A Different View Steven Wilson The modern-prog giant has the skills and musicality to manipulate sounds like it’s no one’s business. Which makes it all the more wondrous—and honorable—how little futzing he actually does with the drum tracks on his records. Of course, as every great chef knows, it pays to use the best ingredients. by Will Romano One of the most significant modern progressive rock bands was once merely a figment of a shy young man’s imagination. In the late 1980s, with his bedroom doubling as a recording studio, British multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson mimicked the psychedelic and art-rock sounds he loved as a teenager. Operating in virtual anonymity under the banner of Porcupine Tree, Wilson distributed his music on cassettes featuring liner notes crediting fictional band members and detailing fabricated discographies. Over the course of the next two decades, however, Porcupine Tree would evolve from the mad musings of […]

September 2015 Issue