THE RETURN OF THE PORCUPINE THREE
It’s often said that all good things come to those who wait, but surely nobody was expecting a new Porcupine Tree album. When the UK prog crew released a brand-new song, Harridan, last November (their first new music in well over a decade), prog-friendly corners of internet came close to having a shared emotional meltdown. Long before progressive music had any kind of critical or cultural recovery, Steven Wilson’s band were slaving away in the pursuit of a more interesting, creative and forward-thinking approach to artful rock. From the beginnings as a cod-psychedelic DIY project that only really existed in Wilson’s bedroom, to the esoteric, prog-embracing experiments of Voyage 34 and The Sky Moves Sideways, and on to the holistic modern prog magnificence of certified classic albums such as In Absentia, Porcupine Tree have always been essential listening for fans of non-boring music. Unfortunately, despite enjoying a steady upward ascent, they ground to a rather fractious and unsatisfying halt at the end of touring for their 10th studio album, The Incident. Subsequently, there’s been virtually no indication that there’d be any more Porcupine Tree music ever again, and certainly not that there was, in fact, a new album being slowly but surely pieced together.
But here we are. It’s 2022 and there is a new Porcupine Tree album (the stunning Closure/Continuation) with an arena tour to follow. As Prog speaks with Steven Wilson, Richard Barbieri and Gavin Harrison via the power of Zoom, the urge to bellow, “Well, you kept that quiet!” is overwhelming. Welcome back, you sneaky bastards.
“I think the biggest surprise to people will be that we never really stopped!” says Wilson.
“Some of the music on this record dates back as far as 2012. There’s one line in the song Harridan – and I forget exactly which line it is – but the first four words were recorded in 2012, and the last three words were recorded in 2021! [Laughs] I remember sending it to Richard and Gavin, saying, ‘Can you hear the join? Can you hear the difference in my voice?’ Because I absolutely can hear the way my voice changed during that nine-year period. Luckily, they both said, ‘Nah, can’t hear it…’ So that gives you an idea of the absurdity of the length of time we’ve been working on this record. There’s a line in that song that literally spans 10 years.”
“There is part of me that is a little disappointed in myself for doing this, because it’s the closest I’ve come to giving fans what they want, for many years!”
Steven Wilson
We can all be forgiven for spitting out our morning coffee when the news of Porcupine Tree’s return to active service broke. In truth, the biggest reason why most Porcupine Tree fans firmly believed that the band were done and dusted is that things seemed to end particularly badly. Their last gig, at the Royal Albert Hall in December 2010, was well received and certainly seemed to be a significant moment, at least in terms of prog’s surging popularity. Behind the scenes, however, Porcupine Tree were collectively fried from being on the road for many months, and not getting along with each other at all.
“I thought Fear Of A Blank Planet was one of the best things we’d ever done. Then The Incident came out, and it was good,
