Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
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CD Details
Artist: Porcupine TreeBrand: PORCUPINE TREE
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2002-09-24
Music Label: Lava
Product features:
- PORCUPINE TREE IN ABSENTIA
- Blackest Eyes
- Trains
- Lips Of Ashes
- The Sound Of Muzak
- Gravity Eyelids
- Wedding Nails
- Prodigal
- .3
- The Creator Has A Mastertape
- Heartattack In A Layby
- Strip The Soul
- Collapse the Light Into Earth
Music reviews of In Absentia
Music Review: The creator has a mastertape...and its in Absentia
Rating: 5 Stars
Pure and magical, you can't really label this!
With "Absentia", what do you call this album? Prog rock sure, but it almost does take on a folk appeal at times, while other times the change towards more melody driven, catchier tunes and the absence of the harsh guitars on most tracks that we heard on the 1996 release "Signify". I would almost deem this particular album "Alternative rock" except that it's so much better than what we are used to when hearing other recent albums under that same genre label musically.
Steve Wilson's vocals on here are much more emotional and take on higher notes than before, while the guitars do tackle faster, but not in the least bit heavier riffs.
On track one, we're fed the radio friendly, toe-tapping tune "Blackest eyes". Far and wide this song doesn't necessarily fit the "prog" label, but there may be a reason for that. This particular song was on TV for the advertisement of a television series for quite some time, and so naturally I think we all may have been to quick to throw the sound in as some alternative rock band that came around in 2001 or something. However, on a closer look, and taking track one and putting it with its brothers and sisters on this album, what we have here is still great progressive rock music. A great prog song does not have to be 20 minutes long and feature 10 different instruments to be a great prog song. Track 2 is "Trains" and really brings out some great vocals, but it's on this track that if you listen closely can pick up all the little things that you may miss from a first listen. The textured sound of the guitars in the background, the varying structures that come in, then out. Rhythm that is soulful but not sad, Porcupine Tree proves again that they are something to be reckoned with. On reviewing this second track, I'd just like to note that it's my second review of this band and I'm still wondering why it took me so long to find them. Track 3 is another gem; "Lips of Ashes" is a song that has some mysterious and dark guitar arrangements coupled with very soulful backing vocals. The song, like many by this band, is slow. Some of the artists I think of when I think of this band are not actually just prog bands of the past, but the songwriting of Jim Morrison, and the imagination of Beck. Track 4 is "The sound of Muzack" and takes off with some serious drums and acoustic guitar, kind of reminding me of Godsmacks unplugged recordings. The vocals on here have some echo effect, which are a nice added change to help add some diversity to the sound.
Track 5 is "Gravity Eyelids" and clocks in at nearly 8 minutes long. `Lids is a song that is very atmospheric and again portrays some echo in the background with varying slow beats that surround you. Overall a pretty soothing track. One comment on many songs like this I would like to make is this; despite dark sounds at times, and soulful sounding vocals, you don't get to depressed listening to this music. It's not a downer by any means, though many things on the surface tell you it should be. It really is great how they execute their efforts in the realm of harmony, mood, and artistic vision with these songs. Another gem of track 5 is the fact that we are treated to some edgy guitars that were familiar from the bands 1996 album "Signify". By track 6, we're really getting the heat on with Absentia as the slower, moody songs are left in the dust for some fast paced metal edged guitar solo's. What is great about this aspect of Absentia is that they don't overdo it. Not the slow, not the pop, the prog, the guitars...nothing is over the top! Someone said in another review that this band was sounding like 80's pop? Better take another listen. This is truly what makes this band a great "Rock Band", for the fact they are able to incorporate so many aspects of musical landscapes within their songs but not saturate themselves in a specific style. Oh, the labels? They're back there in the dust as well.
Track 7...wow, what an unleashed anthem sound and powerful track! Great song that has some mournful sounding guitars, a great beat from the percussion, and great lyrics that lead into magnificent crescendos within the chorus. Again, the backing vocals in here just add to the perfect blend of talent that goes together to make a great CD. This song itself invokes a lot of feeling and emotion, and its songs like this that will stand the test of time. I can easily see this "not" being dated, and listen to it 20 years from now to create a whole new memory from it. Track 7 is aptly called "Prodigal". Track 9 is something pretty bizarre, but not to out of place. The song has some guitar thrashing speed on it that would make Ministry and Slayer think Jesus really did steal their hotrod. Fast, Furious and fun, "The creator has a mastertape" is one to wake up to in the morning. Track 10 is "Heartattack in a Layby" and really isn't anything to write home about, but track 11 is. "Strip the Soul" has some sounds similar to the late Stone Temple pilots and has incredible Bass guitar on it. As I listen to it now I'm still amazed at the arrangements of the guitars. I haven't heard guitars sound this good, or make this much sense in a long time. Rounding out the CD is "Collapse the light into Earth" and starts out with some great sounding piano playing that leads into a vocal beginning that almost invokes something historic or of the past as opposed to 2006. I guess better that than me saying it sounds like Coldplay. The song is a great song to end with as it rolls along picking up steam, and is soon awash in a harmonic bliss of classical sounds, cathedral shadows and clear vocals from both the lead singer and the backing vocals. The song ends with the piano slowly fading out.
Call them what you will, prog, rock, pop, it really does not matter. Porcupine Tree could really take a porcupine and a tree, and create beautiful music out of it. The tones are real, the mood is great, and above all, the spirit and power of this music really does get to you. I can't wait to get my next CD from Porcupine Tree. I know it's late coming from a latecomer like me, but Pass the word. These guys are the real deal.
Description of In Absentia
Hailed by Billboard as 'cinematic...simple gorgeous', Porcupine Tree are unquestionably one of the UK's most inspired and inventive rock groups. In Absentia is their eagerly anticipated Lava Records debut. Digipak. 2002.After a quarter-century of punk and postmodern excesses, it's always something of a surprise to find young musicians who not only recall a past era's musical indulgences, but also revel in them. This Lava Records debut is the latest fruit of Porcupine Tree mainstay Steven Wilson's obsession with prog, a mania that dates to the late '80s when the "band" was little more than a fantasy, though one with a remarkably imaginative--if entirely fictional--history and bio. But that pipedream eventually became a real "alt prog" cult fave, with these dozen ambitious songs finding a focus that occasionally eluded the band on half-hour soundscapes like its underground hit, "Voyage 34." Tracks like "Gravity Eyelids" have a retro-psychedelic feel that would have done the XTC alter ego Dukes of Stratosphear proud, with Wilson's pure melodic tenor pushing it beyond the merely baroque. But the collection is also a strong statement of another crucial Wilson/Porcupine retro-sensibility: The album has unified musical statement. "Lips of Ashes" and "Prodigal" serve up the sort of impressionistic, harmony-rich musings that Pink Floyd has rarely managed since Wish You Were Here, while "The Creator Has a Master Tape" punctuates the rich harmonies of tracks like "Heart Attack in a Layby" with Crimson-esque metallic thrash and processed vocals. While the band's instrumental prowess sometimes slums its way into the free-form jazz noodling of past efforts, the album remains one of the band's fullest achievements. --Jerry McCulley
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