Porcupine Tree - Deadwing due March 22nd 2005 (1 Viewer)

[Manus]

Maybe it'll sound better to you in 5.1 on Dvd-A ?
I found the songs great but maybe you're hearing the limitations of the cd format rather than any inherent flaws in the music. I found they grew on me , particularly 'Shallow' and 'Halo'.

M

 

[Chris Stainton]

Lee,

Thanks for this recommendation. I had not heard of this side project before. I grabbed it last night and was very pleased with it after one listen.

 

[ChrisDixon]

Lee,

I'm curious: have you heard In Absentia? Your reactions to DW remind me of the way I felt after a few listens to IA: too heavy, didn't have the magic, etc. It took a while, but IA became my favorite album of theirs. DW follows in this same spirit. I love the juxtapositions between heavy and mellow, beautiful harmonies and distorted vocals, etc. Interestinly, I expected to be disappointed after hearing Shallow on the Internet. It's a good rock song, but not the greated PT song. After digesting DW for about a month now, I'm more than pleasantly surprised.

Chris

 

[TheLongshot]

So far, I'm pretty happy with it. There are some songs (Halo, Arriving Somewhere) which really sneak up on you. I can understand those who were weened on stuff like Signify to be somewhat disappointed, since it seems Steven Wilson is going for a harder edge. I think songs like Lazarus are going to be more exceptions than the rule (which is fine with me. Lazarus is too "typical" PT)

Jason

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Just starting to digest it after 2 listens. One of the things I love is that it is IMO very different in sound and soundscape from In Absentia. IA sounds very lush and open to me, whereas DW sounds almost claustrophobic, but in a way that compliments the tunes. Halo sticks in my head the most so far, but Lazarus is very catchy as well, although I had the single already with the two unreleased tracks.

I seem to remember not being totally wowed by IA or Blackfield when I first heard them, but I swear when I listen to these now I never get tired of them-just beautiful stuff. It's such a shame that Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun are OOP in the states, as these are easily must-haves, as well as Signify which should still available in some stores like Borders. I had hoped Lava would re-release these to coincide with DW, but no luck.

And Coma Dovine is a great live performance from the Signify era that features some early PT stuff performed by the full band. Again, definitely worth it. Recordings is great as well-I was able to get a copy for about $30 a few months ago.

I can see DW will be on repeat until NIN comes out next week. Then I'll have two CD's on repeat for most of May (if the Revenge of the Sith ST doesn't interfere).

 

[Lee M T]

This is very interesting. I may be totally opposite to some of you guys.

I'm very strange. I've been a musician all my life and just love the technical side of things and such. But yet, for a long period in my life rap was my music of choice. Go figure. Though not the mainstream rap, I liked more of the underground hardcore stuff.

I've always had an open mind but it has only been in the last couple of years that I've really branched out and I don't even listen to rap anymore at all.

Even though I've been a musician in my own life, I haven't really looked at a lot of other people's albums from a technical and musicality standpoint, until I bought Opeth's album Damnation, and subsequently their other six albums. Now I'm buying every PT album I can locate, owning about ten albums or so, thus far. I love everything about them.

I had learned about PT from Opeth's Lamentations DVD. My first listen was to a song on the Internet and I can't even remember the name. But I was not impressed. When in the store bout a week later I saw In Absentia in Best Buy. I just said, "what the heck?" and made a purchase.

For me, I was instantly wowed by Blackest Eyes, Trains, Sound of Muzak, Collapse The Light, and Heartattack in a Layby. That is when my PT fascination came about.

I came on to IA, Lightbulb Sun, and Stupid Dream real quick. On the contrary, Signify had to work overtime to win me over.

Now Deadwing appears to have its work cut out for itself. There's no denying the album to be considerably better than most of what is out there today, but glancing on past PT work, so far it isn't doing it.

 

[John_Bonner]

Well it took me 4 stores to finally find Deadwing, but I picked it up today.
After one run-through I like it, I like it a lot.
I was wondering what direction PT would take after In Absentia and I'm glad they've stayed with an IA like sound.

US Tour dates are listed on the website.





Mike, haven't you any interest in DT's Octavarium? (June 7th)

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Once again, PT has also released som non-album tracks that sound as good as the album stuff. The UK single for Lazarus has two tracks, "So Called Friend" and "Half-Light" that are both fantastic. SCF is a heavier tune along the lines of "Shallow" and "Halo", while HL is more in the vein of "Glass Arm Shattering".

 

[Mike Broadman]

I'd have to hear it first. DT is no longer and "automatic" purchase for me.

 

[Lee M T]

Well, after a couple of days now I'm having to eat some of my words. The album is indeed one that requires some time to process. I like six of nine tracks now, although one of which is Mellotron scratch, I still really only like the ending and the chorus. The rest is kind of boring. The only tracks I really don't care for are Deadwing, Shallow, and Arriving Somewhere. Though there are parts of the latter song that I do really enjoy, they are just so few and far between I don't really feel like sitting through the track.

Hey Andrew, those B-Sides on the single are good. So Called Friend is pretty nice. There are two more B-Sides to be released on the DVD-Audio disc May 10th. Can't wait!

 

[Lewis Besze]

I beg to differ. The 5.1 mix really sounds thin compared to the 2 mix on the same disc, and it has nothing to do with the sampling rates,as the 2 ch version is the same as the CD ,well almost[16/48].I'm still looking forward to this one.

 

[Paul Boyle]

... arriving somewhere but not here ... my most played track from a superb album (imho of course!) I have heard all sorts of SW stuff including almost all the PT albums (some are very rare/deleted etc) and his side projects like No-Man & Blackfield - I guess I just like his music whatever the genre (& he's ventured into many) ... looking forward to the DVD-A in May ... Paul

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Waaaaay south. South Florida, so a bit too far for those to be easy trips. Actually, I was visiting a buddy in North Carolina on the weekend of ProgDay a couple of years ago, but the weather was lousy, so we decided against going. On the other hand, we flew up to NJ the following summer (2003) for NEARFest. Except for a Weird Al show about a year ago, that was my last concert. Now I spend all my concert money on concert DVDs.

I *might* hit Priest/ Queensryche in June, though. Maybe. . .

 

[TheLongshot]

It is. I mistyped.

Jason

Just a few hours before I leave for the Rites Of Spring festival. (no Mostly Autumn, but I'm still going to enjoy myself.)

 

[KevinJ]

Did anyone else notice there's an extra track at the end of the disc....what's it called?

 

[Lee M T]

Yeah, the US release had the extra track. It's called ShesMovedOn from the Lightbulb Sun album (2000). The album is currently out of print, however. It is to be remastered and released either later this year or next year.

This rendition of the track is good, and includes Mikael Akerfeldt backing up SW in the chorus. However, I feel the original is quite a bit better. Though, if this were the version I heard first, then I may sing a different tune. I find the guitar solo on the original much better...even though technically speaking the one on the new version is impressive work. I felt the original fit the song better and seem to have more emotion in context of the song.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Kind of a side note here:

Does anyone have the US Koch record release of Blackfield?

I had the import verison and it was ok, but I wound up having to replace it with the US version, and I've noticed on two separate US CD's that there are 2 second gaps at the end of each song. This really disrupts the flow of the album. I've had to rip the tracks and edit the extra silence off just to have the tracks flow into each other again. I'm surprised no one else has mentioned this. One bad copy is one thing, but I have two that were bought 2 months apart from different chains. Kind of a bummer.

 

[Manus]

Beg to differ back On my system the Dvd-A absolutely murders the Cd. I'm hoping for the same improvement with Deadwing Dvd-A which was apparently composed with 5.1 in mind.

For more PT chat and info have a look at :

http://www.porcupinetreeforum.co.uk/.../yabb2/YaBB.pl

M

 

[KevinJ]

That's the song i thought it was but just wanted to be sure.

 

[Rich Romero]

The remake of Shesmovedon is terrible. In fact, Deadwing is a dissapointment in general. Still a fantastic album, but it's definitely not Steven at top form (Lightbulb Sun or Stupid Dream).