Porcupine Tree
„Nil Recurring“
Progressive Rock.

• EP, Black Vinyl. 2022 (2007)
• Remaster
• Transmission Recordings
• TRANSM282LP
• new

An album is finished, in this case "Fear Of A Blank Planet." A lot of material remains, enough for an EP with four songs. And they're quite something. Alongside Steven Wilson and his band, Robert Fripp (King Crimson) plays electric guitar on the instrumental "Nil Recurring."

Before I discuss the four songs, I feel the need to ask a question. What exactly is wrong with "Fear Of A Blank Planet"? The complaint is that these four songs didn't "made it" onto FOABP, and that this means the album falls short of its potential.

"Nil Recurring" is darker, more compelling, more melancholic, and rockier. The title track, "Nil Recurring," opens the EP instrumentally. What Fripp plays on the guitar here is impressive. And I'm not exactly a fan of purely instrumental music. But this song is simply awesome.

For some, "Normal" is better than "Sentimental." I don't want to slip into categories like worse or better. I'm glad that "Sentimental" and "Normal" exist, and I enjoy listening to both songs. Perhaps it's precisely this luxury that some people just can't handle. "Something from PT again? And everything's perfect again! It's all too much for me, it's not beautiful anymore!" We now have two wonderful songs; it couldn't be better.

"Cheating The Polygraph" and "What Happens Now?" perfectly round out this entertaining EP. An engaging 28 minutes are behind me, and I don't regret a single second. More on that in...

… Conclusion. It's not often that you find musicians who consistently deliver simply good music. Steven Wilson, with his high-quality output (also thanks to his congenial band members), is simply a phenomenon. It doesn't matter if it's always to my taste (it isn't), but I can still appreciate it. I don't have to listen to everything. To the haters out there: take off the blinders and just listen. Don't always look for faults.

I don't understand why some people consider "Fear Of A Blank Planet" incomplete because of these four tracks. An album doesn't have to include every good piece that was written during its creation. For me, "FOABP" works perfectly as a self-contained work, exactly as it was released. "Nil Recurring" doesn't improve it—it expands upon it.

And that's precisely where the appeal lies for me. The EP reveals a different side of the same creative period: harder, darker, at times more experimental, and with "Normal" even an interesting connection to "Sentimental." I don't want to relegate these four tracks to "Fear Of A Blank Planet." I like them as an addition.

For me, "Nil Recurring" isn't a belated repair of an incomplete album, but a luxury. And sometimes luxury is simply beautiful.

On The Sunday Of Life 1992
Voyage 34 1992/1993 (2022)
Up The Downstair 1993 (2021)
The Sky Moves Sideways 1995 (2021)
Signify 1996
Coma Divine (Live) 1997
Stupid Dream 1999
Lightbulb Sun 2000
Recordings 2001
In Absentia 2002
Deadwing 2005
Fear Of A Blank Planet 2007
Nil Recurring 2007
Anesthetize – Live In Tilburg 2008
We Lost The Skyline Live 2008
The Incident 2009
Octane Twisted Live 2012
Closure/Continuation 2022
Closure/Continuation Live 2023

The photos are all from my LP. The rights to all designs, logos, texts and fonts that can be seen in the photos are of course owned by the copyright holder.

TheProgThief
©28.08.2025
Mk 2