Porcupine Tree, Ex-Wise Heads, Random Noise Generator
Colin Edwin On Riding A Sonic Storm
Adventurous British rock outfit Porcupine Tree takes listeners on a wild ride on its latest, Fear of a Blank Planet, with Colin Edwin helming the low end. The progressive, metal-tinged album possesses a cinematic feel, with pieces that combine supercharged rhythms, ambient textures, odd time signatures, and lengthy instrumental passages into a seamless, exhilarating whole. Edwin is also part of eclectic ethno-fusion collective Ex-Wise Heads, as well as a member of Random Noise Generator, a metal act acclaimed for blending influences from all periods of the genre with thoughtful songcraft.
How does the mercurial nature of Porcupine Tree’s music affect your role in the band?
There’s a real discipline involved in being the bassist in this band. The sound is very sonically dense—it’s full of layered guitars, keyboards, and intricate drumming—which typically leaves a very defined area for the bass. I’m sort of a pivot point for everything going on. Having said that, there are parts where the bass doesn’t necessarily play the roots in sequence, so there are a lot of inversions going on, which is quite unusual for most rock acts.
Describe the approaches you explore on the 17-minute epic, “Anesthetize.”
The first section is ambient and tom-driven, so it was a rare case of deciding that something high and melodic would work nicely. When I initially recorded the piece, there was also a big space in the first part that was just a drumbeat and chords, so I played a solo. Later, [Rush guitarist] Alex Lifeson came in to do a solo there that was arranged over mine, with great results. Next, the bass and guitar play a unison line, which called for a deep sound, so I tuned to CFBbEb. After that, I follow the guitar riff and outline the root movement of the changes. The last part is very slow and spacey, which I matched with very long, slow notes consisting mostly of roots, and some double-stops to make things less obvious. It’s a great, dynamic piece that underlines how bass functions as an essential cog in the machine.
CAN BE HEARD ON
Porcupine Tree, Fear of a Blank Planet [Atlantic, 2007]; Porcupine Tree, Deadwing [Lava, 2005]; Ex-Wise Heads, Holding Up The Sky [Hard World, 2007]
CURRENTLY SPINNING
Maghrebika, Neftakhir [Barbarity, 2006]
“Bill Laswell plays on this; he’s a big influence on me. This record finds him playing very groove-oriented and dubby lines mixed with North African music.”
GEAR
Basses: Spector Euro 4LX-35 with Spector Medium Stainless Steel strings, BassLab Soul IV with Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky Roundwound strings, Spector Euro 4, Wal, fretless Wal Mach 1, Ernie: Ball/MusicMan Bongo, Ernie Ball/MusicMan StingRay, Takamine 330 acoustic bass guitar
Rig: EBS TD650 Tube Definition Bass Head, two EBS Evolution Neoline Pro NEO-410 speaker cabinets
Effects: EBS ValveDrive tube preamp/overdrive pedal, EBS MultiDrive distortion, EBS OctaBass octave, and EBS MultiComp compressor
“The Euro 4LX-35 has a graphite-reinforced neck, which means it can come out of a freezing-cold trailer into a hot gig every night for a month without going out of tune or having any trussrod problems.”
Edwin’s Practice Tip
“Our drummer, Gavin Harrison, likes playing ‘rhythmic illusions,’ in which he makes small pattern changes that make it seem like the tempo or time signature has altered. This regimen helped me with Gavin’s approach by reinforcing that the time is still there and that it will eventually resolve. If you play a major scale in 4/4 with a metronome, you have a nice, even set of beats and notes that resolve together. If you play it as a seven-beat scale, skipping the octave but keeping the click going on every other beat, there’s a moment when the click is no longer where you expect it, but you eventually hear it on the octave.” [See Example to the upper-right]
