PORCUPINE TREE

Porcupine Tree's first album is a quirky offering that will not appeal to everyone, but is still an album that does have some merit. Scattered throughout the 18 tracks are a few great songs, plenty of atmospheric pieces and some just plain oddities.

The stand out is the 10 minute epic "Radioactive Toy". Looking past the flat and lifeless percussion supplied by the drum machine, there's a window into many of the elements that made Steven Wilson a success further down the line - great composition, mood, and lead guitar. It's a track that can hold its head high among many of PTs greatest songs.

"It Will Rain For A Million Years" is another very good track. Beginning with some atmospherics and a haunting guitar, it coalesces into a simple but catchy song across almost 10 minutes.

I also enjoy the spoken word "Space Transmission" for sheer weirdness, as an alien voice relates a brief and ominous account of its existence.

Although not a patch on later PT masterpieces, this is still worth a look for fans and for those looking for a bit of a fun, psychedelic experience.

There's no question in my mind that "Metanoia" is the least appealing of all Porcupine Tree albums. I understand that there's a proviso on the release - that it merely comprises jam sessions recorded during the creation of the album "Signify".

But really, did this need its own release? If the band really wanted to give this kind of insight, surely the place for it would have been, at best, a bonus disc on a special edition of Signify. I cringe at the thought of how many fans rushed out to buy this one only to be bitterly disappointed.

Porcupine Tree later showed how this kind of release should really be done, with the excellent "Nil Recurring", which was formulated during the recording of "Fear of a Blank Planet". In that release we're treated to some well constructed remixes and offshoots of tracks from the major release. There's some time and effort placed into the arrangements and it therefore stands effectively on its own.

Not this one though. A very forgettable entry in the PT discography.

One evening in early 2007 I was trawling my favourite computer gaming forum and a thread popped up regarding 'night driving songs'. Specifically, members were prompted to list their favourite with this particular theme. One of the answers was "Open Car" by Porcupine Tree.

For some reason that I will never understand, I glossed over Deadwing on its release in 2005. I did hear "Open Car" and "Arriving Somewhere" and loved them. And then? Who knows, but the album slipped out of my consciousness, and it wasn't until this moment a couple of years later that thought to check it out again, this time in earnest.

I was rewarded with, what I believe, is one of the Tree's best albums. At the top, the title track signals a heavier edge to the music than previous PT works, with hard rock riffing verging on metal. It's a nice change and Steven Wilson proves he's adequately equipped to concoct tracks in this style. "Deadwing" features some great lead guitar and a nice transition to an ethereal breakdown before sending the track out with more hard rock and squealing guitar.

"Shallow" is dominated by the catchy Drop D opening riff. It's an instantly likeable and memorable track gives more than a nod to mainstream hard rock. "Lazarus" sounds even more mainstream, but is eloquently formulated and also likeable.

"Halo" is a groovy, toe-tapping number with a great vocal hook. The engine room of Colin Edwin and Gavin Harrison drive much of the track with Wilson chiming in to offer some chugging power chords and a smattering of his trademark lead guitar.

Although that anonymous forum member once touted "Open Car" as a great night driving song, I have to say that track 5, "Arriving Somewhere But Not Here" stakes an even greater claim in this category. Maybe those incredibly evocative initial lyrics are to blame: "Never stop the car on a drive in the dark". With those words and the gorgeous opening riff chiming in the background, I'm instantly transported to a dark highway, no matter the time of day or night. And so begins what I believe is PTs best track. An epic, sweeping monster of a song, featuring an amazing texture of words and music spread across 12 captivating minutes. A song about striving toward a goal and getting lost along the way. How, no matter what we do to plan ahead, sometimes life throws us a curveball. We need to drop everything and start again.

As a songwriter, I'm just in awe of the majesty of this track. It's really that good.

The aforementioned "Open Car" is yet another heavy, riffing track with a stilted, staccato lyrical delivery that matches the rhythm of the guitar. It's very effectively done, and provides a nice contrast with the clean, melodic bridge. The chorus is once again beautifully evocative with lines such as "Hair blowing in an open car, Summer dress slips down your arm".

I will also mention the newer version of "Shesmovedon" as a bonus track. It improves on the original markedly, with more bite and texture from the guitar in particular. I've never been a huge wah pedal guy, but this track makes me want to go and stamp my foot on one every time I hear it.

Overall this certainly ranks in my top two Porcupine Tree releases. If you've never driven down the highway at night with "Arriving Somewhere But Not Here" blaring out your car speakers at full volume, you're missing out on the best life has to offer. And yes, with a claim that grandiose, my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't go ahead and try it.

Oddly enough, FOABP was the album that started my love affair with Porcupine Tree. I had heard 'Deadwing' briefly and enjoyed a couple of songs, but some reason had never sat down to listen to it properly. After hearing 2007's FOABP, I was compelled to hear the rest of the PT back catalogue and have never looked back.

The album kicks off with the title track, and one is immediately struck by the hard-edged riffing and Steven Wilson's fantastic lyrical delivery. As the song closes it ebbs away with a softer melody that works beautifully into the second track.

'My Ashes' is the voice of an adolescent who can already see his life mapped out before them, that it is empty and will always be so. That it is unchangeable. They can see the end before they have even started. It is a stunning, memorable track.

'Anesthetize' is the magnificent centrepiece of the album. It is like five great songs seamlessly interwoven into one. The syncopated, chugging riff section that begins at 5 minutes is one of my favourite PT moments ever. The song reaches a crescendo shortly after, then drifts towards a final, wistful passage that is achingly beautiful. As the title would suggest, 'Anesthetize' documents a state of stupor and disconnection through the use of prescription drugs, very much the central theme of the album.

'Sentimental' is another of the softer, keyboard driven tracks on the album. As we follow the journey of the album's protagonist, we find that he is now struggling with the thought of growing old in this useless, wasted life. Once again a haunting, stirring track.

'Way Out of Here' and 'Sleep Together' close out the album, and if you've been following along so far, it's not hard to understand where this journey is headed. In the final track the protagonist muses 'Switch off the future, let's leave forever.'

A masterpiece in all respects, 'Fear of a Blank Planet' is the perfect fusion of music, lyrics and ideas to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. It's possible to enjoy this album on so many levels, which is undoubtedly the reason why I keep coming back to it time and again.

This album did take awhile to grow on me, but one thing was clear from the beginning: there was pretty much fantastic musicianship the entire time. The sound is definitely prog and very much layered. One thing that I found particularly interesting is the fact that so much is going on at one time in the music. I found this very interesting. There is a lot more than just your conventional one or two guitars, a bass, and a drummer. There seems that there is always a mellotron and/or keyboard going on pretty much all the time which adds a nice ambient effect throughout. As Wilson sings on track 6, "the scratching of a mellotron always seems to make it right." Also, it seems as if sometimes there are even three guitar parts, which adds a nice intricate effect. To even further add to the layering, Wilson many times has multiple vocal parts going on at one time. On tracks 1, 3, and 5, Opeth's Mickael Akerfeldt adds additional backing vocals as well. There is so much going on at a time! It really has taught me a lot as a guitarist the importance of harmonies and depth that can really be unlocked. I would encourage all musicians to listen to this album to get a feel for the depth that can be present in music.

"Fear of a Blank Planet" kind of surprised me cause it's an album that took me such a long time to get into. I think it's because it has a lot more longer songs on it than the other albums. I ended up getting into this album a lot because I acquired so many Porcupine Tree albums so fast that I would just throw them all on shuffle. "Anesthetize" was the first song that really caught my attention. It was long, but at the same time it has so many transitions that it really feels like 3-4 songs in one. In particular, the lines "We're lost in the mall, shuffling through the stores like zombies. But what is the point? What can money buy?" caught my attention, dragging me into listening to the entire album straight through. The song "Fear of a Blank Planet" also caught my attention because the music is pretty similar (although not exact) to "Anesthetize" and from there on I just grew to love it more and more, giving it the number 3 spot! Favorite song: This was almost a tie between "Fear of a Blank Planet" and "Anesthetize" but "Anesthetize" won because it was the first song I loved on this album and the music is just epic! Least favorite song: "Way Out of Here" I just don't feel like it has the same "oomph" as the other pieces, but it's still a song I enjoy to listen to.

PORCUPINE TREE have released quite a number of superfluous live releases in their career but this one tops them all. Spread over 2 CDs we find a note for note live rendition of 'The Incident' followed by a selection of tracks they played after the break in this tour.

I did attend the Brussels live gig of this tour and I found the first set to be an improvement over the studio album. Not that anything was much different but the live ambiance breathed some life into the thing and also made it more coherent. I don't find that here. It sounds a slight bit rawer and less polished then the studio album but it still feels like a flat and uninvolved performance to me. And besides, 'Drawing The Line' and 'I Drive The Hearse' prove that even in a live setting they are still the most annoying two songs Wilson ever penned.

'The Incident' isn't exactly PT's best offering but this live release is more problematic then just that as also set 2 is a disappointment. With the exception of 'Hatesong' which enjoys some well played instrumental sections, it all suffers from Wilson's urge to make it sound heavier and grittier then these songs were supposed to sound. 'Even Less' in particular is completely wasted by Wilson's inadequate attempts to strain his voice. The other songs fails as they don't add anything to their studio counterparts and the 'Russia On Ice / Anesthetize' medley doesn't do justice to any of the participating songs.

Live album are mostly a hit and miss for me but with 'Coma Devine' and 'Arriving Somewhere' Wilson managed to deliver some outstanding exceptions to the rule, and they are nothing less then essential items in the PT catalog. Not this one, this is for hardcore fans only and chances are even those will be disappointed just like I am. Watch out for this one, especially if you already didn't think too highly of 'The Incident'.

Spoilsport alert! I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but sometimes it's better to hear the sad truth about an album from an acknowledged fan, instead of from an antagonist with an axe to grind.

I had high hopes for this two-disc live package, especially after learning it was recorded (mostly) in Chicago, just a few days before I caught the same act at the Town Ballroom in Buffalo, New York. But good memories don't always equal a good CD, and this one sounds like a perfunctory effort, hastily thrown together after the band went on indefinite hiatus at the end of the tour.

Disc One was reserved for a complete performance of the band's '09 album "The Incident", still inexplicably boasting the lowest average score of all their primary albums on this site. Apparently I'm in the minority of listeners who regard it as the strongest Porcupine Tree studio effort to date, but that's an argument for elsewhere. Here was an opportunity for Steve Wilson to reinterpret the album in a concert setting, and maybe win back some of the more reactionary naysayers.

Instead, what we get is a strictly Xeroxed performance, matching the studio version note for note, almost verbatim. Aside from the initial greeting ("hello, Chicago!") there isn't any departure from the original worth mentioning: even the tempos are identical, as anyone can see by comparing the running times of each segment.

If the intent was to prove how well the band could reproduce a daunting 55-minute song cycle without edits or overdubs, then the album succeeds handsomely. I still recall the dexterity of Steve Wilson while swapping guitars in mid-performance: a triumph of player / roadie choreography. But as an alternate stage reading of an already full studio piece (and why re-record it otherwise?) the album can only be called a failure.

The second set offers a little more variety, including the extended version of "Even Less" and rare airings of the PT oldies "Stars Die" and "Dislocated Day". Some of the songs were recorded in London, but the sound in either venue is somewhat lacking in depth and presence, curiously for a band whose leader is renowned for his mixing skills. Perhaps Wilson's attention was already preoccupied by his impending solo career; certainly his normally clear singing voice was suffering some distress during these gigs, noticeably so on Disc Two.

The playing is typically dynamic, in particular the efforts of drummer Gavin Harrison, who shoulders a lot of the performance load here. But let's hope the album won't be a valedictory statement from the dormant group: this isn't how I want to remember Porcupine Tree.

Porcupine Tree's "Coma Divine Live" 1997 album has become a double CD extended release as from 2003 and it is a grand excursion into the deep bowels of psychedelica and dreamy space rock. The members at this stage were of course the visionary Steven Wilson on vocals, organ, mellotron, guitars, Richard Barbieri the Synth wizard, Colin Edwin wonderful on e-bass and double bass, and Chris Maitland, powering out the drum beats. The foursome work well together totally unified and even in the jamming sections are able to compliment one another with perfect timing and instrumental placement.

The production quality is crystal clean and of course Wilson has become one of the most sought after engineers from the likes of King Crimson and Pink Floyd box sets and remasters. While we are dropping names, Pink Floyd and King Crimson style musicianship abounds during this performance. It is some of the spaciest music from Porcupine Tree, drifting along entrancing and mesmirising the captive crowd in Rome. At the time of release there were no other official live documents of the group, though these days the band are highly revered as shakers and movers of modern prog so many recordings including 2 DVDs are on the market.

The set list is composed of some of the earlier more psychedelic material with the likes of 'The Sky Moves Sideways' an ambient 12:40 exploration of serenity. 'Moonloop' is almost 12 minutes of drifting beauty with some incredible spaced out atmospherics. 'Up the Downstair' was always a favourite of mine and it sounds as dark and ethereal as it can on the live stage, along with 'The Moon Touches Your Shoulder' and 'Waiting Phase One' and 'Phase Two'. The band were not into the more aggressive metal side of things during this era and Wilson had not begun to smash ipods yet; they were raw and experimental and it is a delight to hear them in this most exciting chapter of their career.

Of course some of the fan favourites are here such as 'Radioactive Toy', and 'Signify' is definitely one of the more popular Porcupine Tree tracks. The band are very patient with their music, building gradually to intense soundwaves of guitars that crash down forcibly. Wilson's vocals are at some points in a shoegazer mode, reflective, wondering, gentle and then he lifts to the high register and belts out on a more powerful chord. There are moments of dark juxtaposed with light, intensity and release permeate the concert as though taking the audience on a journey. During the performances the audience are gravestone silent intently soaking in the atmospheres generated by the band.

In some cases these live versions are superior to the studio versions,as is the case with many live albums. The versions on "Coma Divine Live" are more aggressive and exploratory, and as a result more interesting in terms of musicianship and interpretation.

'Signify' is a quiet contemplative ethereal piece, Wilson delivering vocals with a gentle timbre. The next few songs drift by with very slow cadence and dreamy keys and guitars, and Wilson's dreamy vocals flowing over. This is a very sleepy part of the show but the atmosphere is mesmirising and spacey on 'Waiting Phase One', 'Waiting Phase Two' and 'The Sky Moves Sideways'. The latter track has an early Pink Floyd vibe, especially those crystal clear guitars chiming over sustained mellotron soundscapes. At 7:20 the pace picks up with a pulsing bassline by Colin Edwin and 70s style keyboards of Richard Barbieri emitting very spacey motifs. The heavy distorted guitar cranks over soon waking up the crowd, and it has an incredible keyboard break gliding over the jagged rhythms.

To hear a tremendous wah wah charged lead solo 'Dislocated Day' is a prime example, a very spacey drifting song and the guitar is absolutely phenomenal, emitting sparks as Wilson shreds. It ends with a stirring drum solo from the wonderful skill of Chris Maitland.

'The Sleep of No Dreaming' feels more like the Porcupine Tree of more recent years, the lyrics as downbeat and poetic as Wilson can get, "At the age of sixteen I grew out of hope, I regarded the cosmos through a circle of rope, So I threw out my plans, Ran on to the wheel, And emptied my head of all childish ideals, The sleep of no feeling." This song has an excellent lead break and cosmic atmospherics, and an endearing melody to latch onto. The ideas of becoming someone in a blank space is explored, a person falling into the abyss of depression, a theme that surfaces often in subsequent albums; "I married the first girl who wasn't a man, And smiled as the spiders ran all over my hands."

'Moonloop' is a pyschedlicatessen of almost 12 minutes of patient instrumentalism; an organic landscape of haunting keyboards and a fractured bassline. It feels like vintage Pink Floyd, the only thing missing is Roger Waters' menacing whispers and insane screams. It even builds with a bass line similar to 'Money' and ends on an uptempo rhythm. I believe the band would be influenced by Pink Floyd instrumentals with such a spaced out musical piece, along the lines of 'One of these Days', 'Careful with that Axe, Euegene!', 'Interstellar Overdrive','Marooned', 'Atom Heart Mother', and 'Terminal Frost'.

Disc 2 opens with the pscyh passages of 'Up the Downstair'. These are beautiful trance prog songs with extended passages of serene guitar and keyboards over gentle pulsing ryhthms. 'The Moon Touches Your Shoulder' is also a soft spacey track that builds into some towering guitar riffs. This leads to the ethereal atmospheres of 'Always Never', Wilson sounding hypnotic on vocals.

The rock returns on the intro of 'Is... Not', with crunchy guitars and then it lapses into more psychedelic keyboards with mindbending spaciness. 'Radioactive Toy' is awesome as always, a favourite in the live arena, and this version clocks 15:26. I love the flowing melody, the build up to the instrumental section, and Wilson's jamming guitar licks. It is great to hear the audience yelling out the title in places. At 5 minutes it changes the vibe and we are treated to an improvised passage of whacked out King Crimson madness. 'Not Beautiful Anymore' closes the set with another lengthy instrumental section in an upbeat tempo.

Overall this is the spaciest official live Porcupine Tree recording and it is a sheer delight. The tranquil relaxing music is mesmirising, with lots of lengthy jamming akin to early Pink Floyd or any other space rock from the 70s. Of course Porcupine Tree became a lot heavier as their sound progressed, but here they are captured in time and space rock glory and it is well worth taking the cosmic journey.

Futile is the best EP from Porcupine Tree, as far as I'm concerned. Many of the songs would have fit nicely onto In Absentia. I received the download from Burning Shed, so I will review that version of the EP.

Collapse is the sparser arrangement of Collapse Light Into Earth from In Absentia, so would have fit nicely onto that album. Drown With Me is one of the finest trackest evere recorded by Porcupine Tree as far as I'm concerned and is easily in my top five PT song list. Orchida and Chloroform continue the saga of the In Absentia album, fitting as well as any of the songs on there.

I think that if they had made In Absentia a double album with these tunes on Futile as well as a couple more. An excellent collection to add to your progressive rock archives.