Review Summary: These are the four leftover tracks from Fear Of A Blank Planet. They represent the complement to that album.
“Nil Recurring” is an EP of Porcupine Tree and was released in 2008. The line up on the EP is Steven Wilson, Richard Barbieri, Colin Edwin and Gavin Harrison. The EP also had the participation of Robert Fripp and Ben Coleman.
Some months after the release date of the fantastic “Fear Of A Blank Planet”, Wilson and his band mates were back with a new original EP, “Nil Recurring”. This EP only features four songs with approximately thirty minutes of music. “Nil Recurring” was written during the recording sessions of their ninth studio album “Fear Of A Blank Planet” and was completed over the same year of 2007. Each one was a track composed for the “Fear Of A Blank Planet” album, but later they were dropped from the final track list. So, these are leftover tracks from that album.
When the group met in 2006 to work on new material for their next studio album “Fear Of A Blank Planet”, two songs were already written, “My Ashes” and “Normal”. Those musical sessions produced all the album’s songs except “Way Out Of Here”, plus four more songs of which three wouldn’t fit quite well in the concept. The only one that the group thought that could make the way into the album, at that moment, was “Cheating The Polygraph”. However, later the band decided that none of the four songs were up to the standards of the album, as they weren’t properly completely developed yet. By the other hand, there was a policy in the band not to make the album more than fifty minutes long. So, the four tracks were mixed to make the “Nil Recurring” EP. “Normal” was entirely composed by Wilson. Later he reworked it, simplifying its musical structure to transform it into the song “Sentimental”.
These four songs are a welcome return to the qualities found in Porcupine Tree’s material lately. In general, there’s a sense of adventure and a willingness to mix various styles beyond the blunt metal sound that’s pervaded on Porcupine Tree’s albums since 2005’s “Deadwing”. Wilson, on this EP, combined different elements into a distinctive sound that can go from bruising metal riffs to spacey psychedelic and to beautiful piano based pop songs, despite its very short time length. This isn’t some kind of a promotional EP with only average unreleased songs and it also has a wonderful production. But this isn’t strange. We mustn’t forget that Wilson is also one of the best musical producers, nowadays.
About the tracks, the title track is entirely instrumental and starts off with some nice guitar work. Fripp, of King Crimson, who appeared also on “Fear Of A Blank Planet”, makes another guest appearance playing the lead guitar in his instantly recognisable style. The metal riff sounds a whole lot of fun, and the layering of the instrumentation is all very well done. The track ups and finishes on a very high quality level. This is one of the better instrumentals the group has ever produced. “Normal” is almost like a companion track to “Sentimental” from “Fear Of A Blank Planet” and the two songs correspond with each other. In fact, the chorus is almost identical. It has lots of energy and the vocal harmonies are almost as good as the ones on “Drown With Me”, a bonus track from “In Absentia”. The guitar playing is quite complex mostly because of the tempo. “Normal” is probably the friendliest song here and is undoubtedly the most interesting song on “Nil Recurring”, to me. “Cheating The Polygraph” originally debuted with the rest of the “Fear Of A Blank Planet” material, a song that originally appeared between “My Ashes” and “Anesthetize”. Yet it wasn’t very well received by the band. “Way Out Of Here” replaced it on the final edition of the album. Like the title track, it’s another rocker, one that pulls back and forth between hard distorted guitars with soaring vocals and more subdued bluesy sections. “Cheating The Polygraph” harks back to the band’s more psychedelic days. “What Happens Now?” closes this mini album with something a little more reminiscent of 1990’s Porcupine Tree’s sound. It’s powered by atmospheric clean guitars and subtle waves of synthesizers. There are a few lines of lyrics early on the song, but the vocals quickly disappeared in favour of what sounds like live jamming recorded in the studio. It’s the lengthiest track on the album. The song shares similar lyrics to “My Ashes” and a riff preceding the heavy section of “Anesthetize”.
Conclusion: Some might say that “Nil Recurring” was a money making attempt and which would have been issued as a bonus CD to the band’s previous release. Probably they’re right. But we mustn’t forget that Wilson is a genius not only musically wise, but also marketing wise. There’s no other way. The music industry exists and there’s nothing that you or I can do about it. From what concerns me, I’m going to recommend “Nil Recurring” to every single one that owns “Fear Of A Blank Planet”, despite the relatively significant differences between the tracks on both works. And I accept that the group has decided to exclude these four songs with the argument that they wouldn’t quite fit the concept. But, both releases are complementary. They need each other. So, this is a must have for all Porcupine Tree’s fans.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel
