THE HARMONY CODEX

With Porcupine Tree a going concern again thanks to Closure/Continuation, Steven decides to take a less purist prog approach on The Harmony Codex, his latest solo album. That's no surprise - after all, on albums like To the Bone and The Future Bites he'd already steered his solo releases away from the prog approach of albums like The Raven That Refused To Sing. Here, he seems to dabbling in a wide range of electronic sounds, with influences ranging from Nine Inch Nails to Vangelis to Air all detectable.

Painstakingly engineered and impeccably produced, it perhaps lacks a little in terms of sonic cohesiveness, but as far as collections of songs giving Wilson an opportunity to air his multi-instrumentalist skills, it's rather charming, and the sheer lushness of the sound of these compositions goes a long way towards making up for the lack of focus.