, in the beautiful "Waiting Phase One", followed by the instrumental second part, "Waiting Phase Two", in which Porcupine Tree, honestly, seem to have little to envy to Radiohead, recognized by many (in many ways rightly) as the main exponents of current prog.
Although still not very accessible from a textual point of view, in "Sever", Wilson confirms himself as a respectable songwriter even in expressing a (deserved) homage to Roger Waters and the Pink Floyd of "The Wall" and "The Final Cut".

It is exceedingly clear that citing these influences, highlighting these references, does not mean that inventiveness and originality are lacking. Any doubts in this regard are swept away by the instrumental "Idiot Prayer": listen to believe. Porcupine Tree are faithful to the psychedelic rock of Pink Floyd and classic British progressive, but they adapt everything in an evolutionary sense, especially in studio effects: the result in "Every Home Is Wired" is quite a refined sound, for example. On the other hand, Wilson and associates are prone to expand their horizons more and more and in the fascinating instrumental "Intermediate Jesus", the sound is contaminated by a certain free-jazz in the keyboard usage (in the Soft-Machine style, if you will).
In short, if progressive means experimenting and combining different, more or less refined styles, this is a true progressive work, which has its best moment in its closure, preceded truthfully by a perhaps too long instrumental intro like "Light Mass Prayer": "Dark Matter", in the opinion of the writer, is a cornerstone of new prog rock.

Post Scriptum:
With this musical product, Porcupine Tree sketch a mini-enclosure, a minimum common denominator that they will propose in subsequent works, although the tendency will be to make the approach to texts more direct (moreover, singing parts increase) and their music opens up to different genres. After the live "Coma Divine" (1997), Wilson also gives compositional space to his adventurous companions: in "Stupid Dream" (1999) the sound seems really more accessible and in "Lightbulb Sun" (2000), which features former XTC Dave Gregory, the lyrics are much more direct and less abstract compared to the recent past, while Gregory's contribution allows for a series of much more refined stylistic arrangements. The desire to shed the label of a cult band is more evident than ever in the subsequent "Metanoia" (2001) and "In Absentia" (2002), interspersed with the compilation "Recordings".

The entry of new drummer Gavin Harrison promotes continuous visits to the places of more varied rock, with the usual common thread providing a bit of coherence to the sound puzzle. For the purists, progressive is about merging different styles and musical approaches, elaborating a new one: citing Portishead in this regard has set a precedent. Therefore, Porcupine Tree would not be a progressive band because their works are mosaics where there is union and not fusion of different attitudes. My point of view is, however, partially different although it requires a premise. The desire or necessity (depending on the point of view) to generalize at all costs, in fact, has led us to define the musical movement in question using the term Progressive: a term, first of all, improper because it alludes to something that progresses infinitely without this being supported by real empirical evidence.
The music we define as progressive, in fact, is not something absolutely and perpetually evolving: prog rock is dynamic, flexible, but not indefinitely. Progressive Rock, as we know it, has, in short, very defined, clear, explicit canons, which it respects in almost an obsequious way. Let's give some examples.

The tracks are often very long and most often provide subsections with different musical combinations and frequent rhythmic changes (especially in odd times), consciously avoiding the classic structure of the popular song with instruments that clearly surpass the classic trio of drums-bass-guitar, through a massive is an understatement usage of keyboards, not disdaining the use of strings or other orchestral proofs, borrowed not only from classical music but also from jazz, without this equating to a complete detachment from blues roots (which we must admit are essential when it comes to Rock).
Experimentation, absence of improvisation, lyrics, looks, and metaphorical, fabulous, fairy-tale scenarios, or in any case detached from the real socio-political-economic context, are, with due distinctions, other distinguishing features. However, in the opinion of the writer, the salient characteristic is precisely the musician's attitude towards this music and their instrument. An almost exasperated technicality, an abundant virtuosity, expressed in very research arrangements, in a symbiotic relationship between musician and instrument, are what most distinguish the progressive rock artist from the rest: the goal is to make excellent music from an aesthetic point of view, giving the best of oneself and carrying the risk of producing something genius as well as something horrendously ridiculous.

The use of the term progressive is therefore, at the very least, ambiguous: it opens up nuances that induce contributions to be included in the genre, as has in fact happened, that had little to do with it. Whoever decides to make this music accepts only one main road, a single and unambiguous art: that of "technique". More than progressive, the Rock discussed is first and foremost a Technical Rock, or rather, the technical rock par excellence, from which derives the progression towards new musical horizons, encroaching on other musical styles.
Ten years after "Signify", Porcupine Tree is not a progressive group, at least in the sense I have meant (it will be because, for me, what is progressive is fundamentally born and died in the first half of the 70s). The latest production "Deadwing" (2005) is manifestly the confirmation of this, with a sound complex almost devoid of technicalities and all centered on the search for broad creativity at all costs, with consequential positive and negative complications (it becomes, at a certain point, inevitable).

Here they truly range across the board, from Floydian psychedelic odes to the pure and simple easy listening of Abba, from the prog-folk of Crosby Still & Nash (in the album CSN) to the vocal harmonies of the Beatles or Beach Boys, from classic Crimson prog to the grunge/heavy of Soundgarden/Opeth style and so forth. It goes without saying that if by progressive we mean an experimental rock and we include alongside Radiohead, also Tool, Nine Inch Nails of "The Fragile", Mars Volta, to name a few, and if we add to this the live collaboration with the more famous flag bearers of prog-metal like Dream Theater, the production by Steve Wilson of the 1997 live of Fish (ex lead singer of Marillion), his collaboration and friendship with Sylvian and so on, including in the list of progressive of the new millennium also Wilson and associates becomes natural. That Wilson, ultimately, cares little for technique in itself and much more about creativity in any capacity, is confirmed by the production of his other alter-ego: No Man's (see especially the collaboration with Robert Fripp in “Flowermouth”).

But the ambition for an obsessive search for creativity, understood as a continuous alternative, devoutly and pretentiously avant-garde, so much so that terms like "ambient" and "space rock" seem even too narrow, brings with it the risk of dispersion: an eventuality that, in my opinion, has in fact occurred. This is why I continue to prefer "Signify".
Filippo Guzzardi