Roadrunner Records have revealed that Porcupine Tree’s 10th studio album – „The Incident“ – will be released in the Autumn ….
Grammy-nominated UK recording artist Porcupine Tree have confirmed the title of their tenth studio album: The Incident. The captivating new record is set to be released via Roadrunner Records on September 21, as a double CD.
The seeds of the idea that led to The Incident came to Wilson as he became caught up in a motorway traffic jam whilst driving past a road accident. “There was a sign saying ‘POLICE – INCIDENT’ and everyone was slowing down to rubber neck to see what had happened,” he recalls. “Afterwards, it struck me that ‘incident’ is a very detached word for something so destructive and traumatic for the people involved. And then I had the sensation that the spirit of someone that had died in the car accident entered into my car and was sitting next to me“. “The irony of such a cold expression for such seismic events appealed to me, and I began to pick out other ‘incidents’ reported in the media and news,” continues Wilson. “I wrote about the evacuation of teenage girls from a religious cult in Texas, a family terrorizing its neighbours, a body found floating in a river by some people on a fishing trip, and more. Each song is written in the first person and tries to humanize the detached media reportage.” Additionally, Wilson delved back into incidents in his own life that had profoundly affected him, including a lost childhood friendship, a seance, his first love, and the day that he decided to give up secure employment to follow his dream of making music.
The self-produced album is completed by four standalone compositions that developed out of band writing sessions last December – Flicker, Bonnie The Cat, Black Dahlia, and Remember Me Lover – housed on a separate CD to stress their independence from the title track. Porcupine Tree – completed by Gavin Harrison (drums), Colin Edwin (bass), and Richard Barbieri (keyboards) – took a video camera into the recording studio, capturing a few moments to share with fans. Coming to the recording sessions following his first ever solo album, November 2008’s Insurgentes, Wilson admits that the experience of having worked alone affected the direction of The Incident. “Possibly because of having done that, this record is darker, expansive, and more experimental,” he theorizes. “But when I write for Porcupine Tree, I know the sound I’m after.”
The band have chosen to reveal that the stunning 55-minute title track is in fact a 14-part song cycle.
Singer/songwriter/guitarist Steven Wilson elaborates:
“The Incident isn’t intended as one long song – it’s more a series of songs connected together in a continuous flow, with each song about a specific event. Originally the idea was to take the sense of musical continuity that is the basis of all PT albums to the next level by writing a 55-minute song cycle, starting with the simplest musical device – a single repeated guitar chord. I had no lyrical theme when I started, but I began at the beginning and each part of the song cycle grew naturally out of the previous one. This is very different to previous PT albums where the sequencing and flow of the albums was established at the end of the recording process by figuring out the best order for the songs. Here each song was specifically written to seamlessly flow out of the previous one and link to the next.”
The double-CD is completed by four standalone compositions that developed out of band writing sessions last December – Flicker, Bonnie The Cat, Black Dahlia, and Remember Me Lover – housed on a separate CD to stress their independence from the title track.
The title track The Incident comprises:
i Occam’s Razor (1.55)
ii The Blind House (5.47)
iii Great Expectations (1.26)
iv Kneel And Disconnect (2.03)
v Drawing The Line (4.43)
vi The Incident 5.20)
vii Your Unpleasant Family (1.48)
viii The Yellow Windows Of The Evening Train (2.00)
ix Time Flies (11.40)
x Degree Zero Of Liberty (1.45)
xi Octane Twisted (5.03)
xii The Séance (2.39)
xiii Circle Of Manias (2.18)
xiv I Drive The Hearse (6.41)
Charlie Farrell was at one of the listening parties last night and gave his first impressions:
The songs flow was good and there was a certain feel which was reminiscent of On the Sunday of Life – i.e. songs of various styles which bled into each other quite nicely. Early songs were punctuated by the heavy riffing of the opening number (The first bit of music that you hear in the video diary at the Roadrunner site), but the later songs transition more smoothly.
The longest song – Time Flies at 11:40 was the song which stood out for me. There was a nice long guitar solo in the middle.
The oddest song was perhaps the title track which went from almost industrial sounding to pleasant breezy Porcupine Tree circa Lightbulb Sun. I wonder if Frippertronics were involved at the beginning … but Fripp is not mentioned as being a guest on the album
As someone who like FoaBP but still found it a little indigestible in some ways, I think that this is a more accessible and less heavy Porcupine Tree.
Its gonna take a bit more digestion … but I think that there is certainly a little of everything in there for PT fans of all eras.
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