INSURGENTES

While Porcupine Tree effectively began as a STEVEN WILSON solo project skirting along for a while pumping out the latest Pink Floyd 2.0+++, the mastermind behind the successful project desired to create band dynamics by collaborating with similarly inspired musicians but by the time 2007's 'Fear Of A Blank Planet' was released, WILSON was beginning to feel the band's creative edge waning and fulfilled his desire to return to a solo career only this time under his own name. He spent a great number of hours in many studios across the globe ranging from Israel and Japan to Mexico City which is where he found the name for his debut solo release INSURGENTES derived from Avenida de los Insurgentes which is the longest avenue in all of the Mexican capitol city. After a taste of total control once again, WILSON would join his former bandmates for one more final album before embarking on his own musical journey. INSURGENTES is the point where he began to expand beyond the Porcupine Tree sound and incorporate more disparate influences into the mix.

While clearly rooted in his Porcupine Tree space rock days, WILSON's debut release takes more liberties and find new ways to express his unique stamp on space rock by adding post-punk elements as well as shoegaze as well as the expected Pink Floyd elements that had always been one of the main driving forces. With Joy Division type riffing and fuzzy haze effects remnant of My Bloody Valentine, WILSON found a new way to unleash his signature detached atmospheric branch of melancholic progressive rock complete with all the addictive melodic hooks you would expect from a STEVEN WILSON release. INSURGENTES delivers all the goods that any Porcupine Tree fan would come to expect and then some with heavy guitar riffs that reel you in and let you sink into a deep depressive atmospheric bath of synthesized contemplation about life's existential quandaries all dressed up in some of the most polished production and symphonic elements that exist in modern rock music.

INSURGENTES is a beautiful musical journey through the heavily dissonant, melodically engaging with pleasant symphonic attractions suddenly bursting into a terrifying drone and noise segment (such as the superb track 'Salvaging.') as well as rueful ballads trading off with angular guitar freak outs that reverberate to the heavens and back. This debut shows WILSON in a contemplative and reflective mode as he traverses through the sonic web of sound that he weaves so skillfully somehow knowing exactly how to juxtapose every note with the correct tones, timbres and performance dynamics. INSURGENTES is one of those albums i can truly get lost in as it makes me feel like it is a sound cloud that has engulfed my very essence and i'm a part of its existence while it's playing, a quality very few other releases can achieve. The atmospheric ratcheting up of emotions that result in deftly developed crescendos displays WILSON's perfectionist tendencies. Each and every little detail seems to have been ruminated upon for its most sublime effect. This is one that is best experienced very LLLOOOUUUDDD!!!!