Steven Wilson n00bvivor Results: The hiss of the train at the railway head
- Thread starter Mosh
- Start date
What's with the vendetta against this survivor?
Deus_Adrian
Prince of the Final Frontier
Which is why we need to zip through this round.
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
Nostalgia
Footprints
Silence
Footprints
Silence
Lampwick 43
Barstool Warrior
Same. Swallows would have gotten my fourth vote if it were allowed.
The top 3 tracks of this album have become very clear to me: Radioactive Toy, Nine Cats, and Rain, in that order.
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
Swallows.
Deus_Adrian
Prince of the Final Frontier
Can we move on now? Up the Downstair is a dramatic improvement. Side 1 alone will knock these tracks out of the water.
Eliminated
And the Swallows
Promoted
Radioactive Toys
Nine Cats
It Will Rain
We now move on to the second album: Up The Downstairs.
Shortly after the release of On The Sunday Of Life, SW decided he wanted to release the longest single ever commercially released. The result was the psychedelic Voyage 34. The single became something of an underground favorite spending some time on the NME Indie chart. It was intended to make up a second disc for the next album: Up the Downstair. It wasn’t to be and the album was released as a single disc. You might be relieved to learn that we won’t be including Voyage 34 in this survivor, but here is the first “phase” of the piece for those who are curious:
While On the Sunday Of Life made some waves in various underground circles, Stevie’s other project, No-Man, began to receive popularity. His work with No-Man became his first brush with commercial success and allowed him to focus on his music full time. We won’t be covering this music in the survivor, but their first album is supposedly a solid slab of Art Rock and Trip Hop. Definitely a more serious project than the first Porcupine Tree album and it even had a hit on the Billboard Dance chart.
With Steven Wilson given the opportunity to quit his day job in order to fully focus on music, it was time to continue the Porcupine Tree project with the first “real” album. It’s still a Steven Wilson solo project, with sparse guest appearances like the previous album. However, unlike the previous album, this is a much more serious and focused effort. It still carries a heavy psychedelia influence owing heavily to Pink Floyd. However, SW was (and still is) very aware of contemporary music and tries to incorporate more modern sounds in this album. The two main pieces of the album are entirely instrumental. There are still a few more experimental sound effect pieces, but the bulk of this album is made up of real songs. It’s also much shorter than its predecessor, making it easier to swallow.
A year later, SW released an EP of leftover material from the Downstair sessions called Staircase Infinities. This was given a very limited release and the original vinyl is a rare item today. The material on this EP was meant to be on the fabled second disc of the album, along with Voyage 34. Is is probably for the best that the final album was just a single disc.
Important info on what version of the album to get: So this one has at least two different versions. There’s the original album and the 2005 reissue. I believe the 2005 version is the one that is currently in print and is probably the best and definitive version (unless you’re a purist). It has a complete remix, re-recordings of certain parts, and the great Gavin Harrison on drums instead of the drum machine on the original. It also contains the Staircase Infinities EP as a bonus disc. Nothing from that will be in the survivor but you might want to listen to it for a more complete experience.
And the Swallows
Promoted
Radioactive Toys
Nine Cats
It Will Rain
We now move on to the second album: Up The Downstairs.
Shortly after the release of On The Sunday Of Life, SW decided he wanted to release the longest single ever commercially released. The result was the psychedelic Voyage 34. The single became something of an underground favorite spending some time on the NME Indie chart. It was intended to make up a second disc for the next album: Up the Downstair. It wasn’t to be and the album was released as a single disc. You might be relieved to learn that we won’t be including Voyage 34 in this survivor, but here is the first “phase” of the piece for those who are curious:
While On the Sunday Of Life made some waves in various underground circles, Stevie’s other project, No-Man, began to receive popularity. His work with No-Man became his first brush with commercial success and allowed him to focus on his music full time. We won’t be covering this music in the survivor, but their first album is supposedly a solid slab of Art Rock and Trip Hop. Definitely a more serious project than the first Porcupine Tree album and it even had a hit on the Billboard Dance chart.
With Steven Wilson given the opportunity to quit his day job in order to fully focus on music, it was time to continue the Porcupine Tree project with the first “real” album. It’s still a Steven Wilson solo project, with sparse guest appearances like the previous album. However, unlike the previous album, this is a much more serious and focused effort. It still carries a heavy psychedelia influence owing heavily to Pink Floyd. However, SW was (and still is) very aware of contemporary music and tries to incorporate more modern sounds in this album. The two main pieces of the album are entirely instrumental. There are still a few more experimental sound effect pieces, but the bulk of this album is made up of real songs. It’s also much shorter than its predecessor, making it easier to swallow.
A year later, SW released an EP of leftover material from the Downstair sessions called Staircase Infinities. This was given a very limited release and the original vinyl is a rare item today. The material on this EP was meant to be on the fabled second disc of the album, along with Voyage 34. Is is probably for the best that the final album was just a single disc.
Important info on what version of the album to get: So this one has at least two different versions. There’s the original album and the 2005 reissue. I believe the 2005 version is the one that is currently in print and is probably the best and definitive version (unless you’re a purist). It has a complete remix, re-recordings of certain parts, and the great Gavin Harrison on drums instead of the drum machine on the original. It also contains the Staircase Infinities EP as a bonus disc. Nothing from that will be in the survivor but you might want to listen to it for a more complete experience.
This album is much more highly regarded among fans and critics. It’s pretty much universally considered to be a superior album to On the Sunday Of Life. It is still the psychedelic period of PT, so if you’ve heard SW’s later work don’t expect anything similar to that. But this era of the band certainly has its own group of passionate fans.