THE SKY MOVES SIDEWAYS

"The Sky Moves Sideways" was never one of my favourite Porcupine Tree achievments (I still really like it however), but the bonus disc presented in this re-issue is a real treat. To be honest, I thinkthat alternate version of the title track is better than the one that eventually ended up on album. Well, Phase One is comparable with the "finished" piece (it makes a good alternative for sure, I especially like these theme variations on "Wire The Drum", the lyrics are weaker though) but Phase Two is a real improvement. First of all, these Floydian keyboard solos at the beginning are accompanied by an electronic beat which really fits the general atmosphere here. Subsequently, there is a female vocal at the end instead of this pointless, irritating Gilmour-imitating guitar solo we know from the album. Overally, a very nice surprise!

Stars Die and Moonloop together form the "Moonloop E.P." which was released at the same time as "The Sky Moves Sideways" but quickly became out of print, so it's quite a rarity too, even though these compositions are well known among PT fans. Steven Wilson once said that Stars Die is his favourite piece from the entire session and it's easy to see why. The song is simply magnificient. Unfortunately it lacks the presence of Richard Barbieri and his subtle electronics, but we've got two drummers here and a fantastic touching vocal performance. Moonloop was previously included in remastered edition of the Sky Moves Sideways from 1997 but it was clearly out of place there. It works much better in context of this mini-album. It's also worth noting that the piece here is 21-minutes long (4 minutes longer than album version and 3 than original EP version).

To sum up, it's definitely a worthy release. Even if you are not a big fan of this album it's good to get it once again, just for bonus disc with the brilliant Moonloop EP.