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".
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.
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.
Stupid Dream is the fifth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. It was first released in March 1999, and then re-released on 15 May 2006 due to the band's rising popularity on major record label Lava Records with their releases of In Absentia in 2002 and Deadwing in 2005. The album, along with Lightbulb Sun in 2000, represented a transitional period for the band, moving away from the band's earlier work in instrumental and psychedelic music, but before they took a more metal direction in 2002 onwards. The album takes a commercially accessible pop rock sound while still retaining heavy progressive rock influences.
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".
The Sky Moves Sideways is the third studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released in January 1995.
Recordings is a compilation album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released in May 2001. It is mainly a collection of b-sides and unreleased songs from the Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun albums' recording sessions. Recordings was originally a limited release, limited to only 20,000 copies worldwide. It was later reissued on CD in September, 2010, and as double vinyl in January 2011.
Blackfield is a collaborative music project by the English musician and founder of Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson, and Israeli rock singer 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.
XM is a live-in-studio album recorded by British band Porcupine Tree in early 2003 as a live album of mostly In Absentia tracks. This was taken from a session at XM Satellite Radio in Washington, D.C., on 12 November 2002, and was originally released as a limited edition tour album. It was later released online on the Porcupine Tree store.
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".
"Way Out of Here" is a song by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, and the fifth track from their ninth studio album, Fear of a Blank Planet. It is remarkable for being the only full-band composition of the record. A promo two-track single was released by Roadrunner Records intended for radio airplay. The record consists of the album version of the song and a radio edit, the same used for the promo videoclip, it comes housed in a cardboard sleeve with unique artwork.
Moonloop is an EP released by British psychedelic rock and progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, prior to the release of their third studio album, The Sky Moves Sideways. It was released on vinyl and CD in the UK by Delerium Records.
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.
Atlanta is a download only double-live album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree recorded at the Roxy Theatre, Atlanta, United States on 29 October 2007. The show recording was initially intended for a prospective Porcupine Tree live album, but this decision was later turned down as development of the Anesthetize DVD project began. In the wake of the news regarding Mick Karn's advanced-stage cancer, the band decided to put it out as a downloadable item from the Burning Shed online store at a very cheap cost, as a .RAR file split in two parts, all in MP3 format at 320kbit/s with completely printable artwork designed by Carl Glover. The profits from the Atlanta downloads are intended to help Mick pay for his treatment. A 44.1 kHz/24-bit FLAC version was released in August 2010; profits from this version go to the Teenage Cancer Trust. Since the album's artwork and mix is set up for two CDs it is widely considered to be a double album. The album has a somewhat similar track listing to the Anesthetize DVD but includes the first official live recording of the track "A Smart Kid" and some of the songs that were performed at the shows for the Anesthetize shoot, but left out as they were already available on previous live releases.
"Don't Hurt Yourself" is the second single from Marillion's 13th studio album Marbles, released on 12 July 2004. Following the band's comeback to the upper regions of the UK Singles Chart with the previous single "You're Gone" in May, it reached number 16, becoming their second-highest charting hit since 1987's "Incommunicado". As with "You're Gone", the chart success of this single was largely based on making it available in two formats and encouraging fans to buy them simultaneously in the first week after their release. It also reached a top 40 position in the Dutch charts.
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 completely finish the record in September 2021. Towards the end of the year, the band's reformation was publicly 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".
"Stoneage Dinosaurs" is a song by English rock band Cardiacs from their EP Big Ship (1987). The song was written by frontman Tim Smith and produced by Smith alongside Graham Simmonds. Musically, the song is a melancholy track with violins, saxophones and funeral paced drums. Its lyrics reference family, contemporary celebrities and the First World War. The song received generally positive reviews from music critics, who noted its stark difference to the other tracks on the EP.
"Of the New Day" is a song by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, released on 8 March 2022 as the second single in promotion of the band's eleventh studio album Closure/Continuation. The track was released alongside a music video.
