THE SKY MOVES SIDEWAYS

"The Sky Moves Sideways" was one of the first pieces of music by Porcupine Tree that i heard, and quite recently actually. i was introduced to PT by a "sounds-like" suggestion by a music website which recommended this album alongside Deadwing (this was just before the release of The Incident, though i cant quite figure out why they didnt choose Fear Of A Blank Planet as well).

and boy, am i indebted to them for introducing me to PT. since the 70s version of Pink Floyd, this is the most mesmerising and innovative group i've heard in this genre. while several other bands have been credited with creating a new genre for themselves, most often this turns out to be a niche of a pre-existing genre. but with Porcupine Tree, they just dont care about genres or categories of any sort - they play whatever kind of music they like.

nowhere is this more apparent than "The Sky Moves Sideways" which, to be honest, i didn't really "get" when i first heard it. being the first full-band release, it seems PT themselves, as much as anyone else, were figuring out what they wanted to do. and, by sheer accident it seems, they stumbled upon this masterstroke of improvisation.

when you listed to the album (not just the title track), it very much seems that they were searching for something beyond just the music and towards the end of the 4th or 5th play, you understand that they nailed it! even considering that its now almost 16 years since The Sky Moves Sideways, you can never tell whether this was from the 70s, 80s, 90s or even more recent.

personally, i prefer this version of PT to the more album+song oriented approach (e.g The Incident) even though the latter is also a brilliant composition.

i would recommend new fans to start with this one or Voyage 34 and then work their way through the later stuff...