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seem logical Wilson apply his magic Atmos
touch to other entries in the vaunted Porcupine
Tree canon itself. Since PTree’s September
2002 breakthrough In Absentia received a
3CD/1BD box set refresh in early 2021 with its
5.1 mix on Blu-ray, in turn making it something
he wouldn’t revisit right away, I felt March 2005’s
Deadwing would be the next best catalog
choice to get “Atmos-ized.” Wilson demurs
ever-so-slightly about whether he’s in the midst
of doing Deadwing or not, but he does commit
to a broader statement regarding the status of
much of the work he’s done in 5.1 throughout
the years. “I will be revisiting not only my own
records, but some other records I’ve mixed in
5.1 over the last 10 years that I’m now being
asked to do in Atmos—and I am doing some of
them,” he clarifies. “It’s great to have this whole
new way to present these albums, yet again.”
Even More / Even Less
The real unanswered questions, though, are
these: Does Porcupine Tree have any further
new music branches growing up their collective
sleeves? Is something already in the air, since
Closure is the word that comes first in the album
title, and Continuation comes second? Is the
door open to ge ing more as-yet-unheard
PTree music to come, earmarked for additional
glory in Atmos? “I hadn’t really thought about
it that way, to be honest,” Wilson claims. “The
order of the title is just the way it sounded—and
it sounded right to me. This is closure, but it
could also be continuation—and there’s an
implied question mark at the end of the title as
well. The reality is, we don’t know whether this
is going to be the last record we make. If it is the
last record we make under the name Porcupine
Tree, it’s a beautiful way to close the story—but
it may not be. I think people think we’re playing
with them—and of course we are, with the title.
We are playing with people’s expectations a bit,
but we genuinely, genuinely don’t know.”
The gist of that last answer brought to mind a
key passage I read in Wilson’s April 2022 auto-
biography, Limited Edition of One (Constable),
gentle approach to “Of the New Day,” the disap- wherein he freely admits to outright lying to
proving eye of “Rats Return,” the Mellotron journalists on many an occasion to suit the
melodrama of “Dignity,” the vengeful snarl narrative. I ask Wilson, point blank, to identify
of “Herd Culling,” and the Barbieri showcase how many times he’s lied to me in all the years
“Walk the Plank”—its release was never really we’ve known each other. “Oh, I’ve never lied to
in doubt. you, Mike. You’re the exception,” Wilson replies,
albeit accompanied with a slight Cheshire smile
Arriving Somewhere Beyond Here before adding the kicker, “But that could be a
Given how Atmos-centric Wilson’s mixing lie too.”
proclivities are these days—as alluded to Regardless of that semi-ambiguous final
earlier, he told me off the record he’s already serve and volley, one thing we can all agree
Photo: Derrick Bremner more) Atmos mixes for a number of historical- Continuation is indeed a new gold standard
completed (and will soon enough be doing
is not a lie is this: Porcupine Tree’s Closure /
for Atmos mixes, and it only portends greater
oriented collections to come from top-shelf
things ahead—and above, and off to the sides,
name artists, some of whom were respectively
and all around us.
prominent in different decades—it would only
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