THE INCIDENT

I think, the beauty of enjoying progrock music is the total experience on listening the music not in song-by-song basis but the whole album as one experience. Doing so, at the end we can only say the entire album instead of which songs are the major hits of the album. This kind of prog attitude helps me enrich my total understanding how to see things entirely not on piecemeal basis. Yes, in the past it did not happen that way because I knew rock and prog music based on the song instead of album. Say "The Musical Box" of Genesis, I was not aware (and I did not really care) what album this song was. So was the case with "Roundabout" I did not quite care about the song being part of Fragile album. In some cases, I was forced to THINK in an album-way like when I knew Tull's Thick As A Brick or Yes' Tales From Topographic Ocean. But still, the thinking was more on "songs" instead of "album" in its entirety. For example I liked The Revealing Science of God, so I kept playing the song only and not trying to play next track or I rarely did that. In the case of Genesis "Foxtrot" I tended to play Horizon - Supper's Ready - Can Utility and The Coastliners. Why? By that time we were not used to think album but think on the basis of song.

Lately we knew what was so called as 'concept' album that forced us to think about overall storyline, for example the Rael story in The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. In a way, our love on prog music has educated us (especially myself) to think holistically. It does matter to me as this, in a way, relates to my professional life as Strategy Consultant. The way I learn enjoying prog music has helped crafting my competence to be a good consultant...and well yeah ...talking about business strategy, we have to think in a holistic way, not piecemeal ....seeing the BIG PICTURE. Thanks to prog music! You rule the world, really!

Well sorry for the long introduction that you might have thought that it has NOTHING to do with Porcupine Tree's "Incident" album review. You are wrong. This album reminds me back to reflect on what good progressive music is all about - helping people to create better life, better world. We are given by God a major responsibility to take care the world around us. Enjoying progmusic helps us create the nuance to think in a big picture and shaping our motivation to take ownership of that responsibility. That's the way I think. Prog has helped me a lot in shaping my life, including this excellent album by Porcupine Tree.

I have been a long time fan of PT since I got the live set Comma Divine that blew my mind the first time I heard their music especially through their groundbreaking "Waiting" performed wonderfully by the band. Since then I kept buying their albums and EPs. Not all of them are excellent but most of them are good and excellent.

I got this CD just recently from a friend of mine, Nico, who has just visited the US for his business trip. He asked me what thing he should buy for me and I asked this one. Finally I got it. Thanks, Nico! I am so excited listening to this album from first track to the end. I did not really care the song titles as the music plays seamlessly from one track to another with a very good ambient that makes me enjoy the listening journey from start to the end of CD 2. Looking at the duration, actually this album fits into one CD. But, I have observed that CDs with album duration greater than 65 minutes usually will experience technical glitches couple of months later because, probably, too much information is stored in one optical CD. I think the albums from The Flower Kings have duration of more than 65 minutes in one CD. It usually starts with some problems later. It's better this album by PT stored in two CDs.

The music of this album flows very nicely with some variations of ambient style, stunning guitar solo, powerful riffs and nice vocal line. I find the drumwork as well as bassguitar are very good. Keyboard is of course an important part of the album. Porcupine Tree is masterful in creating soundscape. During the course of the album you will find how the soundscape master, Steve Wilson, takes his role in creating great total experience to the listeners. You can enjoy the subtleties when you play it with decent sound system set. As I enjoy the music, sometimes I looked at the track title which was written as "The Incident" (6th track) and later on I found again in "Time Flies" (9th track). Why? Because in those two tracks I found something progressively different than what I experience with other tracks. But again, the good thing is that I enjoy the music its entirety. What I am happy is that the music of Porcupine Tree takes largely the Pink Floyd style but improve it in so many ways, like inserting great and powerful riffs, vocal harmony and excellent sound production. Even though Disc 2 is basically additional songs that are not part of overall storyline, bt they still sound like parts of the whole album.

Overall, I highly recommend this album to all prog freaks as the music is really excellent and very easy to digest. It might be this is the kind of new generation prog music. The fans of Porcupine Tree MUST have this CD and the fans of Pink Floyd, you should try it and I am sure you will happy that the souk of Pink Floyd music is still alive until now and possibly in the future. By the time I am finalizing this write-up, I am at the middle part of "Time Flies" where it has a well crafted interlude with stunning guitar solo. Oh man ....it's really great interlude and it's so rocking! (look at the drum beats, it's sooooooo different!). Keep on proggin' ...!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

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