Tag: steven wilson

Review: Apocalypsopolis by Ran Prieur

ApocalypsopolisApocalypsopolis by Ran Prieur

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve asked the question before, but can we really consider this a book? If the writer says it’s one, it is one; we’re taking it from there.

I’ve been reading the blog of this crazy person Ran Prieur for the past few weeks and every day I love him more and more. His writing, his style, his way of life is another inspiration for me. He’s quickly finding his way to this exclusive mental resort where all my top favourite people (Douglas Adams, Dan Carlin, Maria Efthimiou, Kyle Cease, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Raymond Smullyan, Steven Wilson, Alan Watts, Edgar Wright and the list goes on) are having the longest cocktail party/cozy discussion in altered states of their (after)lives.

Apocalypsopolis is a post-apocalyptic novela – or should I say while-apocalyptic? It shows what would happen during the apocalypse. Ran Prieur’s version of it isn’t any old end of the world, however. Through his work he clearly shows all of the things that mattered to him 9 years ago and still, to a certain extent, do today: man’s alienation from nature, his interest in “conspiracy theories” and metaphysics, the simplicity, complexity and -at the same time- trivialty of existence, the future of humanity.

You like post-apocalyptic fantasy? Read it. You like (political) philosophy? Read it. You like hippie fiction? Read it. Intrigued by the deconstruction of metaphysics? Read it. Survivalism strike your fancy? You know the drill.

View all my reviews

The Raven That Refused To Sing

The album has leaked. Even though I can easily listen to it on Grooveshark, I feel waiting for the proper release date is the least respect I can pay Mr. Wilson for gracing us with yet another collection of awesome music, especially since I won’t be buying the album — another habit and ceremony flushed down the toilet by the internet, the abolition of which will soon render the music industry even more unrecognisable than what people 20 years ago would think the scene looks like today.

Is the fact that I haven’t bought a record in years deplorable, not even the ones prepared with love and affection by my favourite musician? There’s no right answer, not anymore. When I complete my imaginary masterpiece “The Moral Dilemmas of the 21st Century Media Consumer”, I’ll get back to you – probably with still more questions than answers.

Steven Wilson – The 78

One of SW’s best – I’ll never get tired of saying the same thing for most of his tracks because they are! I even posted this in A Collection of Great Depressing Music but thought it deserved its own little dedicated tidbit. I love this looming then apocalyptic dread and the lyrics; 21 days to the end of the world/consciousness shift/something important, never forget!

What seems so real today, will soon enough become
The thing you’ve always craved, surely now I’ve become (the way I hear it: The fear you’ve always craved, will sure enough become — Wilson often makes his lyrics easy to mishear on purpose)

A Collection of Great Depressing Music


24/3/2015 EDIT: Here once stood King Crimson – Epitaph

Listen… imagine people being manipulated, going through lives of enslavement, being tortured or dying of as a result of inequality, killing or allowing the future of their unborn to… Oh just listen and you can very well have depressing pictures of your very own. This is a post that wants to inspire you, OK?

Also, post your own collection of great depressing music. Let’s make a circle of artistic comradery in our silent expressional misery.

Desperation

Just in time for the pre-elective mood. Let’s all go vote in a state of desperation and good things are surely going to happen! 🙂

On a completely different note:

“Around 30 songs were recorded for the Insurgentes album. 10 were included on the final album, and another 5 on the bonus disc that came with the special edition. Here is another one that was left unfinished at the time, but I finished and mixed it in January 2010. Gavin Harrison on drums.”

So, of 30 inevitably great songs, we’ve only heard 15. Right… Here’s one of the rest.

 

Storm Corrosion – Ljudet Innan

Storm Corrosion. I’ve been waiting for this collaboration since I first heard about it a little after PT’s last concert in Athens. Mikael Åkerfeldt & Steven Wilson promised they would be writing some music together which wouldn’t be for the fans at all; they would be making it for themselves. With this album, the trifecta of Grace for Drowning – Heritage – Storm Corrosion is complete. The duo’s work of the previous year has been phenomenal, incredible. Magic. I wonder what would have come out of all this if they had strived to make music for someone other than themselves…

The title of the song is Swedish for “The sound before”.

The sound before… the Greek election results? Doing some Java with the ulterior motive to get on with my life? This crazy love I’ve been waiting to share my all with? Realising that this is the first day of the rest of my life or that the Present is all there is?

The sound before. No more needs to be said.

 

Steven Wilson – Puncture Wound

Two things about this video:

1) Awesome song. Once again, this is from the EXTRA (!) CD off of Insurgentes. Along with Collecting Space and The 78, it should have been on the main album. Maybe Steven just wants to impress people that like to look into his music just a little deeper.

2) Great video that fits the song like a glove. Like the lyrics say: Push, push down the earth
Feel my hand through your glove… I wonder who made it? It’s not by Lasse Hoile though I wouldn’t blame you if you thought it was.