RE: Our Spice Bush Abounds - Day 84 - Daily Haiku, with mini-review of "Ready Player One"
I bought the first two Opeth albums that SW produced, Blackwater Park and Deliverance, and while I like the music, I haven't listened to them much, because a little growling goes a long way for me. I like to be able to understand what is being said.
That said, I also bought "S.U.S.A.R." by Indukti, on the strength of Mariusz Duda's collaboration in-between the first two Riverside albums, and it took me several years to really listen to it closely - at which point it remained in my car's CD player for a couple of weeks, because I loved it so much.
So Opeth's time with me will undoubtedly come.
Which goes back to my gratitude to SW for introducing me to so many great artists, because it was due to my initial unquenchable infatuation with Porcupine Tree that Marek's best friend, Michał, introduced me to Riverside, saying that they were "Poland's answer to Porcupine Tree."
And, I've loved Riverside ever since, not in a small part because Duda uses the metal growl as an accent, or a condiment, rather than as the main course. And I'm devoted to his solo project Lunatic Soul as well. Great stuff all the way around.
I have tried to get into Riverside, notably 'Second Life Syndrome' but it just didn't sink in. I am very bad at getting into new sounds though. The main track "Second Life Syndrome" did have something going for it I must admit.
I have not heard of "S.U.S.A.R." by Indukti. I listen to many of these newer 'prog' bands and mostly it just doesn't gel with me. I don't know how many I have tried from Frost to Neil Morse and many more.
Yeah, Neil Morse and Transatlantic didn't click with me either. Maciek, our friend and sound engineer, loves Transatlantic, but when I listen to them I just get the feeling I've heard it all done better before. And Morse is just too into himself for my taste, at least in the one concert video I've seen. Just my take.
Of Riverside's initial Reality Dream trilogy, the third album, "Rapid Eye Movement," is my favorite, but I love them all. But like most prog, repeated listenings draw you in, as there are so many layers, like Wilson's music, that every time you listen, you hear something new.
And all four musicians are/were at the top of their game. RIP Piotr Grudzinski. What a guitarist; he took the David Gilmour "Less is more" perspective and ran with it. He will always be missed.
My favorite of all their albums, though, is "Shrine of New Generation Slaves," and to me at least, the song "Escalator Shrine" is a modern classic, with few equals.
"Love, Fear and the Time Machine" is excellent as well, and you'll appreciate the little homage to Porcupine Tree in "Towards the Blue Horizon," which was written by Duda for a close friend of his who died in his sleep at age forty-four, but has oddly also become something of a eulogy for Grudzinski, who dropped dead of a heart attack at age forty. Sad times for Duda and the band.
I absolutely love both albums, but like anything, they may or may not resonate with you.
I love Duda's voice, and his Lisa Gerrard-like use of voice-as-instrument, at which he excels; this is even more evident on his recent Lunatic Soul album, where he demonstrates a vocal range I had no idea he possessed, damn near in Jeff Buckley territory. Pretty impressive.
And I absolutely LOVE his bass lines. He's learned a lot from Robert Fripp and King Crimson, not to mention from Wilson and Colin Edwin, and it really shows; his bass lines are typically spare, and deceptively simple, but emotive and effective.
And yes, we still miss Porcupine Tree, and hope Wilson gets the inspiration for a new PT album sooner rather than later. I love his solo work, but a new PT album, from this fan's perspective, is overdue. ;-)
Wow, thats a lot to take in in one go! Thanks for the recommendations, Ill have to take some time to check them all out.
When you say 'Bass Lines' and Colin Edwin, I just think 'Hate Song' and 'Dont Hate me'!
Yeah, I'm with you there, I love both of those bass lines, especially "Don't Hate Me." Edwin has long been one of my favorite bass players, and Marek's as well.
And he's fun to watch onstage. When I saw them at the Tampa Theatre, on "The Incident" tour, I was technically in the second row, but with no one in front of me, and Wilson and Edwin were about thirty feet from me.
Half the time, or more, he had this half-smile on his face, as if to say, "Yes, in fact, we ARE the best band in the world!" ;-)
And I appreciated Wilson taking the time during the quieter moments in the songs, to just look around the space and take it in: the Tampa Theatre is a 1920s movie palace, in the style of Old Hollywood, and it is a truly beautiful venue, with great acoustics!
'on "The Incident" tour,'
So jealous, I only discovered them in 2015, way past the split year of 2009.
I was lucky because Marek and I started dating in 2006, and he introduced me to no-man and Porcupine Tree pretty early on.
PT started their FOABP tour at House of Blues in Orlando, which was only a couple of hours from us in Largo, Florida, so that was my first concert, which was in October 2007. As soon as I found out they were coming to Florida, I bought tickets, because I wasn't going to miss them live. I had already seen their "Arriving Somewhere" DVD, and so I knew just how good they could be.
And I was a total fangirl during "The Incident" tour, when we saw them five times total in 2009 and 2010, culminating with their 3-hour plus performance at Radio City Music Hall, in NYC. My husband decided I was obsessed. ;-)
The last time we saw Wilson live was in 2011, during the Grace for Drowning tour; we've missed the last couple of tours due to timing, and the difficulty of finding someone to take care of our animals. Hopefully we'll see him next time around.
As for Marek, he saw PT in concert many times before we met, from the beginning, back when SW still had his hair all the way down his back. Good times.
It's funny how many people I've met from the UK who still have no idea that they exist.
It is more understandable with Americans, but I'm always surprised when I meet Europeans who are still unaware of Steven Wilson, which is undoubtedly a bias on my part.