ILOSAARIROCK

This is one of those club members only releases.Thankyou Bonnek for sending me the extra copy you owned. This is a live album from the "Fear Of A Blank Planet" tour in 2007.The band felt this concert at the Ilosaarirock Festival in Finland was one of the best concerts of that tour and since the national radio was professionally recording it, it worked out beautifully. Steven Wilson remixed it at the No-Man studios.

"Intro" is just that a short 2 minute peice mostly of the crowd roaring and clapping before the synths roll in. "Fear Of A Blank Planet" is such a killer tune live and this is no exception. The crowd is really into this one. This sounds so gorgeous after 6 minutes. "Lightbulb Sun" opens with strummed guitar as vocals join in. Love the lyrics for this one. I really enjoy the guitar 2 1/2 minutes in and after 4 minutes. A classic. "Open Car" opens with riffs as the crowd claps with passion. How good is the chorus when it settles: "Hair blown in an open car, summer dress slips down her arms". This one rocks !

"Anesthetize" just brings emotion. I really am falling in love with that album. About time I guess, but it's hearing these songs live in Toronto three times now that's done it. That's what makes this recording so good. "Blackest Eyes" has been a favourite of mine for years. It's dark and heavy early but the chorus is like sunshine isn't it ? "Way Out Of Here" is a song I didn't appreciate until seeing them do it on this tour and now it's one of my favourites. So powerful and emotional. "Sleep Together" opens with the crowd clapping as Steven sings. It kicks in after 1 1/2 minutes as contrasts continue. "Trains" is a classic and words won't justify it. It's the encore song along with "Halo" where they give an energetic finale for the enthusiastic crowd.

Easily 4 stars. It's great to have these live "Fear Of A Blank Planet" songs. Thanks again Karl !

Illosaarirock is live recording of a festival gig in Finland. It's been distributed to the Residents of A Blank Planet fanclub only so for the time being this will have only a limited availability.

But as can be expected from Porcupine Tree, limited edition does by no means mean inferior. This is a perfectly produced recording of a band out on all cylinders. The material is mainly coiled from the FoaBP album and played faithful to the originals. But where the studio renditions lacked a bit of punch, this live rendition is simply steaming!

The concert opener FoaBP blasts out of the speakers, just a notch faster and fully rocking out. Lightbulb Sun doesn't match the dreamy ambience of its original but it is grittier and angry. An approach that suits Open Car. Everyone who has heard Anesthetize live knows how a rousing effect the song gives. So it does, here as well. One little flaw would be Wesley's rendition of Alex Lifeson's guitar solo. He clearly doesn't have Alex's magic touch and sounds completely not at ease with it.

The best comes at the end. Way Out of Here and Sleep Forever had always left me a bit untouched on the studio album. But here they are so much more powerful. Way Out Of Here is intense and emotional, Sleep Forever sounds raw and dirty, exactly as it should be. Blackest Eyes, Trains and Halo all feature on previous live album but they are mandatory at a festival gig of course. Halo got a slightly different arrangement with different guitar effects and keyboard sounds.

Excellent fan release that deserves 4 stars. But I expect it it will become slightly redundant with the release of the Anesthetize DVD... 3.5 stars

A good live album from a GREAT live band!

As a member of the 'Residents Of A Blank Planet' official Porcupine Tree fanclub, members receive a free live album, EP and some other things every few years, and as most fans will tell you, these are always high quality releases. Ilosaarirock, or Transmission 10.1, is no exception to this rule. As the first licensed and/or released live recording from the band's Fear Of A Blank Planet tour, this one grabbed the attention of the big fans, and the listeners alike who enjoyed the band's 2007 release, which was their most popular as far as chart sales up to that point. What we have here is a fantastic live recording, featuring many new tracks, and some old goodies.

As a fan club CD, the quality here is fantastic - members received a full digipak CD, and then later on, a CD slipcase after the Digipaks were all sent out. As a later joining member, I received the slipcase. The audio fidelity is up to the standards of any and every other live Porcupine Tree release - that is to say, nothing short of stunning. It's impressive to see a fanclub CD given the same attention to detail and quality as a commercial CD release. These very same fanclub CD's notoriously and routinely nab prices on ebay reaching into the hundreds.

The music here is fantastic, featuring tracks from all the way back to their Lightbulb Sun album to their most recent release, Fear Of A Blank Planet. Many of the tracks are presented in a heavier format here, particularly Lightbulb Sun and Trains. The former no longer has the dreamy psychedelic sound and is instead presented as a rocker, but the track is still fantastic.

As a live package, this is great, although by no means essential, and somewhat obsolete due to the even higher (!) quality of their recent Anesthetize live recording, which features many more tracks and a more enthusiastic Porcupine Tree.

3/5; definitely worthy of a PT fan's collection, and great for other listeners too!

This is one of several live releases which capture Porcupine Tree performing in the wake of Fear of a Blank Planet, perhaps the height of their 2000s powers before 2009's The Incident split opinions and took a little of the shine off the band.

As the title implies, it's taken from their appearance the Isolaarirock Festival in Finland, and as is often the case with festival sets that makes it a somewhat different beast from live releases sourced from a concert where the act in question is headlining. The necessity to stick to a festival running time prompts Porcupine Tree to pick out a setlist tightly focused on more immediately gripping songs, and whilst it also limits the extent to which they can zoot off on flights of fancy, this nonetheless is a capably performed set performed for a clearly appreciative crowd.

Save for Lightbulb Sun, only songs from In Absentia, Deadwing, and Fear of a Blank Planet are included, and on the whole the setlist makes a good case for the band's 2000s-era output.