I.E.M. - 1996-1999 England

A few years ago I wrote the following about Incredible Expanding Mindfuck's sophomore effort: "If the idea of lengthy cosmic psychedelic Krautrock jams - with an enormous amount of studio gadgetry and tricks - are your bag, then boy do I have a recommendation for you."

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And that's pretty much what you get with this CD which combines their 1996 debut with 1999's An Escalator to Christmas (EP). There's really not that much more to say here. At this point, Porcupine Tree's main man was at his zenith in terms of creative rock music at a time when his primary vehicle had headed for more commercial waters - and successful at that. Wilson possesses the ear of the late 60s and early 70s underground masters, and his recent production work on classic Tangerine Dream underscores this point.

Or to put it another way: I have way too much music like IEM in the collection that needs to be trimmed. But this isn't one of them. Top of the stack for modern interpretation of the cosmic Krautrock / prog sound.

Ownership: CD: 2005 Headphone Dust. Purchased new upon release. Standard jewel box release with a multi foldout booklet with postage stamp vintage b&w photos.

12//05; 8/10/22 (new entry)

I.E.M. - IEM Have Come For Your Children. 2001 England

For an all-too-short few years, Steven Wilson took his Pink Floyd fetish to the extremes of that band's own late 60s legacy - one which lead to the most psychedelic aspects of the original Krautrock movement. IEM, or more properly the explicit Incredible Expanding Mindfuck, is a self-defining name. So if the idea of lengthy cosmic psychedelic Krautrock jams - with an enormous amount of studio gadgetry and tricks - are your bag, then boy do I have a recommendation for you. The album kicks off with a 35 minute number which defines everything IEM is about. It's not for those who suffer from ADD (illegal downloaders, YouTube scanners), that's for sure. But if in the mood, the piece does a remarkably great job of filling that time with intriguing jams and a variety of cool sounds, including way-fuzzed out psych guitar, flute, pounding drums, and mellotron. Further songs add saxophone for even more color. The 5th jam is more of an experimental noise piece that I find out of place, not so much because of its avant gardeness, but rather a different species than what IEM seem to represent - more toward the modern NWW and its progenitors for example. The final piece gets us back on track with an atmospheric dulcimer and choir mellotron number.

IEM isn't going to be for all Porcupine Tree fans, especially for ones that came later to the group when they were practically an Alt-Rock band.  But if you enjoy PTree when it was essentially a Wilson solo project, and wanted to hear the extreme possibilities of the most psychedelic aspects, then you will want to seek all three of the IEM full length albums soon.

Personal collection
CD: 2001 Headphone Dust

A tough one to find on CD at a reasonable price. It took me some years to do just that. It was my own fault because inexplicably I didn't purchase this one even though I did pick up the debut and Arcadia Son real time. None of these have been reissued unfortunately.