Nil Recurring
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| Nil Recurring | ||||
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| EP by Porcupine Tree | ||||
| Released | Transmission: September 17, 2007 WHD:  October 30, 2007Peaceville:  February 18, 2008 February 19, 2008 February 22, 2008 |
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| Genre | Progressive rock Art rock |
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| Length | 28:44 | |||
| Label | Transmission WHD (JPN) Peaceville |
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| Producer | Porcupine Tree | |||
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| Porcupine Tree chronology | ||||
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| Alternate cover | ||||
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Nil Recurring (also Transmission 5.1) is an EP by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, released on 17 September 2007 through the band's online store. The mini-album is composed of four tracks written during the Fear of a Blank Planet recording sessions and completed over the summer of 2007, of which one was a track originally composed for Fear of a Blank Planet but later dropped from the final tracklist.
Nil Recurring entered the UK Top 30 Independent Label Albums at #8[1] and remains #1 EP of 2007 on Rate Your Music.[2]
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[edit] Writing and recording
The band met in London on July 2006 to work on new material for Fear of a Blank Planet album. At the time, two songs ("My Ashes" and "Normal") were already written. Those sessions produced the album songs (except for "Way Out of Here") plus four more songs of which three would not quite fit the concept, the only one the band thought that could make the way into the record at this moment was "Cheating the Polygraph", that's the reason why they performed it during the tour on support of the Arriving Somewhere DVD.
But the band later decided none of the four songs were up to the standards of the record, as they weren't properly developed yet, and there was a policy not to make the album over fifty minutes long.[3] So the four tracks were mixed between June and August 2007 to make the Nil Recurring EP. "Normal" was composed entirely by Steven Wilson. He later reworked the song, simplifying its structure to transform it into the song "Sentimental".[4] Barbieri summarized the album as "an EP that’s going to be of some value to the fans instead of just a couple of new tracks and some things they’ve already got."[5]
[edit] Release
The first press of the album was issued on Porcupine Tree's own label, Transmission, and was limited to 5000 copies in a fold-out digipak. It was originally decided to sell 3000 copies through the band's online store and sell the remaining 2000 at shows on the forthcoming tour, but the initial run of pre-orders through the online store were sold out in a period of 24 hours[6] so the band quickly put out more copies, whether for purchase or download in MP3/FLAC formats at a very cheap cost; the downloadable version includes exclusive printable artwork. A Japanese edition was released through WHD in late October 2007 and includes the radio edit of "Fear of a Blank Planet" as a bonus track. A second (unlimited) super jewel box (inside a cardboard slipcover) edition was released in February 18, 2008 on Peaceville Records.[7]
[edit] Title and concept
Porcupine Tree's frontman, Steven Wilson, explained the meaning of the EP's title and commented about its relationship with the concept of Fear of a Blank Planet:
“I just thought it was an interesting idea I had. I had this instrumental, and I didn’t have a title, so I called it Nil Recurring. It’s always quite hard to name instrumentals, because obviously there’s no subject matter to relate it to. I just thought the idea was quite funny. I kind of like absurd titles. I kind of have a history of having these titles that make no sense, like Up The Downstair (1993). I mean Nil Recurring is another paradox like statement. You cannot have the number nil recurring. So it’s just a bit of fun really. And of course, it seemed to fit in with the lyrical concept of some of the other pieces that featured on Fear Of A Blank Planet. It was that idea of blankness, of not being there or negativity that helped gave that piece, and the E.P. its title.”[3]
[edit] Song details
- The track "Nil Recurring" is an instrumental piece and features King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp on lead guitar. Gavin Harrison plays "tap guitar" on this track.[8]
- The chorus in "Normal" is musically very similar to the chorus in "Sentimental" since the latter is a further development of the former. The lyrics of both songs contain a response to each other: while the last verse on "Normal" says "Wish I was old and a little sentimental", the first verse on "Sentimental" speaks "I never wanna be old and I don't want dependence". The song has also a lyrical reference to the song "Anesthetize" from Fear of a Blank Planet in the phrase "I do a good impression of myself". According to Wilson's statement in the live performance We Lost The Skyline, the song was written in Tel-Aviv.
- The song "Cheating the Polygraph" debuted on the 2006 promotional tour for the Arriving Somewhere DVD, though its title was not revealed at the time. It was later dropped out of the tracklist for Fear of a Blank Planet so the band wrote "Way Out of Here" to replace the gap.[9] On the LP version of Fear of a Blank Planet, "Cheating the Polygraph" is placed between "My Ashes" and "Anesthetize".
- Ben Coleman contributes electric violin to "What Happens Now?", having previously worked with Steven Wilson as part of No-Man. "What Happens Now?" also includes a riff featured in "Anesthetize".
[edit] Mini site
Peaceville Records set a Nil Recurring minisite related to the issue of the EP, including full audio streamings for each track. The video for an edit of the track "Normal" was initially intended to be posted on February 15, 2008 but its release date was moved forward to February 9, 2008. It is now available for viewing through the minisite.
The site is available in four languages: English, German, French and Italian.
[edit] 5.1 Surround
In addition to the standard version, the EP is also available in 5.1 Surround Sound on the DVDA version of Fear of a Blank Planet.
| # | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Nil Recurring (feat. Robert Fripp)" | Wilson, Barbieri, Edwin, Harrison | 6:08 |
| 2. | "Normal" | Wilson | 7:07 |
| 3. | "Cheating the Polygraph" | Wilson, Harrison | 7:06 |
| 4. | "What Happens Now?" | Wilson, Barbieri, Edwin, Harrison | 8:23 |
[edit] Personnel
- Steven Wilson – vocals, guitars, piano, keyboards
- Richard Barbieri – keyboards and synthesizers
- Colin Edwin – bass guitars
- Gavin Harrison – drums, percussion, tapped guitar on “Nil Recurring”
[edit] Guests
- Robert Fripp – lead guitar on “Nil Recurring”
- Ben Coleman – electric violin on “What Happens Now?”
[edit] Chart performance
| Chart | Entry |
|---|---|
| UK Indie Chart[1] | 8 |
| Finland[10] | 5 |
| France[11] | 114 |
| Germany[12] | 100 |
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b "BBC - Radio 1 - Chart Show". BBC Radio 1. 2008-02-24. http://i30.tinypic.com/2hnywjt.jpg. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
- ^ "Top EPs of 2007 - Rate Your Music". http://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/ep/2007. Retrieved 2008-04-22.
- ^ a b "The Metal Forge Heavy Metal Music Zine - news, interviews and reviews - PORCUPINE TREE: Revolutionary Generation". 2008-04-21. http://www.themetalforge.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1452. Retrieved 2008-04-22.
- ^ "Imhotep - Interviews/Articles - PORCUPINE TREE - COMMUNICATION?". 2008-02-27. http://www.imhotep.no/?did=9076548. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ "Planet-Loud Dot Com". http://www.planet-loud.com/v6/interview.php?interview_id=1079. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
- ^ ""Shore Fire - Press Release"". 2007-09-18. http://www.shorefire.com/index.php?a=pressrelease&o=1335. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
- ^ "The Seaweed Farm: Nil Recurring on Peaceville Records". http://www.theseaweedfarm.com/2007/11/nil-recurring-on-peaceville-records.html. Retrieved 2007-11-25.
- ^ "Porcupine Fripp". http://www.dgmlive.com/news.htm?entry=996. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
- ^ "PORCUPINE TREE (STEVEN WILSON) - Interview". Terrorverlag. http://www.musik.terrorverlag.de/interviews.php?id=475. Retrieved 2007-07-05.
- ^ "finnishcharts.com - Porcupine Tree- Nil Recurring". http://finnishcharts.com/showitem.asp?key=432915&cat=s. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
- ^ "lescharts.com - Porcupine Tree - Nil Recurring". http://lescharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Porcupine+Tree&titel=Nil+Recurring&cat=a. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
- ^ "German Top 100 Singles/Albums Chart". 2008-02-24. http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=64958&view=findpost&p=1802574. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
[edit] External links
- Porcupine Tree
- Nil Recurring mini site on Peaceville
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