The Incident

Brilliant
Just to clarify, I am a big fan of PT, something about them really speaks to me. Hence, I might be a bit biased. In a day and age of everything disposable, it is refreshing to have music like this. It is music for the sake of the song and artists vision, not a fashion statement, not a declaration of hipness, not a follow of trend. They are all great individual players, they write great songs, and the production is top notch. A band as a band creating personally expressive art, we don't have enough of this in any genre. 3 listens through and I am totally convinced this is a masterpiece. Not for everyone, but what is?............ If you like PT, you will love this.

Cinematic! Musical Masterpiece not to be Missed!!
As far as I am concerned as a long time listener of anything music, regardless of genres and source, there is no bigger name in music than Steven Wilson. And I mean it with no hesitation or reservations. The sooner you realize this, the better off you are as a listener and would be rewarded with the most wonderful, original and most refreshing music that is out of this planet! The Incident is nothing short of that. The concept album is a surreal journey of series of events that change your life forever. I loved the album beginning to end and I was like at the edge of my seat while listening to this gem! It is like a great movie with alive vivid visuals directed and produced by yourself in your mind while you are listening it! Don't let this awesome work of art pass you by. Because if you do, then sooner or later you would regret that you did not discover this earlier enough! Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, No-man, I.E.M., Steven Wilson's Solo projects all are masterpieces. However, they all require one thing, you to be a patient and attentive listener! If you are then, look no further, get ready for the sweetest ride of your life! Don't miss it...................!

steve wilson is my hero
when i discovered this band years ago it was partially due to searching out whatever happened to the other members of 'japan'. being a bass player i naturally knew what mick karn was up to, as well as david sylvian... i heard richard barbieri was in a group called 'porcupine tree' and decided to see what the music was like. it was not love at first listen, but once it hooked me i became a fan of steven wilson. i now buy pretty much anything his name is on and have relly enjoyed most of it, even growing to like opeth quite a bit. i really appreciate his producing skill as well as his tendency to release 24 bit audiophile copies of his albums, which sound gorgeous coming out of my tube-driven sennheisers... pt's albums have had the rare ability for me to improve with each listen, and also to improve upon the prior album... since most bands' first album is 'the good one' and all others get wistfully compared to it,( think appetite for destruction) i think it's amazing to hear a group who constantly grow and improve. porcupine tree have become my favorite band of all time... this album came early in the mail last week. i bought the big box set and am thrilled with it... but i do have to say it isn't quite following in the tradition of 'even better than the last one' for me. it is really great, but the fun part for me is to discover all the tricky time signature things they do and make sound so easy, like in the middle of the song 'deadwing' where the band and the drummer are playing in different time, or the song 'fear of a blank planet' that always amazed me how the lyrics fit the odd metered music. i was particularly impressed with that... this album is really beautiful music, but it's pretty straightforward to me, and there are some moments where i want to skip over to get to the next song. 'blind house' 'drawing the line' 'the incident' and the awesome 'time flies' are highlights in an album i would compare with earlier works like stupid dream and lightbulb sun, both some of my favorite albums ever... but 'in absentia' 'deadwing' and 'foab' are just a bit above for me. these albums are in a place of their own... as usual, gavin shines, richard creates lush dreamspace, colin plays bulletproof bass and steve wilson remains my musical hero.

Magnum Opus
For a band that never settles into an easy formula, Porcupine Tree still manages to impress with The Incident, an all-encompassing musical adventure and concept album. It surfaced early on that the follow-up to PT's very successful previous album, Fear of a Blank Planet would be another concept album and pretty much one long piece of music clocking in at 55 minutes. Steven Wilson, who has a writer's itch for long form, was rightfully satisfied with the quality of Anesthesize, the brilliant highlight of Blank Planet. In progressive rock, the form is not new, dating back at least to the grand daddy of them all, Genesis' Supper's Ready from 1972 and IQ,the Flower Kings or Transatlantic have certainly explored it thoroughly. But Porcupine Tree now gives it its own treatment, with spectacular results. Before going further into The Incident, the "song", it should be noted that The Incident is actually two CDs, the main one and a second one made from four side tracks. It is an interesting choice: Fear of a Blank Planet had itself generated a companion album, Nil Recurring, an EP belonging to the same creative cycle and bringing several variations and echos of the main project's themes. And so it is with The Incident's second CD, although we don't have to wait a year or so for its release. The material is clearly less impressive than the main cycle but is pretty good nonetheless. As for The Incident, it is primarily a high concept collection of songs exploring our reactions to tragedies and hardships, particularly in the context of modern media overload. This is why it is called the "incident", an all-purpose euphemism that is likely to cover unspeakable sorrow for the real actors but allows us, the public, to retain a certain distance, to avoid being reeled into the suffering and drowning in empathetic reaction. Wilson calls this the "Princess Diana effect", the fact that a tragedy affecting a person that cannot possibly have any interaction with most of us is able to trigger an overwhelming emotional response through the prism of media coverage. Meanwhile, Wilson has argued in interviews, we protect ourselves from having to react over and over to tragedies that affect us more directly. Thus The Incident, an exploration of human nature based on "incidents" from Wilson's own experience, probably making it Porcupine Tree's most autobiographical work to date... Light stuff. It should be said that The Incident is not really one piece of music. It is made of 14 parts, most of which able to stand alone on their own. Furthermore, the transitions between the songs are sometimes almost seamless but not always so. Musically, PT is all over the map, which should not be a problem for afficionados used to Wilson's musical explorations. Historically, PT has often shown a great reverence for Pink Floyd's influence but has also dabbled in the musical territories of Dream Theater, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp or Nine Inch Nails among others. Most influences can be found here, including four instrumental sections. A few songs take some getting used to (still working on "Drawing The Line " for example...) but there is no filler and the whole cycle is fascinating. The inescapable centerpiece of The Incident, a masterpiece in its own right and enough of a reason to buy the whole album, is the almost 12 mn long "Time Flies". Lyrically, it is the most autobiographical of all the songs in a pretty personal set: "I was born in '67 The year of "Sgt. Pepper" And "Are You Experienced" Into a suburb or heaven Yet it shoulda been forever It all seemed to make so much sense But after a while you realize time flies..." Musically, the song is a glorious pastiche of Pink Floyd circa Animals, a fusion of Dogs and Sheep from this album with perhaps a touch of "Stars Die" from Porcupine Tree's own 1995's Sky Moves Sideways. The homage is not purely musical. The lyrics themselves channel Roger Waters' irony and gloom, even though Wilson's voice does not quite have the same bite, and allude directly to other Floyd songs as in: You see there's something wrong here I'm sorry if I'm not clear Can you stop smoking your cigar? The Incident is not for everyone. It takes work to absorb, its subject matter is clearly not "fun". But PT's fans will be awed and and any listener eager for intelligent, grown-up pop both musically and lyrically, will find little fault with it.