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- Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Shaking It Up Solo ~ Benjamin Orr’s...
- PODCAST: Best Prog Albums of 2022 Los Angeles Forum April 26, 1969 – Live Release Review
- Track Listing
- Release Info
- Tech Articles
Today, most artists who even continue to release new music do it in order to draw audiences to their live shows, where they make the vast majority of their income, between ticket sales and merchandise (a growing part of most touring musicians' earnings). Between its marriage of lyrical, innovative and multi-informed pop with progressive and metal leanings, not to mention some uncharacteristically joyous and optimistic songs, Wilson's music has continued reaching entirely new audiences. In fact, if anything, Wilson has proven, with his To the Bone tour, that once he's enticed someone new into his fan base, they seem willing to go along with wherever he chooses to go in concert. Hand Cannot Erase is a progressive concept album written from the perspective of a woman who lives in a large city between 2008 and 2015.
The remaining works are culled from his previous albums. However, the film footage includes pans, zooms, special effects, mood lighting, trippy superimposed scenes and animations on the big screen behind the band, often paralleling the musical storylines. It all instills movement and theatrics to complement the ensemble's colorful stage presence.
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Over the course of the next four years and two studio albums—2013's The Raven That Refused To Sing and 2015's concept album, Hand. —Wilson continued to grow his audience, attracting not just those who'd been following his career for years, but entirely new demographics as well. All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who create it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month. The title track "Home Invasion" is formulated with a dynamic, in-your-face groove, as the audience claps along, firmed up by Blundell's thumping bass drum pulses and Holzman's steely electric piano chords.
Later in the show, Wilson announces, “The time has come,” as he gives props to pop, alluding to his own hip-shaking “Permanating,” adding, “I’m going to play it now. You’re going to disco dance.” And off he goes, eventually joined by a chorus of seven Bollywood Co. dancers to help get the room moving. “Song Of I” features a different kind of dancer — a laser projected image of a woman slithering to the music. I listened to the entire release twice while making notes each time. These are my track-by-track observations of the songs along with comments on the images that play on the Blu-ray.
Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Shaking It Up Solo ~ Benjamin Orr’s...
There isn’t a 2CD option but the ‘soundtrack’ to the film will be available as a deluxe 5LP vinyl box set . After beginning to bring the occasional Porcupine Tree song into his shows during the Hand. Tour, Wilson now includes a greater number of PT tunes in his set lists, five of which are included on Home Invasion. Some, like In Absentia's "Sound of Muzak," are delivered relatively faithfully, though Wilson turns the chorus of that song into an audience participation piece. Others, like "Arriving Somewhere But Not Here," from Deadwing , and the positively massive second set-closer, "Sleep Together," from 2007's Fear of a Blank Planet , are extended slightly longer than the originals, with his current band simultaneously reverential and unequivocally personal.
In addition to a track-by-track story board, the Blu-ray includes alternative versions and mixes of the songs, as well as instrumental versions of every song on the title. There’s also a behind the scenes documentary of the making of the release along with interviews of Mr. Wilson which really gives you great insights on all the production involved in making this album. Home Invasion also documents Wilson's continued growth and confidence as a front man, lead singer and bandleader. His voice has never sounded better and, while his guitar solos may not be as sophisticated as Hutchings,' they're nevertheless perfect for the moments where he chooses to take them. This 2-CD and DVD edition (also released on Blu-Ray and 2-CD +Blu-Ray) is culled from Wilson's third and final set at London's storied Royal Albert Hall in March 2018. He performs 10 of the 11 tracks from his largest selling record, To The Bone .
PODCAST: Best Prog Albums of 2022
It is inspired by the true story of Joyce Carol Vincent, who lived in London and died unnoticed in her apartment. The songs tend to build from a soft intro, weaving in and out of various rhythms and patterns without repeating. Once you’re hooked on a riff, it’s gone to the next catchy riff. Mr. Wilson told Audioholics in our interview that he received his new custom built Mellotron last year.
The similarly expansive, dark-hued "Ancestral," on the other hand, demonstrates how a song that seems like it could only work in the context of its position on Wilson's concept album can actually work extraordinarily well as a stand-alone song, again featuring some particularly inspired soloing from Hutchings. Many artists who left popular groups found, despite any cachet built with their former band , that only a surprisingly paltry percentage of their former fans were willing to go along with them into their solo endeavors. By the time Wilson hit the road in 2011 for the first time under his own name, in support of his second solo album—the even more ambitious Grace for Drowning —the number of Porcupine Tree fans who'd gone along him was already much greater than any stats could have predicted.
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And if his audience has been growing, he has also been bucking another trend that's largely become a disturbing new norm. Even artists who regularly play to hundreds of thousands of fans over the course of a year now struggle to sell tens of thousands of albums , despite having achieved sales in the hundreds of thousands—millions, even—in decades past. But just as Wilson's audience has grown in size, so, too, have his sales. All too often, an album achieves its biggest numbers in the first couple of weeks after release, only to find sales falling off a cliff after that. Not only do Wilson's new releases continue to sell long after they should be slowing down, but his back catalog continues to do well also, continuing to move surprising numbers. In a career now early in its fourth decade, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson has bucked almost every trend in the new millennium music industry.
And if the stage lighting is as impressive as it's even been—more, truly—Wilson is now bringing the audience into the center of the performance by not just lighting up the stage but, at times, the entire hall; again, no mean feat for a room the size of Albert Hall. Recorded in stunning high definition video and audio, Home Invasion differs from his recent Montréal show in that it includes To the Bone almost in its entirety, with all but the album's title track represented. It ultimately makes sense, however, given how many tracks from Insurgentes, Grace for Drowning and The Raven have already been documented in live video/audio formats, on both the full-length Get All You Deserve and EP-style mix of live tracks, edits and alternate versions, Drive Home . Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories and includes a local jazz events calendar. Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories and includes your local jazz events calendar.
They may not be given solo features, but the value of Beggs and Blundell's contributions, in managing both challenging instrumental ensemble work and ratcheting up the collaborative energy during solo passages, cannot be overstated, nor can their in-tandem ability to nail a groove with impeccable time and effortless humanity/musicality. During the balladic "Song of Unborn," together with their band mates, the pair demonstrates that the simplest and, even more so, slowest grooves are often-times the most challenging to maintain with absolute verisimilitude and honest feel. That Hutchings had only been with the group for a couple months before Home Invasion was recorded at London's heralded Royal Albert Hall on the last of a three-night run in March, 2018, only makes his contribution to the group all the more remarkable.
Just in time for the holidays, Home Invasionbelongs in the pile of gifts for every fan of progressive and melodic rock. And, hey, don’t get me wrong—I love Wilson’s solo band, too. Adam Holzman on keyboards, Nick Beggs on bass, Craig Blundell on drums, and Alex Hutchings on guitar, are all extraordinary musicians, and they do a fantastic job bringing this huge body of work from Wilson’s catalog to life, sounding as close to studio perfection as you’d find in a Toto concert. Everything about this live collection is great, the visuals, the sounds, the way it is filmed, the incredible band, the set list. It is simply a brilliant celebration of one of music’s criminally under-appreciated talents. The CDs include the full soundtrack of the concert across two discs, while the vinyl box actually offers six extra tracks; three soundcheck songs (included as bonus content on the blu-ray/DVD) and three songs from the previous night’s performance .
The sound quality is amongst the best multi-channel music mixes I’ve heard. The songs are deep and with meaning and show a maturity of Wilson as a solo artist as they are more expansive and diverse than his previous amazing work. There is an element to each song that will appease many musical tastes including pop, metal, rock and progressive. It’s a concept album that is worth listening to in its entirety and following along with the images on the Blu-ray. What I find most interesting about the Blu-ray version is that there is an instrumental version of every song.
So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today. Simon Collins and Kelly Nordstrom announce new band eMolecule, Debut album to be released on ... Performing to his hometown crowd in London, Wilson even had the opportunity to bring out special guests like Israeli singer, Ninet Tayeb, who appeared on his latest studio record, To The Bone. And the DVD/Blu-Ray has some great interview/behind-the-scenes footage and a few extra songs. You can optionally purchase it with a two-CD audio copy of the concert.
As you’d expect from the 5.1 mixing maestro, the blu-ray and DVD offer 5.1 surround mixes of the concert (those who attended these shows experienced a ‘4D sound’ performance). Tour, and who has managed the unenviable challenge of following Wilson's first touring drummer, Marco Minnemann. A massively virtuosic drummer with a distinctive approach, that Wilson was able to find another drummer who could be described the same way while, at the same time, possessed of his own musical personality and ability to embrace the existing chemistry was another feat in itself.
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