The Baldock Transmission

A document of reconnection.

Over the years, in various interviews which always occur based around whatever I am doing at the moment, the inevitable Porcupine Tree questions come my way. For various reasons, after a number of years, I’d considered it a thing of the past and had never really seriously considered the possibility of revisiting things in any way at all.

It was then subsequently made clear to me that any further involvement with whatever activities the restarted version of Porcupine Tree might pursue, there was “no role for me” going forward. So then, nothing new and certainly no revisiting, was on the cards.

One positive outcome of this situation meant a long overdue reconnection with original Porcupine Tree drummer Chris Maitland. I had been out of touch with Chris for quite some time, although we’d met maybe once or twice a few years after Chris’s time in Porcupine Tree had ended. Around 2012 or so, we were supposed to tour together as part of a Tim Bowness related project, I was looking forward to it, but for some reason or other it was all cancelled, and as we moved in very different areas, we had no real connection after that.

Subsequently, after re-establishing contact, we’ve spent a few very enjoyable afternoons in various London restaurants over some nice wine (or saké) discussing our shared journeys in the past and our feelings about the music we helped bring to life. After a long period of not hearing or listening to any of the old material, I had re-listen to a few old forgotten live recordings which have surfaced more recently and it seemed, in spite of, or perhaps because of, our differences*, Chris and I were indeed rather a good partnership, naturally, without any real in depth discussion. Chatting through things, we were also in agreement that we had both been part of something quite rare and special. At times it was even a good laugh.

Eventually, and perhaps inevitably, the question of wether we might be able to actually play together again materialised.

Seeking an unpressurised starting point for re-igniting our musical chemistry, the idea of simply getting together and seeing what happens was agreed. It was also agreed we should document this act of reconnection, no matter how self indulgent, so a suitable recording studio was sourced. But just the two of us might not be enough, so who might join us in this ritual? Jon Durant was an easy choice, myself having enjoyed a very productive long running musical partnership with Jon as Burnt Belief **. I tentatively asked Jon if he’d be available for an off the wall, unrehearsed studio jam on a free period during one of his trips to the UK.

Jon is very familiar with our world and as it turned out, he was also happy to explore the possibilities whilst simultaneously not being too worried should things fall apart. In other words, Jon was fully into the spirit of the adventure.

The question of what to play and wether we should prepare some material was pondered briefly, before we decided that quite a few of Porcupine Tree tunes we’d a hand in, were birthed in the moment with minimal, or even zero, prior discussion, and, well, they seemed to have worked out well.

The long form Moonloop is perhaps the most well known, but also Signify’s Intermediate Jesus, the bulk of the Metanoia album :

…and it's worth remembering there were quite a number of spontaneous improv moments even in the more composed material, and especially in the earlier, spacier songs when they were performed live - Dislocated Day, Radioactive Toy, Not Beautiful Anymore…

From my own perspective, once we'd set up our instruments and started, playing with Chris again felt like simply continuing a conversation, as if the preceding 20 odd years of silence didn’t matter at all. The unspoken understanding of how we fit together on our respective instruments is still there and just came out, exactly as it did on PT's first rehearsal day in South London’s Music Complex Studios back when things were just coming together for the very first performances. I didn’t know Chris at all prior to meeting him that first day in the rehearsal space, and we’d never played together before. At that time, we both simply worked our way into the framework by instinct more than anything else.

(Photo by Talie Eigeland)

Back to Baldock - As I knew he would, Jon did what Jon does and found his place in between us with a creativity, grace and elegance I already knew he is well capable of. It’s fair to say synergy took place. The feeling was that we were simply tapping into something already there, as if picking up an alien transmission and amplifying it through our instruments, hence the title.

Jon, Chris and myself, will present the results of our reconnection as The Baldock Transmission (..cover image above) later this year. Overdubs and edits are minimal, a few found sounds have crept in to aid the concept and cement the ideas, but it’s a good document of the spontaneity and flow of ideas as they took shape in the moment.

The Baldock Transmission is a new chapter in a particular related branch of the P Tree, perhaps it will flourish, perhaps not, but when all’s said and done we did it for ourselves, we all enjoyed the process and we present it here for your amusement, enjoyment, or otherwise.

(Photo by Talie Eigland)

Release Information:

The Baldock Transmission will see the light of day through Alchemy Records in November this year. There will be a special strictly limited edition transparent green vinyl, and also a CD/Digital version containing bonus tracks.

Pre-order and shipping information will be posted here in due course, and it’s likely a few will be available directly here, so please remember to -

…for updates.

* We did at one time work out there were only 5 things we both agreed on, I am not going to list them here but it’s safe to say there are a few more these days.

** Side Note for anyone unfamiliar: https://burntbelief.bandcamp.com/