Porcupine Tree: In Absentia (2LP) [TRANSMISSION]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set carries Steven Wilson's own remaster, spread over four sides and pressed in the EU. In Absentia is often called the band's crowning achievement, and it sold three times as many copies as any of their earlier albums.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Remastered by Steven Wilson
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

In Absentia is the sound of a band changing gear. Porcupine Tree had spent years drifting through psychedelic and space rock, then Steven Wilson fell back in love with heavy music via Meshuggah and Opeth, and the seventh album came out tougher, tighter and a good deal louder. It was also their first for a major label, Lava, and the first with drummer Gavin Harrison.

Harrison joined in early 2002 and made Wilson's programmed drum parts sound like they'd always been played by an octopus. "Blackest Eyes" opens with a crunch, "Trains" is an acoustic sing-along with a heart of gold, "The Sound of Muzak" pokes fun at background music in tricky time, and "Collapse the Light into Earth" closes on piano and strings. Wilson's side project with Aviv Geffen, Blackfield, soaked up his poppier ideas, which left Porcupine Tree free to go heavier. Richard Barbieri's keyboards and Colin Edwin's bass keep the atmosphere thick.

It set the template for everything the band did next. Wilson produced Opeth's Blackwater Park around the same time and appears to have brought a few of their riffs home in his coat pocket.

Also at Kops: more Porcupine Tree on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Transmission Recordings (cat# TRANSM232LPPHD), a reissue of the 2002 album.