concerning porcupine tree . . .

[jsbedlam]

hey so i know a few of you are pretty big porcupine tree fans so i figured i'd ask here . . .

i've only been into them since in absentia came out . . . i dig it as well as deadwing, but whenever i go to the record store i see tons ot p.t. records and i have no idea which ones i should pick up . . . can anyone give a quick rundown of any of their pre-in absentia records? thanks for any info!!

[GingerNinja]

re: concerning porcupine tree . . .

The Big Ones are probably as follows. They're in reverse chronological order because PT came from some real psych/space rock to what they are now. You could jump in at the deep end and hunt down Tarquin's Seaweed Farm (or, probably a more realistic idea, Stars Die) and get an idea of where you're going. or buy them one by one in order and be taken on a magical journey o mystery. Link to progarchives at the bottom will do a much better job of any of this than me, I'm just trying to give a very basic idea of what to expect

Lightbulb Sun [1] - This has shesmovedon, a track you'll hear a lot if you start delving in to b-sides and EPs, and 4 chords that made a million. If you thought Sound of Muzak was bitter.... By this time, it's basically a collection of individual songs rather than (checks) any multi part tracks or seriously long ambient/instrumental/spacey rock, but it's a strong album. Looking at it from today's perspective, it's an obvious precursor to In Absentia, with the hard rock turned down a notch. Last Chane to Leave Planet Earth Before it is Reycycled harks back the the more psychedelic stuff.

Stupid Dream [1] - Signify may be where they START down the less-psychedelic road, but Stupid Dream is where they make it really work. Even Less is fantastic, Piano Lessons has a great little piano riff. This is where the rock starts becoming a wee bit harder.

Signify [1] - This is where they started reigning in the psychedelia and moving towards (gasp) more typical song lengths and structures. This isn't to say that it's a pop album, just that it's an easier leap from here to IA compared to Sky Moves Sideways. There are still ambienty tracks like Bornlivedie along with the rocker Signify, which is a bit 'Wedding Nails'-y. 'Waiting Part 2' would give you a reasonable idea of what to expect from Voyage 34 part 1.

Sky Moves Sideways - A nice quote from progarchives: ""I Find That I'm Not Here" is a prime example of the PINK FLOYD comparison, especially the guitar work. "Wire the Drum" is that OZRIC-style techno-like experiment I". I THINK it's at this point that he recruited the band for touring but was still doing a majority of the work, so it's after this point it moves away from the psych and in to the poppier, rockier sound.

Stars Die - Box set that covers the first bunch of stuff, picking out a fairly decent representation of 'the best'. You do miss out on some classics (Lentin Samuel Dawson), so you might want to go a bit further, on the other hand it'll give a good taster on if you're interested or not. I've found that quite a lot of people who like the last two purely for it's rock find the earlier ones a bit too 'trippy'. The associated book and the cover alone are great.

Also,
Voyage 34. The first track is on Stars Die, and quite a lot of people seem to think that's enough. It's a narrators account of an LSD trip, spaced out (hah) over 13 minutes. Describing it like that trivialises it slightly, apparently it did fairly well as a dance track as well as a rock one. Anyway, the next 3 'phases' use elements from the first track and build or remove others to make more ambient (or people use the word 'chilled', urgh) tracks. I frequently fall asleep to this. The re released version has rerecorded drums as opposed to a drum machine.

[1] http://www.progarchives.com/Progress...sp?band_id=290 has some tracks to stream, and a complete list of ALL the releases, and people who can actually do a good job of describing music unlike me.

[Knifeboy]

I can't come up with a PT record I wouldn't recommend getting

[jsbedlam]

nice, thank you very much sir!

[barneystorm]

Yep, as a HUGE PT fan (everything they've released plus the thick end of 300 botlegs-fandom or madness, you choose!!) just to echo what's already been said.

Stupid Dream was my introduction to the band, and within a day I'd bought the entire catalogue!! You may struggle to find Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun right now as both are getting a re-release by Lava and are current;y OOP. You will see them on ebay quite often, but beware, as most are Russian 'imports' (read bootleg fakes).