Porcupine Tree discography | |
---|---|
Studio albums | 11 |
Live albums | 13 |
Compilation albums | 6 |
Video albums | 2 |
EPs | 7 |
Singles | 11 |
Demo tapes | 3 |
Promotional | 9 |
Music videos | 11 |
Box sets | 1 |
The following is a listing of officially released works by the English band Porcupine Tree. The band has released eleven major studio albums and 7 EPs, as well as many limited editions and revamped material.
At the time Steven Wilson was going to sign to the Delerium label, he owned a lot of material recorded during the mid- and later '80s that he had recorded subsequently on three demo tapes - Tarquin's Seaweed Farm , Love, Death & Mussolini and The Nostalgia Factory . He sent copies of those tapes to people he felt would be interested in the recordings, asking them to spread the word. Delerium originally intended to release all of that material in a double debut album, but Wilson decided to just pick the songs he considered the best ones. These songs were mastered to make Porcupine Tree's first studio album, On the Sunday of Life... (1992); all of the leftover tracks would be later released on a compilation album called Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape (1994).
Richard Barbieri and Colin Edwin met Steven Wilson to play on a few songs he was working on. Again, there was a number of songs written that would perfectly fit on a double album, but one of these songs saw the light prior to the release of their second studio album on the Voyage 34 (1992) single, thereafter followed by Voyage 34: Remixes (1993), and the other material ended up on the Staircase Infinities (1994) EP. Finally, ten tracks were chosen for their next studio album, Up the Downstair (1993), which Melody Maker described as "a psychedelic masterpiece". [1] At the end of 1993, Chris Maitland joined the band for live shows and would later record some drums and percussions for three songs of Porcupine Tree's third studio album, The Sky Moves Sideways (1995), an album that made the press refer them as the "Pink Floyd of the nineties". They did not record as a full band until Signify (1996), the first Porcupine Tree album to be performed entirely by the four members. It contained shorter compositions and less improvisation than its predecessors.
The next album was delayed for almost three years as the band was looking for a new record label after finishing their deal with Delerium. In the meantime, they launched Metanoia (1998), a compilation of improvisations recorded during the Signify sessions, some of which were later shaped into songs. Finally, they signed to Snapper/K-Scope and the album Stupid Dream (1999) was issued. The album was a departure in style from all their previous works, in favour of a more song-oriented direction, as a consequence this alienated some older fans but brought a lot of new ones. Its follow-up, Lightbulb Sun (2000), assured the fan base and solidified the ground of its predecessor. For this one, they worked with Dave Gregory of XTC, who provided string arrangements. A collection of EP tracks and out-takes from the previous two albums was launched a year after under the title of Recordings (2001).
In Absentia (2002) became one of their most successful works, remaining a favourite to many fans, charting in many European countries and selling over 100,000 copies in its first year of release. [2] The album was the first release to feature Gavin Harrison, replacing Maitland on drums. Deadwing (2005) appeared the Billboard chart at number 132 of the Billboard 200 [3] (which was the first entry the band achieved on the Billboard chart) and was voted the second-best album of 2005 in Sound & Vision , the most widely distributed US magazine in the field of home electronics and entertainment. [4]
Porcupine Tree's next studio album, Fear of a Blank Planet (2007), debuted at number 59 on the Billboard 200, [5] won the Album of the Year award for the 2007 edition of the Classic Rock magazine awards, [6] and was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Surround Sound Album category. [7] The album features collaborations with Rush's guitarist Alex Lifeson and King Crimson's Robert Fripp. The title is a play on words relating to Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet album.
On 2007 they collaborated with Yoko Ono on the song "Death of Samantha", in Ono's remix album Yes, I'm a Witch .
In September 2007, they released Nil Recurring , an EP of four leftover tracks from the recording sessions for Fear of a Blank Planet. It was released on Transmission, the band's own record label as a limited edition of 5000 copies that did not take long to sell out through the band's online store, Burning Shed, forcing the band to keep printing more copies. Nevertheless, the EP was reissued on 18 February 2008 on Peaceville Records. [8]
An in-store appearance at Park Avenue CDs in Orlando, Florida from 4 October 2007, was recorded and released on CD under the name of We Lost the Skyline . [9] The title is a reference to the lyrics on "The Sky Moves Sideways (Phase One)". The album was released on vinyl on 21 March 2008 [10] and is the first official acoustic live record to be officially released by the band.
A live album from the Fear of a Blank Planet tour, Ilosaarirock , was released in March 2009. It was recorded from their performance at the Ilosaarirock Festival on 14 July 2007. However, this album was only released to members of the Residents of a Blank Planet ticketing club.
On 15 September 2009, the band's tenth studio album was released, titled The Incident , the title track being one solid 55-minute epic. It quickly became the best selling Porcupine Tree album in the world charts to date.
Another live album from the Fear of a Blank Planet tour, Atlanta , was released in June 2010 in order to help raise funds for Mick Karn's treatment for cancer. [11]
The band went on indefinite hiatus in 2010, after which the members focused on their solo work and other projects. In November 2021, Wilson, Barbieri and Harrison announced the reunion of the band, now as a trio with Edwin not returning as a bassist. The eleventh studio album Closure/Continuation , which is the band's first studio album in 13 years, was released on 24 June 2022. [12]
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Sales | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK [13] | AUS [14] | FIN [15] | FRA [16] | GER [17] | NLD [18] | NOR [19] | SWE [20] | SWI [21] | US [22] | ||||
On the Sunday of Life... | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
Up the Downstair |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
The Sky Moves Sideways |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
Signify |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
Stupid Dream |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
Lightbulb Sun |
| 161 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
In Absentia | — | — | — | 143 | 58 | — | — | — | — | — | |||
Deadwing |
| 97 | — | 47 | 100 | 52 | 56 | — | 26 | — | 132 | ||
Fear of a Blank Planet |
| 31 | 66 | 16 | 70 | 20 | 13 | 34 | 38 | 41 | 59 |
| |
The Incident |
| 23 | 35 | 11 | 35 | 17 | 5 | 19 | 23 | 20 | 25 | ||
Closure/Continuation |
| 2 | 13 | 2 | 24 | 1 | 1 | 25 | 13 | 1 | 90 | ||
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Sales | Notes | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK [13] | GER [17] | NLD [18] | SWI [21] | ||||||||||
Spiral Circus |
| — | — | — | — | Recorded from the mixing desk during three shows in England in December 1993. | |||||||
Coma Divine |
| — | — | — | — | Recorded during the second and third show at Frontera Club in Rome in March 1997. | |||||||
XM |
| — | — | — | — | Radio session recorded at XM Satellite Radio in Washington D.C. in November 2002. | |||||||
Warszawa |
| — | — | — | — | Live radio broadcast recorded for Polskie Radio Program III in Warsaw in April 2001. | |||||||
XMII |
| — | — | — | — | Radio session recorded at XM Satellite Radio in Washington D.C. in July 2003. | |||||||
Rockpalast |
| — | — | — | — | Live performance recorded for a TV broadcast Rockpalast at Live Music Hall in Cologne, Germany in November 2005. | |||||||
Arriving Somewhere... |
| — | — | — | — | Recorded during two shows at Park West in Chicago in October 2005. | |||||||
We Lost the Skyline |
| — | — | — | — | Recorded during an in-store performance at Park Avenue CDs in Orlando, Florida in October 2007. | |||||||
Ilosaarirock |
| — | — | — | — | Complete performance recorded at Ilosaarirock festival in Finland in July 2007. | |||||||
Anesthetize |
| — | — | — | — | Recorded during two concerts at 013 in Tilburg, Netherlands in October 2008. | |||||||
Atlanta |
| — | — | — | — | Complete show recorded at Roxy Theatre, Atlanta in October 2007. The profits of this recording funded the treatment of Mick Karn. | |||||||
Octane Twisted |
| 70 | 77 | 68 | 86 |
| Live album recorded at Riviera Theater in Chicago in April 2010 and at Royal Albert Hall in London in October 2010. | ||||||
Acoustic Radio Session 2009 |
| — | — | — | — | Three-track acoustic session performance in December 2009 by Steven Wilson and John Wesley. Broadcast details are unknown. | |||||||
Köln 4th Dec 2007 |
| — | — | — | — | Live performance recorded for a TV broadcast at Palladium in Cologne, Germany. | |||||||
First Live Performance 4th Dec 1993 |
| — | — | — | — | First ever live performance of Porcupine Tree at The Nag's Head in High Wycombe, recorded from a mixing desk. | |||||||
BBC Session 13th April 2007 |
| — | — | — | — | Radio session recorded at Maida Vale Studios in London during promotion for Fear of a Blank Planet. | |||||||
Los Angeles 30th July 2003 |
| — | — | — | — | Live performance recorded at House of Blues in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The transparent blue double vinyl edition, limited to 4,000 copies, was released on 30 July 2021 under the title House of Blues – Los Angeles 2003. | |||||||
Coma:Coda |
| — | — | — | — | Complete second show recorded during the creation of the 1997 live album Coma Divine at Frontiera Club in Rome. The opaque red double vinyl edition, limited to 4,000 copies, was released on 19 August 2022. | |||||||
Salford |
| — | — | — | — | Recorded during the first date of the first Porcupine Tree tour of four UK shows in November 1994. | |||||||
IndigO2 |
| — | — | — | — | Complete show recorded at IndigO2 in London in October 2008 during the Fear of the Blank Planet tour. | |||||||
Athens |
| — | — | — | — | Complete live performance at Rodon in Athens in December 1995, recorded from a mixing desk. | |||||||
Closure/Continuation.Live |
| 36 | — | 55 | — | Complete live performance at Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, Netherlands in November 2022 during the Closure/Continuation tour. [41] | |||||||
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
Title | Album details |
---|---|
Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape [a] |
|
Insignificance |
|
Metanoia |
|
Voyage 34: The Complete Trip |
|
Recordings |
|
Stars Die: The Delerium Years 1991–1997 |
|
Title | Set details |
---|---|
Delerium Years / 1991-1997 |
|
Title | EP details | Peak chart positions | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
FIN [15] | FRA [16] | GER [17] | ||
Moonloop |
| — | — | — |
Staircase Infinities |
| — | — | — |
Coma Divine II |
| — | — | — |
Transmission IV |
| — | — | — |
Futile |
| — | — | — |
Nil Recurring |
| 5 | 114 | 100 |
Pure Narcotic |
| — | — | — |
IA/DW/XT |
| — | — | — |
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
Title | Demo details |
---|---|
Tarquin's Seaweed Farm [b] |
|
Love, Death & Mussolini [c] |
|
The Nostalgia Factory [d] |
|
Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK [42] | UK Indie | GER [43] | US Rock [44] | |||
"Voyage 34" | 1992 | — | — | — | — | Non-album singles |
"Voyage 34: Remixes" | 1993 | — | — | — | — | |
"Stars Die" | 1995 | — | — | — | — | The Sky Moves Sideways |
"Waiting" | 1996 | — | — | — | — | Signify |
"Piano Lessons" | 1999 | 164 | 34 | — | — | Stupid Dream |
"Stranger by the Minute" | 138 | 13 | — | — | ||
"Pure Narcotic" | 175 | 46 | — | — | ||
"Four Chords That Made a Million" | 2000 | 84 | 16 | — | — | Lightbulb Sun |
"Shesmovedon" | 85 | 24 | — | — | ||
"Shallow" [upper-alpha 1] | 2005 | — | — | — | 26 | Deadwing |
"Lazarus" | — | — | 91 | — | ||
"Harridan" | 2021 | — | — | — | — | Closure/Continuation |
"Of the New Day" | 2022 | — | — | — | — | |
"Herd Culling" | — | — | — | — | ||
"Rats Return" | — | — | — | — | ||
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
Notes:
Title | Year | Album |
---|---|---|
"The Rest Will Flow" [45] | 2000 | Lightbulb Sun |
"Blackest Eyes" [46] | 2003 | In Absentia |
"Trains" [47] | ||
"The Sound of Muzak" [48] | ||
"So Called Friend"/"Half Light" [49] | 2006 | Deadwing |
"Fear of a Blank Planet" | 2007 | Fear of a Blank Planet |
"Way Out of Here" | ||
"Normal" [50] | Nil Recurring | |
"Time Flies" | 2009 | The Incident |
"Bonnie the Cat" [51] | 2010 | |
Title | Video details | Peak chart positions | Sales | Certifications | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FIN [52] | SWE [53] | NLD [54] | |||||||
Arriving Somewhere... [e] |
| 4 | 8 | 19 | |||||
Anesthetize [f] |
| 1 | 16 | — |
|
| |||
Closure/Continuation.Live [g] [41] |
| — | — | — | |||||
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
Year | Title | Directed | Album |
---|---|---|---|
1999 | "Piano Lessons" | Mike Bennion | Stupid Dream |
2002 | "Strip the Soul" | In Absentia | |
"Wedding Nails" | Lasse Hoile | ||
2003 | "Blackest Eyes" | ||
2005 | "Lazarus" | Deadwing | |
2007 | "Fear of a Blank Planet" | Fear of a Blank Planet | |
"Way Out of Here" | |||
2008 | "Normal" [57] | Nil Recurring | |
2009 | "Time Flies" | The Incident | |
2010 | "Bonnie the Cat" | Przemyslaw Vshebor [58] | |
2022 | "Rats Return" | Ricky Allen [59] | Closure/Continuation |
"Herd Culling" | Miles Skarin | ||
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".
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.
Deadwing is the eighth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, released in Japan on 24 March 2005, in Europe on 28 March, and in the US on 26 April. It quickly became the band's best selling album, although it was later surpassed by Fear of a Blank Planet. The album is based on a screenplay written by Steven Wilson and Mike Bennion, and is a ghost story. Wilson has stated that the songs "Deadwing", "Lazarus", "Arriving Somewhere but Not Here", "Open Car", and "Mellotron Scratch" were originally intended for the film soundtrack, but when the project failed to find funding they were instead recorded for the next Porcupine Tree album. The album versions of "Lazarus" and "Open Car" essentially remain Wilson solo tracks onto which Gavin Harrison overdubbed drums.
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.
Belphegor is an Austrian blackened death metal band from Salzburg. They originally formed in 1991 under the name Betrayer before changing their name in 1993, deriving their current name from the demon of the same name.
Colin Edwin Balch is an Australian musician, specialising in fretted and fretless bass guitar, double bass and guimbri.
Arriving Somewhere... is the first live performance DVD by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. Disc one is a full show from the Deadwing tour filmed by "Studio M" with nine High Def cameras at Park West, Chicago on 11 and 12 October 2005, edited by Lasse Hoile, with the soundtrack mixed in stereo and 5.1 surround sound by Steven Wilson, and mastered by Darcy Proper. Disc two includes live performances on the German television show Rockpalast, a promotional video for "Lazarus", the live films used as the backdrop for three songs, Gavin Harrison's "Cymbal Song", and a photo gallery with over 100 images. The soundtrack to the DVD is available in FLAC and MP3 formats from the band's download store since April 2007. This audio edition is in the top 10 of the "Top Albums of 2007" chart of Rate Your Music website. The DVD was re-released under Kscope record label on 21 April 2008 the same day of the regular release for the DVD-A edition of Lightbulb Sun. In March 2018, Blu-ray and 2CD set was released.
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.
Fear of a Blank Planet is the ninth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree and their best selling before 2009's The Incident. It was released on 16 April 2007 in the UK and the rest of Europe by Roadrunner, 24 April 2007 in the United States by Atlantic, 25 April 2007 in Japan by WHD, and 1 May 2007 in Canada by WEA. Steven Wilson has mentioned that the album's title is a direct reference to the 1990 Public Enemy album Fear of a Black Planet; while the former tackled race issues, the latter is about the fear of losing the current generation of youth to various common threats to their mental and social wellbeing, including broken homes, excessive "screen time", and narcotic overuse to the point of mental and spiritual "blankness".
"Shesmovedon" is a single by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, released in July 2000, from the Lightbulb Sun album. It came in three forms: a regular CD, a limited-version CD and a 7" vinyl. The single reached #4 in the NME independent chart in its first week of release.
"Fear of a Blank Planet" is a Porcupine Tree song released in 2007. It appears as the first track on the album of the same name.
Nil Recurring is an EP by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, released on 17 September 2007 through the band's online store. The standard version of the mini-album is composed of four tracks written during the Fear of a Blank Planet recording sessions and was completed over the summer of 2007. The EP's title, which stems from the opening instrumental track on the EP, was actually derived from an unreleased demo written during the Fear of a Blank Planet recording sessions, called "Always Recurring". Although the band never formally released the song, lyrical and melodic elements of the track were reused in the closing piece of the EP, "What Happens Now?".
We Lost the Skyline is a live recording by Porcupine Tree, recorded during an in-store performance at Park Avenue CDs in Orlando, Florida on 4 October 2007, with 200 fans in attendance. Although it was originally planned that the full band would play, lack of space dictated that only the two guitarists/singers Steven Wilson and John Wesley did. This one-off performance was captured by a remote recording facility and the complete 8 song, 33 minute show is now being released in a mail order only CD, but the band are currently negotiating a low-key release for the CD through a number of independent stores in the USA that have supported Porcupine Tree over the last few years. However, the CD was released in Poland in small quantity.
"Shallow" is a song by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, released in 2005 as the first single from the Deadwing album.
Insurgentes is the debut full-length solo album released by British musician and record producer Steven Wilson, known for being the founder and frontman of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. The album was recorded all over the world in studios from Mexico City to Japan and Israel, between January and August 2008, and released in November 2008 as a special deluxe multi disc mail order version, with retail release to follow in February 2009. According to Wilson himself, the album contained "the most experimental song-based music [he had] made." The album is named after the Avenida de los Insurgentes, the longest avenue in Mexico City near which part of it was recorded.
The Incident is the tenth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. It was released as a double album on 14 September 2009 by Roadrunner Records. The record was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album and reached the Top 25 on both the US and UK album charts. It was the final release to feature Colin Edwin on bass as well as the last one from the band before an extended hiatus that lasted until 2021.
Anesthetize is the second live concert film by progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, released on 20 May 2010. The Blu-ray edition was released on 15 June. It is filmed in high definition and taken from two concerts given by Porcupine Tree at Tilburg, Netherlands on 15 and 16 October, at the end of the Fear of a Blank Planet tour in 2008. The film is directed and edited by Lasse Hoile and the audio track is mixed in stereo and 5.1 Surround by Steven Wilson.
Butcher Babies is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, consisting of frontwoman Heidi Shepherd, guitarist Henry Flury (Amen), bassist Ricky Bonazza, and drummer Devin Nickles. Their debut album, Goliath, was released on July 9, 2013, via Century Media Records. It sold 3,300 copies in the US during its first week of release and charted at No. 3 on the Billboard Heatseeker chart and No. 112 on the Billboard 200.