STEVEN WILSON

Damned if you do and damned if you don't, whilst contemplating the sad reality of how negative news, comments and opinions seem to garner more favour (as well as likes, subscribers, and revenues) than positive, upbeat feelgood vibes. Nobody is perfect except those who claim that their opinion is the truth and at the same time bellowing that everything has a dark side (like the moon). Slick being a never wrong lawyer masquerading as an always correct blogger. Always thought that it's the artist who decides the direction his craft needs to go and not the audience's prerogative to dictate what said artist should have done. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. If you put out the same hit album over and over again, you are milking the cow and taking no chances but if you dare go off on another tangent, you have let down your fans and lost your way (a cross and rusty nails await). Steve Wilson the artist (not the castaway volleyball) has changed course a few times in his long career, but the latest swing has brought out many of the hate-mongers who seemingly know better what he should be doing (which is what exactly?). I am not a judge, jury or executioner, there are more then enough of them going around. I see, I hear, I write, and you get to decide. But if I don't like it, I won't even touch it. I obviously like The Harmony Codex (and posted no review for To the Bone or The Future Bites, because I was not into it, at the time). Okay, rant over.

The slightly oblique electronica of "Inclination" has a typewriter-gone-mad section that is super clever, a tasty intro to a thundering beat , courtesy of Pat Mastelotto, perhaps one of the finest prog drummers around, before blooming into a dense art-rock cocktail that has a later era Roxy Music feel, Steve wielding a microphone with inner- city flair and urban chic like a modern day Bryan Ferry, smirking flute and trumpet flutter, martini glass shattering Niko Tsonev guitar, reverberating piano and jungle jangle clatter. It's not classic prog but definitely classy music. Two shorter tracks that seek to define the mood as opposed to the over technical disposition of what is to come after. First, the silky smooth "What Life Brings" has drummer Craig Blundell and Guy Pratt on bass, grooving to a shimmering Wilson lead guitar, very accessible material not too far from Blackfield and the follow up "Economies of Scale" which is a densely orchestrated choir and effects arrangement armed with minimalist piano, a soft forlorn vocal and percussive programming ejections.

Sounding like climbing up an "Impossible Tightrope", this nearly 12-minute romp comes across as a progressive roller coaster of colliding extremes, a massive choir work that defies gravity flowing into a raging intensity bordering on fever, a scintillating Adam Holzman e-piano avalanche, a trio of guitarists (ambient, psychedelic, and electric), a slippery violin, a hardy sax, tons of synths and fertile drums from Nate Wood. All that was missing was some kitchen plumbing. The plaintive "Rock Bottom" is an album high point (sorry for the pun), featuring the rather remarkable Ninet Tayeb, a modern day Claire Torry or Durga McBroom, who can wrench every drop of saliva out of her sultry voice (you can feel it in your bones). The resonating e-piano acts as an emotional foil for the naked arrangement, enhanced by the orchestral adornments that is off the charts. Brilliant piece of gut-wrenching poise. Niko Tsonev carves the remnants of decorum left with a surgical guitar scalpel that shows no remorse. A look back to the past with "Beautiful Scarecrow", a track that would have fitted nicely on Insurgentes or The Raven Refused to Sing. Nick Beggs on Chapman stick, Blundell on the sticks, duduk courtesy of Theo Travis

A complete reversal of style is shockingly unexpected on the Vangelis meets St-Peter in heaven "The Harmony Codex", that slings this album into a ten-minute reflective elevation that could (and for some critics is) become a tricky deviation into a cul-de-sac that might spell disaster. I own 48 Tangerine Dream records, so I won't be a candidate for Ariadne's Thread. I get to chill a bit, which is always prudent. We arrive back to the opposite spectrum, the simple British electro-pop of "Time Is Running Out", very close to recent Peter Gabriel, cinematic voice effects blending with percolating percussives and an elastic guitar burst from Niko. Modern stylistics and secure cleverness.

With clanging guitar arpeggios, narration-like voices (no, its not rap for crying out quiet), blender on puree synths, electronic pitter patter, all kinds of argy-bargy going on in the background, "Actual Brutal Facts" is an ear-opening hodge podge of troubling sounds, neither harsh nor saccharine but certainly disturbing. Great bass line that had me winking at the latest Riverside "Id.entity", and a highly futuristic vibe that pushes the boundaries quite a bit. "Staircase" is a killer final track, another farsighted piece that has a breathtaking pulse (an oft seen Wilson attribute in all his previous incarnations) with impeccable vocals, both lead and harmony, a wicked bass gurgle (SW) and solid rhythmic backbone from both the athletic Blundell and the booming Samuel Fogarino, and some Rotem Wilson narration that winks anew at the fluttering elasticity of the title track. So before shielding myself from the imminent onslaught of derisive reply, let me say that I was born and raised on my first and continuing icon, the entire Roxy Music catalog has always been my musical bible. It should therefore not come as a surprise that this stunning 2023 album resonated with me so deeply. Comfortable slippers and my feet aren't numb.

4.5 congruence manuscripts

Unlike this previous album, Steve Wilson has no idea what kind of album he wanted here; that's why it comes as a more diverse album. If "Futur Bitres" has not reached a consensus amongst critics and fans, this one could do the same if you expect music in the style of his first solo albums on every song. After the first three songs, I was about to give up on less-inspired electronic pop songs. But then in the song "Impossible Tightrope" the magic started to happen with the electric guitar, and it was the first rock song that took us back to the albums "Raven" and "Grace for Drowning". After those songs, every song is much more inspiring, even though we are far away from the shredding guitars of his previous releases before "Futur Bites". The music can sound like a soundtrack with various atmospheres. "Rock Bottom" with Nanet singing can sound similar to the song "Don't Give Up," but with a nice guitar solo added. "Beautiful Scarecrow" shows a Peter Gabriel soundtrack style of music. The title track is a beautiful ambient song bringing to mind the dreaming state of a dystopian world, a recurrent theme in Steve Wilson's imagination. "Time is Running Out" is in the style of "Futur Bites," with some electronic pop music, cool voice effects, and nice percussion patterns. "Actual Brutal Facts" has a nice crescendo where the guitars are more incisive until the end. "Staircase" is in the style of the "To The Bone" album, with a pop influence and a terrific bass part in the middle before returning to the dream state of the title track. We have come to a full circle...

Let's start this off with a quick exercise. First, I want you to take a listen to Steven Wilson's 2013 opus The Raven That Refused to Sing. Even if you've heard it many times before, just take a moment to re-absorb that vintage prog majesty once again. The elaborate bass lines, the lush mellotrons, the jazz fusion tinges... yeah, that's good stuff. Now that you're done with that, let's fast-forward to 2021 and revisit The Future Bites. The electropop sound, the (attempted) social commentary of the lyrics, the cold sparse atmosphere... now, that's a stylistic 180 if I've ever heard one. Obviously Wilson was building up to the style found on The Future Bites -- To the Bone definitely primed the pump for that -- but when jumping straight from one end of his catalog to another, it's enough to give one whiplash.

More than anything though, To the Bone and The Future Bites served as a message to his fans: expect the unexpected. For every elaborate prog number like "Luminol" or "Raider II", there might be a dance-pop tune like "Permeating" or a bluesy rocker like "Eminent Sleaze" to catch you off-guard. And it's this type of thinking that got me extremely curious about what Wilson would bring with The Harmony Codex. After all, what stylistic turn could he make after going all-in with the pop and electronic influences?

Well, Wilson did the best thing he could in this situation: take what actually worked on the previous record, and expand it into a more sprawling, cinematic experience. And he seemed poised to fully take advantage of this direction both aurally and visually, as the video for lead single "Economies of Scale" features two people dancing in a large chapel space with impressive choreography, shot entirely in one take. Oh, and Wilson himself makes a cameo appearance! See if you can spot him. Meanwhile, the music itself is just as grand and engaging; Wilson creates a complex tapestry of layered vocals, as the skittering Radiohead-style percussion gives the ornate instrumentation some grounding and tension. More than anything, "Economies of Scale" served as an excellent bridge between The Future Bites and the rest of The Harmony Codex.

Of course, much of the record delves even further into this sweeping musical territory. The other big single, and the one that Wilson really wanted people to be hyped for, is the 11-minute "Impossible Tightrope". And how many lyrics do we get throughout this lengthy excursion? Three lines. That's all we get. The rest of the track is an ambitious exercise in worldbuilding, including (but not limited to) the following highlights: wailing sax lines, cold post-punk-esque guitar leads, jazzy keyboard breaks, and a beautiful ambient section in the middle to cap it all off. And it's at this moment that I realized something: The Harmony Codex as a whole is basically an olive branch between the traditional and modern prog sensibilities of Wilson's solo career (granted, I suppose we already got this earlier on with Hand. Cannot. Erase., but still...).

While "Impossible Tightrope" might be the best example of that bridge, but it's certainly present elsewhere too. For another extended tune that exhibits this middle ground extremely well, we get the highly atmospheric title track. The guitars and synths drone on hypnotically as Wilson's wife Rotem provides some lovely narration to flesh out the ambiance of the piece. From then on, it's mostly a suspenseful post-rockish buildup for the rest of the song -- simple in concept, but strong in execution. Still, this is not to say that Wilson's abandoned that more tender, singer-songwriter side of his DNA, as cuts like the pensive alt-rocker "What Life Brings" and the emotionally gripping ballad "Rock Bottom" prove. The latter is especially notable because it marks the return of longtime collaborator Ninet Tayeb, as she and Wilson embark on the first duet together since 2017's "Pariah" -- and, as always, Tayeb brings the house down with her raw, passionate delivery.

Despite all of this praise, I can't help but feel as though something's missing here. It might have to do with the overall lack of these more self-contained, concise moments, but the aforementioned worldbuilding could stand to be reined-in at times. While the extended, sprawling pieces are neat from a conceptual and atmospheric perspective, they also make The Harmony Codex more emotionally distant at times and -- dare I say -- even a bit hollow. I did mention earlier that "Economies of Scale" was like a way of connecting The Future Bites and The Harmony Codex together, and this does apply to some of the other songs as well. Unfortunately, that also comes with the former album's baggage, whether it be in moments of questionable songwriting, dull vocal inflections, or an overly synthetic vibe.

Still, this shouldn't deter Steven Wilson fans from checking out The Harmony Codex, as it's a huge step up from its predecessor. If anything, this is basically the direction he should have gone in immediately after To the Bone, as it seems like a logical development from that record's electronica-tinged prog-pop style. In any case, this is basically Wilson's "cinematic" album, and allows him to play around with a wide variety of fun styles and experiments using that theme. It's sprawling, it's immersive, it's widescreen, and -- most of all -- it's a sign that our favorite(?) modern progger still has plenty left to say, even over 30 years into his illustrious career.

The new Steven Wilson album defies several rules that progressive rock hard police finds a treason to the genre. As it happens to other bands that have tried to generate and think outside of the 70s canon, the idea of mixing electronica and prog rock is considered by many as a sort of devious pursue of making money or selling yourself to the industry. Despite the feeling of being set aside that most of the music produced during the 80s and late 70s by the likes of Yes, ELP, Gentle Giant, PFM, Banco, Genesis (though I have to say their pop sound was far more attractive and better in quality than that of Yes or ELP), contemporary prog rock should benefit from the teachings of that shift. I recognize that The Future Bites was somewhat of a letdown, not because of the change in style already started in "Hand Cannot Erase" and strongly increased in "To the bone", I think the problem with TFB was that it lacked a soul, something strong to connect with. With the exception of some songs, I believe, that the lack of success (it also was not as good as expected in number of streamings neither as in the purchase of the physical album) resided in a certain feel of not reaching to the level of emotions that the previous work did. In The Harmony Codex, the explorations of TFB continue to grow, they sound more congruent, solid and explorative. The sound comes and goes from sounds that may have come from the early sound of Porcupine Tree, but that don't feel like an homage of the 90s, but a development of a search in Wilson's sound palette, never happy with what happened before. This album is constructed as a complete experience, and builds up momentum if listened with a good pair of headphones. Highlights are the long ones, specially the title song and Staircase. Nevertheless, I don't think it equals the two albums which for me constitute the very best of Wilson's solo career: HCE and TRTRTS. But I don't agree with a lot of reviews considering this as a bad album, and Wilson a traitor to the genre. I love how liquid the barrier can get in terms of inspirations, influences and musical styles that are mixed here, allowing prog rock to look at the past with amazement, but not fearing to evolution and change.

An objective chronicle.

1. Inclination and the Arabic intro, a little wind, that's all it's prog for; good, a deafening bass that can cast doubt, a trance-like air of déjà vu on layers of sampled wind instruments, the obvious break that leaves on an airplane runway; 3 minutes and Steve arrives, his voice, a piano, crystal clear the atmosphere, the electro synths return and give in the open air box, very/too monolithic, a latent repetitive air, choirs swelling the effect, some tinkering like mixed trumpets 2. What Life Brings follows, melody with piano, Steve who raises his voice on an arpeggio ballad from the 60's, yes from the time of the BEATLES and Anglican gangster films well dressed in mod outfits; a beautiful little guitar solo driving home the lascivious connotation and Ninet which appears in the background 3. Economies of Scale with a return to ultra-used samples; only his voice becomes progressive, the rest is just a basic drum machine, which everyone can reproduce; Yes, but; a still latent air while today's sound goes straight to the chorus to try to hit the potential listener; a gentle, gripping climb, I will push a little and I will say melancholy spleen 4. Impossible Tightrope worked intro, strings and nervous rock riff, it changes from its many previous tendencies, a high riff leaves on psychedelic PINK FLOYD, from afar yes but still; footsteps, a snarling sax then an ethereal break, we are indeed on a tightrope; 5'22'' and angelic choirs come to throw even more discord; go for a bit of THE ENID, hold in the distance a solo from BANKS from GENESIS, the tune suddenly becomes simple, the moment for Adam to launch into a crazy jazzy vein; the break sound on the spleen before the contemplative finale and the return of the strings at the start; the slap. 5. Rock Bottom with Ninet as guest and a gravelly voice on a lament tune; haunting rise, slow from another heavy time, guitar in the style of ANATHEMA before their end; Ninet raises the tone launching a Gilmourian solo which confirms the talent of this artist. Ninet reminds me of the voice of the singer of RUBY DAWN.

6. Beautiful Scarecrow return to the sampled, electro sound, a sign of ultimate ease for all progues; air darkening for a time before using these sounds as evil bass; throbbing violin break, spleen, yes this musical atmosphere is not as cheerful as one might think; tribal break with horn, a bit like Peter GABRIEL but better, I confirm; a deafening trance with few vocals in fact; Steve comes back, puts us in the right direction, his hair gone in all directions 7. The Harmony Codex eponymous title, intro reminding me of VANGELIS of course and an outro sound that slips in; a minimalist melody where words from Ninet like those of Marta from AMAROK slip in; a long and slow atmospheric dreamlike crescendo which aims to be soaring, outside the ambient system 8. Time Is Running Out electro ballad for a while, yes it moves and the catchy tune of the 80's-90's shows that these decades were not as deserted as advertised; warm guitar solo flirting with MAY's guitar 9. Actual Brutal Facts with acoustic guitar and dark bass, note this dichotomy of instruments used to surprise a little more; phrasing voice, dub atmo air like his personal works from the beginning; a slow musical wave, heady and hypnotic with its share of sound effects like this ANGEL-style ha-ha in 'Fou'; the bass becomes ultra; it explodes on a modern sound, tampered with, distorted, miring our perception in a musical disarray intended without a doubt, brutal 10. Staircase a staircase, yes to go up, to fall? A staircase for the 4th big piece and the use of these 'musik elektronische' sounds excessively? Or how to make music evolve on a progressive slope, take this Floydian solo as proof of a move that flows naturally and makes us forget electro; meditative verse where the sound leads the listener to listen to the sound, its message, its melody; spatial synth trace on 'Blade Runner'; it goes up but it moves, proof on a piano break and its divine violin, there it's 'Interstellar' in the distance, it's simply beautiful; Ninet comes to speak for a while, explaining where to take the stairs? The synth tricks of Adam and Jack add to the cinematic atmosphere for a varied and well-constructed album.

controversial one no doubt. some may think this record is the second arrival of christ and some may think it's electronic crap. I, for one, think this is a very overhyped, overblown disc, and if it had been released by any unknown artist, no one would be talking about it. maybe they would be asking where they got the money to put together such a big production, nothing else.

yes it has great production, yes it sounds great, but the MUSIC is just not that engaging, nor the MELODIES, I find nothing to be emotional, powerful, nothing. I really don't get all the fuzz about this one, people gathering to listen to this in some dark basement. like, imagine doing this same thing just to listen to 3 olivia rodrigo songs weirdly put together with a 10 minutes tangerine dream track.

loved some songs on the record, hated some other. It wants so bad to be experimental, but it's not. pick a song from grace from drowning, then connect it with a song from the future bites, voilá! we all know steven can compose a whole bunch of music on different genres, but I don't want the foxes playing with the chickens.

anyways, here the pros: - the pop songs are generally good, they sound great and make me happy when I listen to them on separate. rock bottom, man what a ballad and what a singer, I love ninet tayeb. what life brings is an okay tune, and time is running out is fine too (liked the mikael akerfeldt version better tho). - staircase is a great tune, mixing with all those 10 minutes of nothing, spoken word, infinite pretentiousness madness. I guess imposible tightrope is ok too.

btw no i'm not a hater of steven's work at all, au contraire, love the guy (even if he is a little pretentious here and there), absolutely a fan of his remixes to 70's prog, absolutely think fear of a blank planet is one of the best records on earth, bla, bla, bla. so i'm just sharing my honest, complete thoughts. I expected peak music but I received blandness and songs I don't like (or get, it's ok if you want to make me feel that way).

ALSO: actual brutal facts, oh man, really? terrrrrrrible song, you liked that??? really??? then I have a few recomendations for you: stop with the I-only-listen-to-prog crap and go listen Kendrick Lamar, MF Doom, or Travis Scott, cause man, just BAD RAPPING, bland, cringy-ass voice effect. worst sw song since idk metanoia.

As a big fan of old Porcupine Tree space rock albums, The Harmony Codex is a very pleasant surprise to me. While the album is a deeper approach with the sound started with The Future Bites, I've found myself reminding Steven's earliest works, with the use of lots of synths, electronic beats and instrumental passages. Solos are abundant, sometimes it's just a very distorted guitar, sometimes a floydian-esque lead guitar and definitely lots of keyboards (rhodes, synth leads, etc).

The album also has a much more introspective and comtemplative focus, giving me a similar sound approach of The Sky Moves Sideways, as well as the mostly instrumental Impossible Tightrope. (Some cool "pink floyd live at pompeii" guitar effects). Actual Brutal Facts remids me of the earliest "On the Sunday of life" moments and the opener "Inclination" and the title track of "Up the Downstairs".

Fantastic album and one of SW best solo efforts, behind only Hand Cannot Erase or Grace for Drowning. Great to see that his Space Rock roots are as good as ever.

The prog rock and beyond legend Steven Wilson continues to explore new horizons in his music, and in the process befuddle many of his fans, myself included. I have to say that as the singles for this record dropped I became ever more excited and intrigued in ways I haven't been for his solo material since 2013's almost predictable yet amazingly performed The Raven That Refused to Sing. This was in marked contrast to the three solo LPs proceeding The Harmony Codex, where I experienced such disappointment that I didn't even bother to listen to The Future Bites's singles before the project came out as a whole and I was happily surprised by most of the results. The course of the singles pulled listeners in many different directions, an eclectic cornucopia when taken as a whole that teased not only a partial return to Wilson's more capital-P Prog stylings but a sort of fusion of that into his electronic inclinations. The final package replicates these twists over the first half before evolving into a mostly straight sequel to TFB, if markedly improved over said solid predecessor. The result is an excellent album.

It's prudent, if a tinge dispiriting, to divide an analysis of the instrumentation in half. First then is the more conventionally *prog rock* forms that dominated the singles and the first part of THC. These make up most of the truly striking parts of the record even though they are often rooted in some of prog's more typical stylings, as they are rather new to Wilson's palette and he and the dizzying array of backing and guest musicians on deck play them fairly uniquely and always powerfully. Wilson has also given over some of the guitar solos across the record to Niko Tsonev, most notably the plaintive post-Floyd climax to "Rock Bottom". The height of all this is appropriately the monumental "Impossible Tightrope", an almost-instrumental that tests the limits of both Wilson's nature as a musical factotum and the skills of the aforementioned fellow players. By turns floating in either the sea or the sky (in part with the "ambient guitar" of David Kollar) before barreling through frenetic drums (Nate Wood of the band Kneebody), bass (Wilson), keys (Adam Holzman), and guitar (variously Wilson, Tsonev, and Lee Harris's "psychedelic guitar") featuring great solos including some of Theo Travis's most energetic saxophone blasts.

Making up both the very opening and the second half of the album are the new electronic idioms Wilson has come to use, which strike me as overall more mature than those on TFB and successful in his stated desire to move beyond that record and its overt pop direction. While more or less by their nature tending to be somewhat static in their core beats and arpeggios, Wilson and his keyboardist guests like Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto have sought to diversify these soundscapes with industrial upsurges and some excellent guitar solos. There's also the turning point in the opener "Inclination" that shows the power of silence in music and heralds what's almost a new song, and some evolution in the cuts that peak with arguably THC's finest stretch, "Beautiful Scarecrow". Indeed, the project's only sub-par cut is the title track, which abandons all that to float listlessly in an ambient wasteland that is terribly ungripping and ends up feeling hopelessly out of place on the record. While arguably failing somewhat in delivering on Wilson's pledge that every last track would be significantly different from each other, the consistently dour and even unnerving electronic cuts are delicious and avoid the mid-album drop in quality that capsized To The Bone.

On top of all this is the strength of vocals and much of the lyricism on The Harmony Codex. Wilson has challenged himself to not only improve those vocal stylings he has previously used but to try some new ones. The main example of this comes from "Actual Brutal Facts" where he for the first time slowly yet bitterly raps a broadside against the likes of Patrick Bateman businessmen and the kind of megaphone malcontents attacked in Porcupine Tree's "Rats Return", cloaked in sinister effects and with a vile cackling acting as his hype man. All the same he shines in his more usual singing voice, with "Beautiful Scarecrow" and "What Life Brings" as highlights on that end. This is alongside the triumph of "Rock Bottom", which is the long awaited scaffolding upon which Ninet Tayeb has been able to show the full power of her mellifluous voice, which Wilson was able to match in a superb duet. The project also benefits from some of the best music videos associated with Wilson's oeuvre. Interpretive dance defines both "Economies of Scale" and "What Life Brings", with the latter an arresting picture of the shattered lives of a car accident that befits Wilson's lyrics of loss, with the man himself the observer of lost possibility as he directly addresses his audience. "Rock Bottom" is given a direct perspective of our singers, while "Impossible Tightrope" and the title track have arresting visual landscapes, the latter's futuristic yet abandoned London deserving a far better cut.

In summation, The Harmony Codex truly is the best solo work Steven Wilson has put out since The Raven if not Grace For Drowning, a marvelous and forward thinking record that is a solid compromise between his prog rock and various electronic directions. I look forward to the "alternate version" of THC that is the deluxe edition's Harmonic Distortion. My final words I will use to encourage every current and former SW fan to try this LP, which I believe has something for everyone and a superior take on TFB's styles well worth listening to.

The Harmony Codex is an eclectic release of pop, electronic, ambient, rap, prog, and a smidge of jazz through the songs. Overall the music is drab and depressing, a common theme found with any Wilson release. So what is different this time? The use of electronic beats is abundant, so if that's your gig you will be pleased. Another burning question is how is the mix? Since I was not invited to the special listening sessions with the half million dollar playback system and special mix I have no clue. I am streaming it with buds and the mix sounds okay, nothing justifying all the hype. As for the music, "What Life Brings" stands out but it definitely sounds like I've heard this before. "Impossible Tightrope", the epic space jam, has its moments (the drumming, sax, and keyboard solos) but has too much repetition to keep me engaged. The title track is far too long and mellow, but could be a good tune for a snooze. I like "Actual Brutal Facts" but wish the rap section and music were more brutal. "Staircase" is another stand out tune. Dig the chirping guitar and the cool flanged out bass break that puts it over the top.

Overall, this a decent release, better than expected. Solid three stars.

Steven Wilson has always hated classifications and fans pigeonholing him into a single genre or style, making disappointment inevitable when you don't fit into those parameters. And in this latest work he wanted to give us a little bit of everything: from touches of classic progressive, electronic pop, ambient, touches of jazz... long themes, short themes... This obsession to go out of the canons, may be to the detriment of an album perhaps too varied. But even so, you can see the coherence, the narrative... and above all the great imagination to tell stories through musical ideas. That's Steven Wilson... you have to accept all those contradictions and changes that, on the other hand, are a good part of the genius of his art.