Editing Steven Wilson (section)

===Breakthrough work===
{{BLP sources section|date=February 2021}}

In 1987, Wilson launched the two projects that would make his name. The first of these was initially called "No Man Is An Island (Except The Isle of Man)", although it would later be renamed "[[No-Man]]." This began life as a solo Wilson instrumental project blending progressive rock with synth pop, subsequently moving towards art-pop when singer/lyricist [[Tim Bowness]] joined the project the following year. The second project was "[[Porcupine Tree]]", which was originally intended to be a full-on pastiche of psychedelic rock (inspired by the similar [[Dukes of Stratosphear]] project by [[XTC]]) carried out for the mutual entertainment of Wilson and his childhood friend Malcolm Stocks.

Over the next three years, the projects would evolve in parallel. Of his two efforts, No Man Is An Island (Except The Isle of Man) was the first to release a commercial single (1989's "The Girl From Missouri", on Plastic Head Records), while Porcupine Tree built an increasing underground reputation via the release of a series of cassette-only releases via The Freak Emporium (the mail-order wing of British psychedelic label [[Delerium Records]]).

By 1990, No Man Is An Island (Except The Isle of Man) had fully evolved into No-Man and was a voice/violin/multi-instrument trio which had incorporated dance beats into its art-pop sound. The second No-Man single – a crooned cover of the [[Donovan]] song "Colours" arranged in a dub-loop style anticipating [[trip hop]] - won the Single of the Week award in ''[[Melody Maker]]'' and gained the band a recording contract with the high-profile independent label [[One Little Indian]] (at the time, famous for [[the Shamen]] and [[Björk]]). Their debut One Little Indian single, "Days in the Trees", won the same Single of the Week award the following year. The single also briefly charted and, although sales were not outstanding, Wilson had now gained credibility in the record industry (as well as enough finance to fit out his home studio with the equipment he would need to advance his music).

By this time, Wilson had also released the official Porcupine Tree debut album, ''[[On the Sunday of Life]]...''  (which compiled the best material from the underground tapes). No-Man's debut full-length release – a compilation of EP tracks called ''Lovesighs – An Entertainment'' – followed in 1992, as did Porcupine Tree's infamous LSD-themed maxi-single "[[Voyage 34]]" which made the ''[[NME]]'' [[indie (music)|indie]] [[music chart|chart]] for six weeks.<ref name="Porcupine Tree Biography">{{cite web|url = http://www.porcupinetree.com/background.cfm|title = Porcupine Tree Biography|access-date = 2007-05-15|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080410092648/http://www.porcupinetree.com/background.cfm|archive-date = 10 April 2008}}</ref> No-Man also toured England with a six-piece band including three ex-members of the art-pop band [[Japan (band)|Japan]] – [[Mick Karn]], [[Steve Jansen]] and (most significantly) keyboardist [[Richard Barbieri]]. 1993 saw Wilson consolidating his initial success with albums from both Porcupine Tree (''[[Up the Downstair]]'') and No-Man (''Loveblows And Lovecries – A Confession'').

Porcupine Tree, meanwhile, toured frequently and passed through various overt phases of different musical stylings (including psychedelia, progressive rock, modern guitar rock and heavy metal) while retaining the core of Wilson's sonic imagination and songwriting. By the mid-2000s Porcupine Tree had become a well known rock band with albums on major labels such as Atlantic and Roadrunner.