I. E. M.-Arcadia Son (2001)

 


Artist: I.E.M.

Title:  Arcadia Son

Label: Gates Of Dawn

Format: LP

Catalog Number: GOD006

Year of Release: 2001

Country and Year of Edition: US 2001 500 press

Sell Price: $18.66

Sell Date: 8/7/26

Condition: VG+/VG+

Discogs Last Sold:  7/29/26 NM/NM $40.23

Low: $18.66

Median: $43.89

Average: $45.01

High: $90.00

Current low price: $38.00 NM/NM (Japan), $42.95 NM/VG+ (US)

Curren Number on Sale at Discogs: 15

Have/Want: 231/103

Where Sold: Amityville, NY

Time It Took To Sell:  11 years

Where and When Bought: given by Michael Piper the executive producer

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B

Sad To See It Go: No

This has been sitting in storage all these years.  I think I got it from Michael Piper when Rubric was selling titles through the labels psych distro The Wild Side.  I had no idea this was a Steven Wilson side project, but it made sense since he also gave me a Porcupine Tree outtake record from around the same time.  Somehow after over ten years on Discogs, the value has significantly risen and my price sitting online had slipped all the way down to $18.66, so the store that bought this got a flipable titles.  Fair enough, this sat around many many years.

I.E.M. (aka Incredible Expanding Mindfuck) issued 4 albums from 1996-2001 which has been compiled in 2010's Untitled (Complete I.E.M.) issued on CD by Tonefloat in the Netherlands.  This was the 3rd of 4 main releases. You can almost see computer graphic artwork flickering on a screen when you listen to this.  Like most anything you hear from Steve Wilson, it sounds "modern."  With his hands in performance, production and reissue remixing, he may very well be among the most important names in all of music despite seemingly never producing anything objectively good to hear beyond a cursory listen.  Seeing Porcupine Tree live a few years ago didn't change my mind on this.  If I am wrong please let me know.  

So I got the chance to play it on vinyl before shipping and stream it a couple times to get familiar.  It is atmospheric enough and every time "Beth Krasky" comes up to tell her Ozzy drumstick story, I strain to hear it early in the record then zone out afterwards.

That said, there's still something likable about the whole presentation.  I often have the same conundrum with Porcupine Tree, but stripped of vocals it seems more like a pastiche experiment.  Except what is the experiment?  It isn't an experiment at all,  It is but a man with time honered genre signifiers whether drum or sax, reverb or feedback.  As usual, the heavily processed flute wins the day much as it did on Hendrix's "1983...A Merman I Should Turn To Be."  That the album draws from new age, jazz and rock drumming while eschewing vocals or songs does not make it experimental.

You might say it is traditional prog with a modernist spin.

FOR FURTHER REVIEW:

Porcupine Tree-Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape Archive Material 1984-91 (1994)

Opeth-Blackwater Park (2001)



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