[[post-progressive]],{{cite web|last1=Adams|first1=Sean|title=Album Commentary: The Anchoress on her complex, critically-celebrated debut album|url=http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4150137-album-commentary--the-anchoress-on-her-complex-critically-celebrated-debut-album|website=[[Drowned in Sound]]|access-date=7 November 2016|archive-date=8 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161108135959/http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4150137-album-commentary--the-anchoress-on-her-complex-critically-celebrated-debut-album|url-status=dead}} [[alternative rock]], [[art rock]], [[psychedelic rock]], [[experimental rock]]"},"country":{"wt":"England"},"location":{"wt":"[[London]]"},"url":{"wt":"{{url|http://kscopemusic.com/}}"}},"i":0}}]}" id="mwCw">Record label
Kscope | |
---|---|
Parent company | Snapper Music |
Founded | April 2008 |
Distributor(s) | Snapper Music |
Genre | Progressive rock, [1] post-progressive, [2] alternative rock, art rock, psychedelic rock, experimental rock |
Country of origin | England |
Location | London |
Official website | kscopemusic |
Kscope is an independent record label that is part of Snapper Music, and a sister-label of Peaceville. [1] It is dedicated to artists in the progressive rock genre. [3] The label has released albums by Steven Wilson and his projects Porcupine Tree (mostly re-issue only), No-Man and Blackfield. In 2008 it branched out and has since signed the post-progressive artists Anathema, Lunatic Soul and Ulver, and progressive rock stalwart Ian Anderson to their roster. [4] In 2013, the Steven Wilson release The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories) received the Album of the Year award at the Progressive Music Awards. [5]
Established in the late 1990s, the label was initially used exclusively by Wilson and Porcupine Tree. [1] In this first incarnation, Kscope was featured as an outlet for the 1999 album Stupid Dream , with Snapper Music as the distributor. It was followed by Lightbulb Sun in 2000 and a collection of left-over material Recordings . After the band signed up with Atlantic Records in 2002, the name was used for Wilson's side projects. [3] This included the albums Together We're Stranger (2003) and the re-issue of the Flowermouth (2005) by No-Man. It also released Blackfield (2004) and Blackfield II (2007)—a collaboration with Aviv Geffen . [6]
When Snapper Music acquired the earlier Porcupine Tree recordings from Delerium Records in 2006, a re-release programme was rolled out. [7] At the same time, talks began to expand the remit of the label, and Wilson suggested to "have [it] for releasing only new music. Just go after some of these [post progressive] bands and model yourselves on those old ’70s labels, like Harvest and Vertigo, [who] would allow artists to develop both musically and with a fan base over a period of albums”. [3] As a result, Snapper music remodeled Kscope to focus on post-progressive music, with Wilson actively involved with the acts that were signed.
One of the label's earliest signings was The Pineapple Thief after its frontman Bruce Soord was contacted by Wilson. [3] The first release was the Tightly Unwound album that received the catalogue number 101. Within two years Kscope built up its roster with Johnny Wilks commenting that by this stage "the label had really got going and we were working with Engineers, Gazpacho & Steven Wilson. I really felt we were establishing ourselves as a label". At the same time, Kscope continued to release Wilson-related material, including Schoolyard Ghosts by No-Man on 12 May 2008. [8] A number of re-releases included the first solo album, Things Buried, by Richard Barbieri in 2007. In 2008 the band Anathema made their debut on the label with album Hindsight , while Lunatic Soul from Poland and the Italian band Nosound were added to the roster.
The label packages their albums in elaborate digibooks, super jewel cases or digipacks with additional DVD material, [3] like the Steven Wilson solo album Insurgentes (2009), which included a documentary and a DVD-Audio option. Another prominent release was We’re Here Because We’re Here by Anathema. [8]
In 2013, the label celebrated its fifth anniversary with two concerts in London, headlined by Amplifier and Anathema. [9] In April 2014 the label released the Homo Erraticus album by Ian Anderson, which reached #14 in the UK album chart. [10]
Kscope have a monthly podcast hosted by Billy Reeves, which features new music and interviews from artists on the label.
Porcupine Tree are an English rock band formed by musician Steven Wilson in 1987. During an initial career spanning more than twenty years, they earned critical acclaim from critics and fellow musicians, developed a cult following, and became an influence for new artists. The group carved out a career at a certain distance away from mainstream music, being described by publications such as Classic Rock and PopMatters as "the most important band you'd never heard of".
Anathema were an English rock band from Liverpool. The group was formed in 1990 by Vincent and Daniel Cavanagh, bassist Jamie Cavanagh, drummer/keyboardist John Douglas, and vocalist Darren White.
Steven John Wilson is an English musician. He is the founder, guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands, including Blackfield, Storm Corrosion and No-Man. He is also a solo artist, having released seven solo albums since his solo debut Insurgentes in 2008. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Wilson has made music prolifically and earned critical acclaim. His honours include six nominations for Grammy Awards: twice with Porcupine Tree, once with his collaborative band Storm Corrosion and three times as a solo artist. In 2017, The Daily Telegraph described him as "a resolutely independent artist" and "probably the most successful British artist you've never heard of".
Richard Barbieri is an English musician, composer and sound designer. Originally a member of new wave band Japan, more recently he is known as the keyboard player in the progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, which he joined in 1993. Aside from the founder Steven Wilson, he is the longest tenured member of Porcupine Tree.
Signify is the fourth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. It was released in September 1996 and later re-released in 2003 with a second disc of demos, which had previously been released on the b-side cassette tape Insignificance, and a third time, on vinyl, on 9 May 2011. It was the first album that frontman Steven Wilson recorded with the band on board from the beginning; previous albums had been essentially solo efforts with occasional help from other musicians.
In Absentia is the seventh studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released on 24 September 2002. The album marked several changes for the band, with it being the first with new drummer Gavin Harrison and the first to move into a more progressive metal direction, contrary to past albums' psychedelic and alternative rock sounds. Additionally, it was their first release on a major record label, Lava Records. It was very well received critically and commercially, with it often being considered the band's crowning achievement, and selling three times as many copies as any of the band's earlier albums.
Lightbulb Sun is the sixth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released in May 2000, and later reissued in 2008 on CD, DVD-A surround sound, and vinyl.
Up the Downstair is the second studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released in June 1993. It was originally intended to be a double album set including the song "Voyage 34", which was instead released as a single in 1992, and other material that ended up on the Staircase Infinities EP (1994). In 2005, it was partially re-recorded, fully re-mixed, remastered and re-released along with the Staircase Infinities EP as a double album. The re-release contains a re-mix by Steven Wilson incorporating newly recorded drums by Gavin Harrison that replace the electronic drums of the original version. Another re-release on double vinyl was pressed on 14 August 2008 on Kscope records. This is identical to the 2005 release, except it is printed on coloured vinyl and the Staircase Infinities disc contains the song "Phantoms".
No-Man are an English art pop duo, formed in 1987 as No Man Is an Island (Except the Isle of Man) by singer Tim Bowness and multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson. The band has so far produced seven studio albums and a number of singles/outtakes collections (including 2006's career retrospective All the Blue Changes). The band was once lauded as "conceivably the most important English group since The Smiths" by Melody Maker music newspaper, and a 2017 article of Drowned in Sound described them as "probably the most underrated band of the last 25 years".
Snapper Music is an independent record label founded in 1996 by former head of Castle Communications Jon Beecher, Dougie Dudgeon and funded by Mark Levinson from Palan Music Publishing. In 1999, Snapper broke away from its Palan parent company in an MBO in association with ACT and CAI venture capitalists. In 2004, Snapper Music was bought out by music publisher and former agent and manager Bryan Morrison (deceased) and in 2005 Jon Beecher (MD) and Dougie Dudgeon (A&R) left the company and were replaced by Frederick Jude, a former employee of Palan Music Publishing and a Snapper director.
Tim Bowness is an English singer and songwriter primarily known for his work as part of the band No-Man, a long-term project formed in 1987 with Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson.
Theo Travis is a British saxophonist, flautist and composer. He is a member of Soft Machine which he joined in 2006 while the group was still using the "Legacy" suffix and was a member of Gong from 1999 to 2010.
Blackfield is a collaborative music project by the English musician and founder of Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson, and Israeli rock musician Aviv Geffen. Together, six albums have been released under the moniker. The first two records, Blackfield and Blackfield II, saw Geffen and Wilson working together as equal partners, while the third and fourth, Welcome to my DNA and Blackfield IV, saw Geffen take on a leading role, writing all but one track across both albums and providing a significantly increased share of lead vocals. Despite initially announcing his intention to leave the project in 2014, Wilson instead worked again as an equal partner on a fifth album, Blackfield V, which was released on 10 February 2017. A sixth record, For the Music, was released on 4 December 2020, with Geffen again taking a leading role.
Together We're Stranger is No-Man's fifth studio album released by the Snapper Music label in 2003.
Lasse Hoile is a Danish artist, photographer and filmmaker. He has collaborated with musician Steven Wilson and his projects Porcupine Tree and Blackfield. He has also designed live visuals for US progressive metal band Dream Theater. In the mid-1990s he was the vocalist for Danish death metal band Panzerchrist.
Michael Bearpark is an English scientist and musician.
Welcome to My DNA is the third studio album by Blackfield, a musical collaboration between Steven Wilson and Aviv Geffen. It was released in Europe on 28 March 2011, and released in the US on 19 April 2011, as a digi-book CD and heavyweight vinyl limited to 2000 individually numbered copies.
The Pineapple Thief are an English progressive rock band founded in 1999 by Bruce Soord in Yeovil, Somerset. As of June 2024, the group consists of Soord on vocals, guitars, and keyboards, Jon Sykes on bass, Steve Kitch on keyboards, and Gavin Harrison on drums. They have released 16 studio albums, 6 EPs, and several live and compilation albums.
Blackfield IV is the fourth studio album by Blackfield, the musical collaboration by Aviv Geffen and Steven Wilson. Similar to their third album, Welcome to My DNA, Geffen has taken over more active duties on the album while Wilson focuses on his solo career. The album was released on 26 August 2013.
Closure/Continuation is the eleventh studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. It is their first since 2009's The Incident. Despite public uncertainty of the band's future after frontman Steven Wilson's focus on a solo career in 2010, the album was recorded intermittently in complete secrecy among Wilson, Gavin Harrison, and Richard Barbieri across the course of the following decade, without longtime bassist Colin Edwin. With the COVID-19 pandemic putting members' separate plans on hold, the band found time to finish the record in September 2021. Towards the end of the year, the band's reformation was announced, alongside the album's release date of 24 June 2022. Four singles were released ahead of the record—"Harridan", "Of the New Day", "Herd Culling", and "Rats Return".