THE COMPLETE I.E.M.

IEM's complete discography has seen a marvelous and final reissue on this 2010 boxed edition. The lavish photographic artwork alone already provides a reason good enough to spend some well-earned cash, but of course, the fact that this music has finally been made available for purchase again is the real reason to throw a party. Or to kick my lazy holiday head back into reviewing mode.

Apart from a few extra's on the expanded Escalator to Christmas album; the music collected here will be entirely familiar to the few souls that ventured out to discover the music of Wilson's most psych incarnation. All albums are presented in their original form, not remixed nor remastered (not that they needed any tampering), and they come in beautiful Japanese mini album sleeves, accompanied with a booklet full of early 20th century black & white photography. No band history or liner notes are provided, but given the mystery surrounding IEM, that's just fine.

If you're only familiar with the music from Porcupine Tree's second decade, IEM might come as a kind of a shock. Abstaining from anything resembling heavy riffs or poppy tunes, the long fluid improvisations, space explorations and the flirtations with early progressive electronic experiments in the vein of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze will be entirely unpleasant to many Porcupine Tree fans. So if you thought Metanoia was self-indulgent drivel, then you should sure stay clear from each of the 2.000 copies this box-set was distributed in.

However, if you love mind-expanding kraut and space-rock, then you will find some of the best music in that field in this box set. Even if Wilson considers IEM as something of a not too serious indulgence, his passion and talent for this type of music shines all the way through. Each individual IEM album rates four bright stars, all of them together is a supernova.