Nil Recurring

Porcupine Tree | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 19, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Peaceville UK
• ASIN: B0011BJQ52
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,838 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These are outtakes ?!, October 31, 2007

By 

Worgelm "The Grumpy" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nil Recurring (Audio CD)

Consisting of four songs written from the same sessions for _Fear of a Blank Planet_, _Nil Recurring_ is a Crimson-like refraction of some of the songs from that album. You can see "Sentimental" from that album in its alternate form "Normal," which has an almost too-jarring prog-metal break in the middle of some sweet middle-eastern-tempered acoustic lines. This seems to me like one of the rawest and demo-like of these outtakes, and is a very solid track, but feels a bit undercooked. The opener, and title track, is a true dream meeting between King Crimson's Robert Fripp and a very game PT, who craft an eerie, intense, subtle build of a track that has dim echoes from their _Level Five_ era work, with a little _Thrak_ thrown in as well. (Side note: Can you imagine Gavin Harrison in a dual-drum configuration with Mastellatto from Crimson? He plays like Bruford and Peart's meth-snorting cyborg lovechild.)

The two latter tracks though, are simply magnificent, every bit as good as anything on the album, and rock with even more reckless abandon than anything i've heard from this phase of the band yet. Steve Wilson does some fine soloing, and proves he is quite the underrated axeslinger - this is some of the best pure playing he's ever done, especially on the brutal conclusion for "What Happens Now?". Throughout these tracks, Gavin Harrison savagely peppers the listener with absolutely breathtaking airtight fills. His work on "Cheating the Polygraph" (which he also gets a co-writing credit with) is especially noteworthy; Moving from a Bruford-like jazz swing as Wilson's gorgeous chording glides effortlessly over, to frenetic metal choruses showcasing his trademark polyrhythmic double-bass rolls.

Taken in the context of _FOABP_, and like any really good outtake album, it provides a fascinating perspective into the creative process of the band as they finalized the album. As with _Deadwing_, the general tenor of these outtakes make it seem as if SW wanted the final version of FOABP_ to reflect a more diverse, not-as-metallic array of sounds, with less lengthy compositions, to perhaps balance the 18 minutes of "Anesthetize". Devoted fans might recall the outtakes from _Deadwing_ were some of their heaviest - such as the sabbath-like "Futile", or the awesome stop-start dynamics of "So-Called Friend". This is smashingly, uncommonly good, better than any outtakes the band have released yet, and anyone who enjoyed _FOABP_ will really, really want to have this in their collection.

(Addendum : This was taken from a fan forum, and as of the writing of this review, untested, so caveat lector ... but if one were to add these tracks to _FOABP_ one would add "Cheating the Polygraph" between "My Ashes" and "Anesthetize." "Nil Recurring," "Normal," and "What Happens Now?" would follow "Sleep Together," being tracks 8, 9, and 10 respectively, to complete a giga-album)

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fear of a Blank Recurring, February 19, 2008

By 

Vinzo "[e-mail]" (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nil Recurring (Audio CD)

Nil Recurring is comprised of four songs which add a luster and polish to last year's masterpiece, "Fear of a Blank Planet" beautifully. However, when blended with "Fear", the two separate releases linked together work remarkably well as a complete project. Each of the four songs on "Nil Recurring" carry the themes or motifs which highlight "Fear". I have created my own version of "Fear" by incorporating the songs of Nil Recurring. It is intersting to see where these songs fit in the Fear mix. My favorites on Nil Recurring are "Normal", which contains variations of "Sentimental" and starts with a dynamic accoustic guitar intro and then simply soars. Outstanding!! The last song, "What Happens Now" is a tour de force for Steve Wilson: great vocal and a blast of sonic guitar that he displays in concert. This is great stuff.
Taken together, "Fear of a Blank Planet" and "Nil Recurring" continue the long string of brilliant music that Wilson and his mates have turned out regularly. Perhaps the well-deserved attention is finally coming to them, with the recently announced Grammy nomination for surround sound album. If you love Wilson's other stuff and with no new PTree music on the horizon this year, this is a must.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars quality always beats quantity, April 5, 2008

By 

Ronald H. Parry (University Place, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nil Recurring (Audio CD)

I am amused that many of the complaints here are due to the length of this CD. In my opinion, half an hour of PT rewards the listener with much more quality music than most bands' full-length CDs. The songs on Nil Recurring are not merely outakes from the FOABP sessions, and even though SW makes use of some of the conceptual and musical themes that occur on Blank Planet, each composition and performance easily stands on it's own.
In particular, Cheating the Polygraph showcases the talents of Gavin Harrison more than any PT track I can think of (besides the live version of Hatesong), and What Happens Now? is one of those tracks that about the third time around you realize just what an amazing song it is.
When I began buying albums they were typically around this length; this one is worth every penny.