Album Review: Steven Wilson – The Harmony Codex

It’s like listening to a kaleidoscope.

Anyone following Steven Wilson’s career, either via his work with Porcupine Tree or solo, has at least a tertiary understanding of his work as a remixer. He has done remixes of back catalogs for absolute legends like King Crimson, YES, XTC, ELP, and Jethro Tull, not to mention one-offs of bands like Black Sabbath, Opeth, Caravan, Chicago; the list goes on. He has spoken in interviews stressing the difference between a remix and a remaster and how much more work goes into remixing. Surround sound is nothing exactly new in this day and age. Still, technology has advanced over the years since 5.1 gave way to 7.1, which gave way to Dolby Atmos – the current standard for theatrical surround sound – allowing for all sorts of experimentation as home sound systems have been catching up.

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Single of the Week: Personal Shopper by Steven Wilson

Steven Wilson is certainly no stranger to epics. Whether his work in the band Porcupine Tree with songs like the sprawling “Anesthetize,” or his solo effort about serial killer Denis Rader “Raider II,” he has proven quite the knack for epic songs, cycles, and albums over the years. It should prove no surprise that his recent single for the upcoming The Future Bites, “Personal Shopper,” shares this epic quality.

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Spinning Platters’ Top 50 Records from our First Decade: 31-50

Our very first photo posted was too small an image of Marnie Stern & I. I stand by the importance of this image.

The very first article posted to Spinning Platters was March 25th, 2009. It was a diary of the first few days of my second visit to SXSW. You can read that here, and even look at a picture of me 29 year old me with Marnie Stern. 

That means this little music blog that has evolved into a music, film, theater, and comedy blog, and has been around for more than a decade at this point. So, in order to commemorate this time, I reached out to every person that has ever contributed to the site to pull together a top 50 records of the first ten years of Spinning Platters. That would be between March 2009 and March 2019. 

Not everyone got back to me. I even got a couple, “I don’t remember doing this” emails from people that only contributed a couple of articles. However, this is definitely a list that represents the tastes of everyone that has been part of this thing. Since 50 records is a lot to take in at once, I’m just going to give you 31-50 today. Only without any words about the record at all, just a video from that album. Coming soon will be 11-30 with more commentary, and 1-10 with even more commentary will be coming your way before Christmas. So without further adieu, here’s your list! 

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Show Review: Steven Wilson at The Wiltern 05/12/18

This band plays it To The Bone

Steven Wilson (Wiltern)-5 Steven Wilson is easily one of the most prolific recording artists of the last couple of decades. At the same time he was the main creative force behind Porcupine Tree, he also managed a number of side projects like Blackfield, No-Man, and Storm Corrosion, as well as remixing numerous classics by Yes, King Crimson, XTC, and others. After Porcupine Tree was put on an indefinite hiatus—there is still yet to be any official “end” of the band—Wilson’s solo career has flourished even further, defying genre expectations of the “progressive rock” scene in favor of creating honest artistic expression. His latest work, To The Bone, continues to push forward towards the art of “pop” even further than his last release, while still maintaining a melancholic edge that has been a theme of his work for quite some time. The North American leg of the To The Bone tour is coming to an end and I caught his Los Angeles performance at the historic Wiltern in Korea Town.

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Show Review: An Evening with Steven Wilson at The Warfield, 6/14/2015

Steven Wilson
Steven Wilson

There’s never been any debate over the fact that English new-prog, Pink-Floyd-meets-metal band Porcupine Tree is Steven Wilson, in both part and in whole. While comprised of a core set of musicians that have contributed to the writing, recording, and touring of the many records forged over its career, Porcupine Tree started as a project for Wilson alone to craft music; in fact, at its very beginning, it was a made-up legendary rock band with its own fake history and discography that Wilson had penned with a colleague back in the late 1980s. Twenty years later, Wilson has put his primary project on a shelf (Porcupine Tree has been on hiatus since 2010) and shifted the attention to his own “solo work”. Lest the reader shy away from the often-wary prospect of a frontman deciding to carve out his own path, Wilson’s output has been nothing short of spectacular, now spanning the length of four albums which demonstrate a remarkable leap in creativity, songwriting, and production with each successive release. Hot off the heels of his recently-released Hand. Cannot. Erase., Wilson returned to the Bay Area on Sunday night for a live performance with his new touring band, and the result was a gorgeous, stunning display of musicianship and sonic texture that shook the walls of the Warfield for over two hours.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 5/9/13-5/15/13

Opening for Kate Nash on Saturday!
Opening for Kate Nash on Saturday!

While the majority of the bands playing in the Bay Area this week are up at Bottle Rock in Napa, which, yes, in an amazing looking festival, it isn’t quite the Bay Area. The following shows (with one exception) are all easily accessible via BART. So enjoy your rock n roll, and remember not to drink & drive!

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 4/5/12-4/11/12

Wednesday at Slim's

Welcome to April… The beginning of Fauxchella, when all of those bands that were paid an obscene amount of money to perform in the desert for rich kids on copious amounts of drugs get to play for normal people, in normal venues, where you get to hear a band with a soundcheck and a real venue. Not to say that festivals don’t have their place- I have a lot of fun at these things. But I both couldn’t afford a Coachella ticket, nor could I take the time off my day job. Which means that I’m seeing fIREHOSE at Slim’s. (Sorry Radiohead!)

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