Around the world in four days

Raw Power is back, which is great news for fans of Iggy and the Stooges. After nearly three decades of separation, lead guitarist James Williamson is back with the band. This is all part of the buzz that led to an unprecedented sellout crowd for Colours of Ostrava before the gates even opened.

The Stooges may top the festival's program, but there are plenty of other sweet spots on this multilayered musical cake that will bake in the summer sun for four days, starting Thursday this week. Actually, there are nearly 100 layers to the cake if you count all the acts spread across five stages.

The international highlights include the Cranberries, Regina Spektor, Afro Celt Sound System and Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg. They'll be sharing the stages with regional favorites like United Flavour, the Wavemen, Blue Effect, Al-Yaman and Čechomor.

One of the most intriguing acts among the headliners is Porcupine Tree, a British band often compared to '60s progressive rock pioneers Pink Floyd and King Crimson, though comparisons to contemporary groups such as Tool, Mars Volta and Opeth are probably more accurate. Despite an obvious prog-rock tilt, which in live performances includes a convincing update of the sort of rhapsodic rock popularly associated with David Gilmour-era Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree seeks to avoid the progressive tag - and with good reason. The band's often blissed-out sound is sharpened by dark metal, decorated with '90s cosmic ambient space and laced with neo-folk singer-songwriter melodies.

For Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison, this is all part of the band's and his own personal sonic landscapes. Harrison's career, which includes work with Soft Machine's Kevin Ayers, the chamber-folk unit Renaissance and latter-day incarnations of King Crimson, may at first seem true to form. But just before joining Porcupine Tree, Harrison was mostly known for his work in UK blue-eyed soul with recording artists Paul Young, Lisa Stansfield and Lewis Taylor.

In contrast, Porcupine Tree founder/songwriter/guitarist Steve Wilson comes from an eclectic, experimental DIY background. Lending a romantic sound on keyboards is Rich Barbieri, who along with David Sylvian was a founder of the popular '70s synth-pop band Japan. At the bottom of all this is the Australian bassist Colin Edwin, who according to Harrison "is actually into reggae and a lot of ethnic styles of music."

Not surprisingly, when Harrison talks about progressive rock, he has a forward-looking rather than retro perspective. This is due in part to Porcupine Tree's composition process, which draws on the dynamic and diverse inspirations of all the band's members. But it also has roots in Harrison's direct exposure to, and participation in, the often-forgotten, original avant-garde notions of the progressive rock genre.

"At the base of the progressive movement, there was the idea that you were breaking new ground," Harrison says. "It was cutting-edge music that did not follow regular format and song structures. I think that's the beauty of progressive music, that you can really forget some of the standard formats of songwriting and the progressive audience will accept it."

Taking the audience on their latest adventure Friday at midnight, Porcupine Tree will perform their 10th and latest album, The Incident (Snapper Records, 2009), in a set that includes films by Danish filmmaker Lasse Hoile.

There's a lot more on this year's schedule, so much so that practically a year's worth of rock, jazz, ska, funk, world beat and other genres has been packed into one long weekend. If you don't already have a ticket, your best bet is to scan the online classifieds. This might also be a good time to mark your 2011 calendar for what has become the Czech Republic's most successful international rock festival.

Darrell Jónsson can be reached at
features@praguepost.com