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 comprises 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 and remains #1 EP of 2007 on Rate Your Music.
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. These 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 the fifty minutes long. 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". 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.
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 stone 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 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) jewelcase edition was released in
February 18,
2008 on
Peaceville Records.
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.”
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.
- The chorus in "Normal" is musically very similar to the chorus in "Sentimental" since the last one is a further development of the first. 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 dependents". 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. 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".
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.
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.
Track listing
- "Nil Recurring" (Wilson/Barbieri/Edwin/Harrison) - 6:08
- "Normal" (Wilson) - 7:09
- "Cheating the Polygraph" (Wilson/Harrison) - 7:10
- "What Happens Now?" (Wilson/Barbieri/Edwin/Harrison) - 8:23
Personnel
Guests
- Robert Fripp – lead guitar on “Nil Recurring”
- Ben Coleman – electric violin on “What Happens Now?”
Chart performance
Notes
External links
