| Porcupine Tree - In Absentia | ... the must-have demo disc of the year (2004), and it is worthy of the challenge.
If you love riffs, you’ll love this record. Wilson makes superb use of the tightly controlled modern rock guitar sound, and conjures up imaginative pile-driver riffs throughout, often contrasted with pastoral or psychedelic sections far more inventively than similar efforts by other users of the old quiet-loud trick. This album opener is a stunner, with fuzzed and wah-wahed guitar circling the room on the verse superbly well-recorded, energetic, and focused drumming from new boy (and revered drum tutor) Gavin Harrison and an organ break and surround ambience from long-time Porcupine Tree member and one-time Japan synth-man Richard Barbieri.
[Patrick Cleasby @ HFR]
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| Porcupine Tree - In Absentia | I can't imagine hearing In Absentia in any format but surround. This disc is another one of those tailor-made for surround sound! All speakers are active throughout the disc, and this impressive, beautiful music just washes over you like waves of aural ecstasy...the guitars at times electric, at times acoustic, with a wash of synthesizers and strings working their magic from everywhere in the listening room...very impressive!! The clarity and openness is perfect for this music, and Wilson is not shy in fully utilizing the surround effect.
[George Bennett @ MusicTap]
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| Porcupine Tree - In Absentia | In Absentia is a fascinating marriage of dreamy, harmonized vocals and huge guitars and drums that you just want to turn up and up and up. This is a disc that satisfies your love for creative lyrical work but that also shakes your home's foundation.
... fantastically enjoyable mix... It never comes across as gimmicky, and even when it sends an instrument or harmonized focal to a discrete channel, it seems an inherent part of the song rather than a sonic effect.
[Jason Bovberg @ DVDTalk]
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