When Porcupine Tree signed to RoadRunner there was significant cause for alarm, not least because RR have a habit of dropping those bands who displease them at the drop of the proverbial hat. Fear that PT would in any way succumb to corporate pressure was soon allayed when ‘Fear of a blank planet’ arrived in a cloud of progressive bleakness avoiding even the usual RR pitfall of being reissued several times in a variety of fan-annoying packages.
‘The Incident’ takes the blueprint of FOABP (6 tracks – 1 hour) and stretches it still further by opening with a single, fifteen movement (sadly divided into separate tracks on the CD) song which covers the whole of the first CD. Kicking off with a brutal, crashing guitar chord before switching to acoustic strumming certainly grabs the listener’s attention form the off. Immediately PT sound larger, more symphonic than ever before. Creepy noise undercuts the music, before hefty guitars slam you into part II (‘the blind house’) and Steven Wilson’s familiar vocals cut in. Typical PT elements are all here: vocal harmonies to die for, complex drumming and sweeping synth as well as the customarily excellent guitar work, but it’s all so much more confident than before – improving even on the remarkable FOABP which would have seemed unthinkable before actually listening to this piece. Here PT are on the form of their lives.
Standout track form the first disc has to go to ‘the incident’ itself which is heavy, complicated, dark and a worthy successor to the mighty King Crimson, with its stuttering, near-industrial electronics and stop-start guitar dynamics, but in truth the whole sprawling epic is so much more than the individual tracks form which it is comprised and it is best listened to as one whole piece rather than splitting it up into segments – alas RR’s marketing department probably baulked at the thought of releasing it without chapter points, so the choice is yours to make.
One could be forgiven for thinking that disc 2 would be a let-down after so draining a first disc, but it easily matches its precursor in quality, offering a further twenty minutes (spread over four tracks this time) of excellent progressive rock. SW’s voice has never sounded better and the production is top notch, as one might expect from a band with such perfectionist tendencies.
Overall this is an awe-inspiring album; intelligent, hard, complicated and eloquent, switching with ease between Tool-esque hard rock and the softer elements of mid-period Pink Floyd. Now up there with progressive rock’s greats – King Crimson and Pink Floyd to name but two, Porcupine Tree have crafted an object lesson in marrying great song-writing to progressive and complicated music in this superb set. An essential album and certainly the finest record PT have attempted. It will be fascinating to see what they do next.
