THE SKY MOVES SIDEWAYS

After the first two Porcupine Tree albums, which were more the result of recordings and personal projects, Steven Wilson finally incorporates musicians as stable members of the band for the recording of "The Sky Moves Sideways", the third Porcupine Tree album, very much related to the psychedelia of the early 70's, one of the great sources of inspiration for the British musician.

Hence, right from the start of the album, the Pinkfloydian influences are present in the huge suite that bears the name of the album, "The Sky Moves Sideways", a piece separated into two parts: Phase 1, a hypnotic journey without end, with Wilson's vocals in Gilmour mode, interrupted by the intensity of Richard Barbieri's haunting, lingering electronic instrumentation, Chris Maitland's serene percussion and a distorted guitar solo in the background, to its quiet conclusion of acoustic guitars tucked under a blanket of keyboards; and, preceded by the deserted delay guitar solo of the brief "Prepare Yourself" and the experimental and atmospheric "Moonloop", Phase 2 maintains the permanent sensation of a ship on an astral voyage, and extends into a powerful development that momentarily becomes calm, before giving way to a long, spacey guitar solo, in one of the album's high points, and concluding the track with Colin Edwin Edwin's low bass lulled by the watery sounds of a psychedelic sea.

In between the two Phases, two tracks that were previously recorded by Wilson himself on all the instruments give the album a complementary nuance: the uninhibited "Dislocated Day" with its wah wah guitar effects and the melancholic, acoustic "The Moon Touches Your Shoulder".

"The Sky Moves Sideways" is an excellent third "first" album from Porcupine Tree, and marks the beginning of a string of superlative productions from the band.

4 stars