PORCUPINE TREE
IN ABSENTIA
LAVA

LINKS:
porcupinetree.com

lavarecords.com
Without a doubt, the members of Porcupine Tree are masters of their instruments. Unfortunately, they use them to play often-pointless prog rock.
Much like Pink Floyd before them, Porcupine Tree works hard to effortlessly set an atmosphere with their music. Steven Wilson, who produced Opeth’s brilliant Damnation album, is the creative force behind this band and his spacey laid-back attitude translates directly into the music.
Where bands like Anathema experiment with sound and yet stay focused, Porcupine Tree tries various things and goes off into oblivion. On “Trains” the band uses hand clapping as the basis of their bridge, which is unique, but lame. Actually, there are elements on many of the songs that are a bit off (the noise guitar lines of “The Creator Has A Mastertape”).
The thing about In Absentia is that it is an idea, a single train of thought rather than just the sum of its parts. Perhaps if more time was spent on crafting the individual tracks, the album would be better as a whole. Instead, there are moments of brilliance (“The Sound Of Muzak”) surrounded by songs that need drug-influenced ears to be appreciated.

---- Scott Olivenbaum