Steven Wilson – Porcupine Tree – The Harmony Codex – Solo Album Release
Written by Staff on September 1, 2023
On Friday, September 29th at 12:01 am, the world is supposed to end, according to Harold Fiske, a mild-mannered CPA just outside of Omaha. But if he’s wrong, we will have the unique pleasure in partaking of the seventh solo album from Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree, “The Harmony Codex.” And since it’s the seventh, we all know there’s a bit of extra mojo in it.
Wilson declared this album a labor of love from its inception, writing, performing and producing almost the entire thing himself, but calling in some pretty fantastic musical mercenaries for the assist, such as Ninet Tayeb, Craig Blundell, and Adam Holzman, and giving shots to Jack Dangers of “Meat Beat Manifesto” and Sam Fogarino of “Interpol”.
When asked by our friends at Brooklyn Vegan about the album, Wilson beamed with pride, saying, “a real trip, a beautiful and experimental 65-minute labyrinth of a record, with almost every one of its 10 tracks taking a different musical approach.”
Your introduction to this newly minted treasure will be its first single, “Economies of Scale,” with a wonderful piano overlay contrasting against the steady mechanism of drum machines. It is accompanied by a modern-dance performance put together by Charlie Di Placido, who’s done videos for other Wilson tracks, such as “Everything But the Girl.”
Never heard of Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree? Not surprising, but then again, isn’t that why you’re here? Porcupine Tree is an English rock band that’s been around for twenty years. They have a cult following and have been doing their thing and influencing the music community from behind the scenes. They kept away from the mainstream, from mainstream music, and publications such as Classic Rock and PopMatters called them “the most important band you’d never heard of”.
Here are the song names, for your perusal.
THE HARMONY CODEX:
Inclination
What Life Brings
Economies of Scale
Impossible Tightrope
Rock Bottom
Beautiful Scarecrow
The Harmony Codex
Time Is Running Out
Actual Brutal Facts
Staircase
So go out, get “The Harmony Codex,” assuming, of course, that Harold Fiske is in err in his apocalyptic predictions. And get a taste here.
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