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The story behind this album’s creation is one that involves a bit of chutzpah on the part of Steven Wilson. A large part of this involves the fact that Steven opted to release it just to see if he could. As the man himself put it circa 2002:
“It was an anti-single. It was a thirty minute single about drugs that had no vocals in it. I thought that no one is going to play this. But it charted anyway. It was the ultimate ‘fuck you.’”
That quote epitomizes the nerve Steven exhibited in creating this album—going directly against the grain of commercialism as radically as he possibly could yet proving he could succeed in spite of that.
You would no doubt have noticed by the release date that this one’s a little finicky. The “June 1992-August 1993” was when the original song was being recorded while the “June 6, 2000” was when all the pieces were assembled for Voyage 34: The Complete Trip. Technically I’m cheating since Voyage 34: The Complete Trip is a compilation album, but as the material contained on it isn’t available anywhere else, I classify it as a proper studio album.
I apologize in advance for not going into as much detail regarding the music for this one, but the non-sequitur structure makes a look at the music itself difficult. Also, I will only be covering “Phase I” and “Phase II” because “Phase III” and “Phase IV” are remixes.
“Phase I” (12:55)
This song starts with a spoken-word sample and then the trip-out begins. And yes, I do say ‘trip-out’ because that is the loose story of this album—a chronicle of a LSD trip set to an experimental fusion of psychedelic music, ambient, trance, and progressive rock. It’s no accident that the cover art is inspired by that of a Timothy Leary album titled L.S.D. There isn’t much to say about this thin story—it’s just about a guy named Brian tripping on LSD—but the music is a jam.
This music largely consists of layers of guitar, bass, flute, keys, and drum meander about through various formations. Throughout the whole while, there are various spoken-word samples played throughout. The way the instruments function in this piece is one where they appear to explore new territory as they go along—if this was planned deliberately, it was done so to give the appearance of winging it. Explorative rock, in a sense. This means that it is probably best to go along for the ride while it lasts.
In many ways, that characteristic of meandering is likely why early Porcupine Tree garnered the label of ‘the new Pink Floyd.’ Steven Wilson would vehemently reject this label, claiming it insulting because it assumes that nothing can ever be as good as anything that came before.
“Phase II” (17:31)
The second phase carries from the sample at the end of “Phase I,” which read:
“This young man never had a bummer in some thirty-three LSD trips. Every one of them was a delight. Everything under control. He needed only to snap his fingers and down he came, any time. But on Voyage 34, he finally met himself coming down an up-staircase, and the encounter was crushing.”
Wait a minute…“down an up-staircase?” This line makes more sense in the Porcupine Tree discography when you consider that “Voyage 34” was originally set to appear on Up The Downstair, making that album a double-album. Then, Steven decided to release “Voyage 34” on its own as a single for reasons discussed in the introduction. But this sample explains the title’s significance and sets the tone for “Phase II”—Brian will have a comedown and we get to hear it.
All that said, this part begins with ethereally-quiet keyboards. Soon, drums enter with a maraca-esque tone. This goes on for quite a while, changing up with the presence of kick-drum and intermittent guitar coming in while this thing builds up over the course of several minutes—all while various spoken-word samples play over the top of this. Then, the song finally picks up with a bit of a techno drop and then guitar and drums go into a standard beat.
But this song is anything but standard and hardly stays in one place for too long. This song does have that meandering Pink Floyd quality to it. Psychedelic jamming is the name of the game here—only with an ambient bent. Sure, there are guitar and synth solos peppered throughout the piece, but they are merely part of the overall structure—not showboating exercises on behalf of the soloist (and expense of the piece). Although this part is—tone-wise—icier than “Phase I,” this is still one big jam where your best course of action is to just sit back and go along for the ride.
Final Thoughts:
I have been told that some aspects of this (the ambient nature; the meandering quality) are adopted for both Bass Communion and Incredible Expanding Mindfuck, but in different regards. Incredible Expanding Mindfuck apparently acts as more of a follow-up to this type of thing while Bass Communion apparently serves as a refined attempt at the type of electronic/progressive fusion that Steven failed to do with Altamont back in the 80’s. That both projects can be branched off from Voyage 34 means that this album is far more important in the scheme of Steven Wilson’s various projects than it is towards Porcupine Tree’s career. Indeed, the psychedelic influence (after being prominent in On The Sunday of Life) slowly becomes stripped away from Porcupine Tree’s sound until it’s only present in fragments of Stupid Dream and completely removed from Lightbulb Sun.
As for the album itself, it’s a treat while it lasts. However, it doesn’t leave a lasting impact the way that any of the Unsung Eight do. These words of Steven (from around 2012) sum up my thoughts on the album pretty well:
“The whole point about "Voyage 34" was an exercise in genre. In that sense it stands apart from the rest of the catalogue...back in the early Nineties, there was an explosion in ambient music…I wouldn’t say "Voyage 34" was a technical exercise, that makes it sound like a science project, but it was a one-off experiment in a particular genre in which I knew I wouldn’t be staying for very long…Even at the time, I think that sort of music was already passing. Music that is too attached to a trend very soon starts to sound very dated. I was always interested in existing outside the bubble of whatever was hip, and that kind of music was very briefly hip. "Voyage 34" sits inside that bubble. I’m still very proud of it. It was a unique piece of music, but of all the catalogue, it’s one of the pieces which relates most closely to the era that it was created in.”
NEXT TIME: No-Man - "Loveblows & Lovecries - A Confession" (May 1993)
No-Man will be uncharted territory for me, but I'm told it's significantly poppier than anything I've looked at so far. More like art-pop, though. I'll be intrigued by that since Steven has always had an impeccable ear for melody.