Steven Wilson - the hypocrite....

I don't care what Steven says as long as he keeps putting out amazing music, which he is.

Eh, I love the direction PT have been moving in. The new albums work much better live so if you haven't seen PT live yet I suggest you do.

 

Although new Blackfield and a new solo album does have me excited.

He's pathetic, desperate to pull of some hipster-alternative-I-don't-care-about-anyone show every change he gets. Or creates, if there's none at hand. I throw up a little in my mouth every time I hear his music. The guy redefines pretentiousness.

 

He has made some bloody good music though, shame about the vomit

I used to feel let down when an artist whose music I admired turned out to be a bad person or did things that did not equate to the great works they produced. I now realise that this can be quite common, especially with very "talented" people. I think we need to learn to separate the artist from the art. Many talented people have a poor attitude towards many of their "fans" too. e.g. John Lennon, Frank Zappa, etc. Maybe they need this to forge ahead and create new works (the creative process), and not bask (stagnate?) in the adulation of the great unwashed masses. Personally, I think it is just best to enjoy the music and not dig too deep where you don't need to go.

Yes, I do like Steve Wilson's music - but I do see how he could come across as pretentious or hypocritical.

Why don't we wait and see what the app actually does?

 

If anything it's a promotional tool, and eventually you have to accept the fact that people get information via technology these days.

Edited by salannelson - 1/5/11 at 4:43pm

IpodPJ beat me to it. You can't say "iPods ruined everything", only to bring out an apple-app. Makes you look like an a$$

@Murray l'art pour l'art is way behind us.

Eh whatever. I like his music

Edited by salannelson - 1/5/11 at 7:08pm

You can also buy Porcupine Tree music on iTunes. If you keep up with him you know he seems to be trying to make money in a lot of ways. Re-releasing older albums. Several versions of limited editions and so on. Maybe his capitalistic tendencies have overcome his dislike of iPods and their associated stuff. I still really like their music though.

 

What's funny (ironic?) is that his complaints were about MP3 compression and how that destroys the music.  Yet his recordings sound like they've been run through an MP3 processing step during mastering.  The recordings lack the sense of space and spatial cues and wide soundstage that a recording is capable of.  The irony is that those are some of the same bad effects that happen with MP3 style compression.  So to my ears his lossless recordings sound lossy to me.

 

Compare the sound of Porcupine Tree to King Crimson (I think it is fair to compare the two).  The King Crimson albums sound spacious, have a wider soundstage, have sounds that intermingle with spatial cues and are what I consider to be better quality recordings.  The Porcupine Tree albums are claustrophobic in comparison.  That isn't to say the Porcupine Tree albums are poorly recorded.  The sound quality doesn't suck.  But it's nothing to brag about.  And if you're going to rant so publicly about MP3 compression destroying the music it is best to make sure you're not living in a glass house.

 

Listen to the 1996 release of Signify.  How could you release that and not know the sound quality was suffering.  Then the 2004 remaster of Signify.  OK, that's better but it got loudnessed in the process.  Pick your poison.  The 2004 version is better overall. But jeesh.  The guy needs to worry about his mastering before concerning himself with ranting about MP3 compression.