What does anyone hear in Porcupine Tree?

Hugh Manatee wrote: ... I think this boils down to two major factors. 1) How musical preferences are formed. 2) The role music plays in a particular persons life. ...

As a teenager in the early 70s I recall Gentle Giant, King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, and ELP were influenced by different Classical composers...which separated them from each other and as an end result having more originality.

In the 80s several of the European underground Progressive Rock bands were inspired by the "Big 5 or 6..but still seemed to be interesting and released important albums that actually differed from some of the composition and formula used by the "big 5..


In the U.S....Happy The Man who were also influenced by bands like Gentle Giant and early Genesis to degrees actually had their own distinctive sound /style.


As time progressed we entered into the Neo Prog movement...which several of these bands turned out to be interesting..however a certain percentage of them sounded like copy cats of the 70s Prog bands in the modern age.

My thoughts on this are mixed and undecided to draw solid conclusions as to why Neo Prog bands would pursue that role playing game ..when in fact they didn't have to indulge in a imitation of 70s Prog and could have sounded more original.

Genesis, King Crimson and Yes..( for example) didn't want to sound alike . They had no reason to be concerned over that because each band was influenced by a different composer.

It's possible that this concept of separation in originality and sound was achieved through that process. It's possible that if the Neo Prog bands that sounded too emulating of the 70s bands had focused on other composers they would have sounded more original as opposed to repeating a formula

Edited by Jacob Schoolcraft - March 10 2022 at 20:24

Canterbury23 wrote: Overall what I'm saying is that Progressive Rock had such an amazing run in the early 70s that maybe it's ok that we leave it there and expand on the ideas that inspired them without copying there music.

Beaver And Krause released an album titled In A Wild Sanctuary and it demonstrated to me...how Electronic Music, Jazz, Blues, Space Rock, and Classical could be ultimately fused to form a new kind of instrumental Rock. Is it Progressive Rock? It could be labeled as such...because it contains all the elements to be just that. A very old Art Rock album that contained unorthodox recording methods.

Unorthodox recording methods used to be part of the game until technology replaced the efforts recorded on tape by real innovators with sampled sounds. 😃 Jade Warrior used to wet bath towels and slap them against a wall..creating a strange affect for their music.


On Godley And Creme Consequences there are unorthodox recording methods. Technology took the fun away. It was something musicians in Progressive Rock experimented with. The sound effects were tied in with the theme of the album such as Pink Floyd Meddle. Musicians used recording equipment outdoors to record the sound of nature or inside a bathroom to record a toilet flushing.

Spreading cat litter on the head of a Kettle drum and slamming the drum head with mallets produces the sound of fireworks.

This whole concept existed in Prog and Electronic for many years. It seemed like a creative aspect to the music. The idea to add special effects to a theatrical Progressive Rock piece exists today. It's in the music of Solaris and Goblin. Patricia Dallio or Art Zoyd.

It used to be part of experimentation because you had to physically be at the beach to record the ocean. It seemed to me that a lot of musicians were experimenting with music and coloring sounds around a theme. Many of them were working together to form a work of art. Those were the times we were living in when the ideas first surfaced for combining Classical, Folk, and Jazz to create Progressive Rock.

It was an odd and bizarre experience that really enhanced the music. It's ancient fossil



Edited by Jacob Schoolcraft - March 13 2022 at 20:09

I haven't managed to really get into any Porcupine Tree yet (I have listened to early albums) and the later In Absentia and Deadwing I have owned. I'm sure I could and I don't really want to get into it. I have come to appreciate Steven Wilson solo more.

I love lost of acts that draw on Pink Floyd and Krautrock. Many of my favourite post 70s bands drew on Krautrock (and are of the Neo Psych ilk). Radiohead didn't really get me in a big way until I heard A Moon Shaped Pool. Some other "contemporaries" of Radiohead that I love which draw on Krautrock include Portishead and Stereolab (things like Pram, Broadcast and Vanishing Twin also fall into this).

At this site Porcupine Tree has been massively acclaimed. It gets mentioned more than Radiohead (well, not by me) and other older ones that are still going and making acclaimed music such as Swans.

Radiohead has struck me as more experimental and interesting than Porcupine Tree. Anyway, whether either is that original, I just much prefer the likes of Radiohead, Portishead, Stereolab, Pram, Broadcast, Vanishing Twin and a thousand others that have retro qualities / reference music of the past. Sorry for name-dropping. ;) And not adding anything really substantive to the conversation.

The OP's last post was over a month ago. Yet, we carry on??

Radiohead never did anything to me either, even though SW gets a lot of inspiration from them. PT feels more accessible, is has more uplifting and varied songs while Radiohead was a lot more depressive for my tastes lol