Steven Wilson - Insurgentes [Album]

Kscope

The experimental genius behind prog band Porcupine Tree makes his debut as a solo act with this brilliant record, 'Insurgents'. For those having no knowledge of Porcupine Tree it might be in your interest to check out the album 'Voyage 34: The Complete Trip'. The album is based on an LSD trip, a voyage indeed. The record is reminiscent of Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds in its narration and epic build up riffs. At times it sounds like Boards Of Canada being molested by Pink Floyd, it's an epic voyage. This is kind of a prelim into the mind of Mr Wilson and will kind of help your understanding of his attitude towards song writing.

It's hard to pin-point a particular genre being used here. 'No Twilights Within The Courts Of The Sun' seems heavily influenced (intentionally or not) by Omar Rodriguez Lopez/The Mars Volta. The guitar is played with short sharp burst of energy built up by bass and drums into a cacophony of complex melodies and sick drumming. This is by far one of the stand out tracks for experimentation with sound. 'Significant Other' is not an attempted to do it all for the "Nookie" (Fred Durst - Significant Other) it is a mellow ambient piece that is just beautiful. Slow and powerful with a Zero 7 feel having a female vocal making love to the track using a "ah ah aaahaha" type thingy.

On first listen to 'Insurgents' you kind of don't know where it is going, your left thinking "What the hell just happened?". It all makes sense with the final track taking on the title of the album "Insurgents". Starting out with a Piano and vocals that bring a tingle to your spine. Vocally rememnicent of Maynard James Keenan from the amazing pop bands Tool/A Perfect Circle/Puscifer, ha. Harmonies of warm lyrics "And Your Dreams Absolve", "And Your Path Desolve", bloody lovely.

Every single song has so many layers, however Steven Wilson came up with this is beyond my understanding. LSD Anyone?