The Incident | Porcupine Tree | Full Album Cover

Despite being sidelined by the likes of In Absentia, Deadwing and Fear of a Blank Planet, ‪@PorcupineTreeOfficial‬ 's 2009 prog epic The Incident is near and dear to my heart and right up there among the greatest works of music I've ever listened to. The tour supporting the record was the first time I saw ‪@StevenWilsonHQ‬ , Gavin Harrison, Richard Barbieri and Colin Edwin live, forever changing the trajectory of my musical journey. For me, The Incident is special because it was one of few musical works that let me visualize a narrative as I listened to it.

Much to my surprise, I found out later that the band themselves didn't regard The Incident that well. Steven in particular wrote in his autobiography that the song was nothing more than a bunch of half-baked ideas he packaged together as one piece. It was a significant motivating factor in wanting to create my own rendition of this massive tune and reinvigorate it by finding ways to make it seem less like a bunch of songs glued together at the hip.

This Gothik Serpent undertaking combines elements of both the studio and live versions, and streamlines the song in a few ways. One example is simplifying Your Unpleasant Family and switching its arrangement with The Yelllow Windows of the Evening Train. In the original, I found that the former robbed the preceding track, The Incident, of its thunderous ending. Other updates include making the chorus of Drawing the Line heavier with less emphasis on the droning guitar, increasing the tempo of The Blind House to be less draggy, having a more ballsy bass in Time Flies, having a less jarring transition between The Séance and Circle of Manias, and shortening I Drive the Hearse so it wanders less.

Aside from the music, I also utilized AI art to bring my interpretation of the narrative to life, giving all the songs better continuity with one another. The result is what I hope is a fitting love letter to one of my favorite works of music from probably the most important band in my musical life.

Kerwin Tsang - Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Stick, Synths, Mixing, Mastering, Video
Tau Bowyer - Drums, Bongos, Camera
Olivia Jean Kong - Vocals
Don Tan - Camera

0:00 Occam's Razor
1:57 The Blind House
7:35 Great Expectations
9:03 Kneel and Disconnect
11:06 Drawing the Line
15:52 The Incident
21:19 The Yellow Windows of the Evening Train
22:42 Your Unpleasant family
23:40 Time Flies
35:16 Degree Zero of Liberty
37:01 Octane Twisted
42:03 The Séance
44:43 Circle of Manias
47:19 I Drive the Hearse