Steve Wilson

Albums: Fear of a Blank Planet, In Absentina, Deadwing, Closure/Continuation, The Harmony Codex

This list has a number of prolific creators on it as you may have already noticed, and Steve Wilson is no different. Besides his main band Porcupine Tree and his solo career, he is also King Crimsons mix and mastering engineer (amongst many other bands, particularly in Prog).

Porcupine tree has relatively large discography, though generally speaking I’ve found the cream begins to rise from “Fear of a Blank Planet” onwards. This is roughly the period when Gavin Harrison joined the band, who you might recognise as 1/3 of Crimsons Rhythm section; naturally he is one a hell of a drummer.

Guitars, synths, bass and vocals are all arranged tastefully across Wilsons work too. Things tend to get more jazzy as Porcupine Tree ages, though that’s not to say that C/C is soft by any means. This is evidenced by the extremely gritty telecasters on tracks like “Rats Return” which is a bone crusher of a riff… Not to mention “Herd Culling”.

Trying out Wilsons solo stuff you’ll find that it’s more eclectic; the Harmony Codex being more electronic in nature though it’s still characteristic of his unique style with complex vocal harmonies and textured layers. The videos are also quite creative, especially the one for his AI generated Christmas song “December Skies” or “Economies of Scale”.