INSURGENTES

The very first and most radical. Crazy, creepy, uncompromising, brave, desperate. Underline all of the above. Thank God, in our time (it was in 2008) there are madmen who can leave their "comfort zones" and release a hard and unexpected disc. And exactly the disc, for Steven Wilson is a vinyl devotee. The band's approach to writing music is more typical of the 70s rather than the 00s. Insurgentes is the most laconic of Steve's albums: here fears and hopes are expressed by the music, and the lyrics are just a spectacular frame for the record. Another plus of the album is its incredible improvisational component - you never know where the improvisation is, and where - the well-adjusted hourly long-term studio work. Everything is so vivid and high quality that it is simply impossible to see the edge. Furthermore, recording is practically completely devoid of "semitones": where one minute ago there were quiet and alarming mutters, sharp eerie overloads and breakdowns immediately burst in. In general, the entire album is a sharp jump into the psychological abyss. No, Steve did not fall under drugged fear from the window of his house, like the legendary Robert Wyatt from Soft Machine, but emotionally collapsed even worse and deeper. However, there is no evidence of Wilson's mental disorder in nature, since he was not noticed for using drugs or alcohol. But he was a terrible innovator and even cynically indifferent, which arouses even more interest in this frank album. The recording is a kind of creepy, caricatured outsider confession of a man who has severed all ties with the outside world. From the first to the last note, the disc sounds like one terrible hysterical cry of a man stepping into the unknown, into his fears. Although, perhaps, this is an attempt to escape from the dungeon of the inner nightmare. Everything is taken to the extreme here, while maintaining clarity and conceptual dimension. I hate to be in the shoes of the person who could have composed "Abandoner", but it's great to have the chance to listen to that! Constriction, fear and pursuit, smoothly turning into something indefinite, light, end in an icy drone nightmare, where the guitar is overloaded so much that it leaves the musical plane. It is followed by the heavy tread "Salvaging" - a more traditional continuation of the previous song. The author spits out each phrase with such anger that it feels like he has finally reached the "assemblage point", adding loads of guitars and heavy drum shots. It is followed by "Veveno Para Las Hadas (Poison for Fairies), almost hovering above the clouds in an icy void, a sad elegy that expresses the autistic alienation of a hero who lists the simple absurdities of being. the role of a brilliant visionary showing the savagery and catastrophe of the future ... It was followed by the magnum opus, which for a long time became a kind of "can opener" for opening performances. Eerie incremental improvisation, where each of the musicians can have a full time, showing their skills and ruthlessness. The density of music, drums, guitars and keyboards, is worthy of the best times of the Canterbury scene. Furthermore, the experienced combat machine gunner Gavin Harrison, from a subtle improviser, in a few minutes turns into a ruthless machine capable of smashing a studio to pieces, not to mention a drum kit: it seems that he is tearing his hands to pieces, and his life depends on his pace! The musicians accelerate so much that everything turns into an eerie rumble, which is cut off by Steve's quiet whisper ... The text here makes no sense: the track is in its purest form a tribute to the rock avant-garde of the 70s. True, it is skillfully woven too to the canvas of the album. No, this is not an electrical mess: only very smart and advanced musicians can do such things. And in fact, the album closer "Get All You Deserve" - ​​"Get a fascist grenade", I would leave this free translation, as it is better suited to this context.

The composition begins with terrible radio interference, recorded so well that you immediately feel the feeling of a huge space where something bad is happening ... Then primitive piano sounds creep in to the point of banality - and Steven's bored voice, paired with classic electric organs. "Get what you deserve" - ​​he repeats this to the music, which becomes more diverse, scarier and harder, until it reaches the point of complete rupture and dissolves into the noise. This is a kind of mini-album in one song. Like a look through the eyes of a person who is going to destroy a lot of people with him. This is a vendetta to the world, senseless and merciless. It closed many of Wilson's concerts when he stood in the smoke in a gas mask. Under the bright red light - it looked ominously cool! A person who is plotting something unkind in the world where something is wrong. Everything is hopeless - death, fumes, emptiness ... And the album ends with a quiet piano ballad "Insurgentes" - like an awakening from all this nightmare, albeit vague and pensive. Well, I almost forgot the "elephant" - the superhit from Steven Wilson titled "Harmony Corine", with an incredibly beautiful melody and a gorgeous surreal video, I really hope that this is not what awaits us all. The song is kind of a promo video for the album, and it features everything that is on this gorgeous and dark record. There is not much optimism here, but the spirit of the disc corresponds to the image of the author: this is how he is this gray, ordinary-looking man with glasses, with a voice like sour milk, although not devoid of singing charm. Complex, scary, black to unpleasant, condensed, but certainly talented and attractive, the album belongs to the big world of rock music. Despite the description, it may seem that the recording of "Insurgentes" as a whole is some kind of inaudible experimental routine, but this unpredictable disc is skillfully inscribed in classical and melodic forms, even orthodox, if I may say so. The cover of the album also deserves attention, reflecting the idea of ​​depersonalization by war and, therefore, was published without any identification marks. Who is this erased and alienated person? He has no name, no destiny, no belonging. Victim or Executioner? Steve himself or someone else? Someone very inconspicuous, but extremely dangerous. Or maybe any of us wearing a mask. A creature from a shattered world, rapidly disappearing into darkness. Well, the lineup of the "rebels" is awe-inspiring: Gavin Harrison - drums (Porcupine Tree 2002-2010, The Pineapple Thief 2015 - today). Jordan Rudess - keyboards (Dream Theater) Tony Levin - bass, stick (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel) And of course the maestro himself - voice, guitars, synthesizers, programming and much more. However, it is better to listen to it yourself once.