COMA DIVINE

Live albums are iffy, and even excellent studio bands are capable of putting out a really dreadful live album. The first rule of live albums: all songs must sound different than the studio version, otherwise, why would we bother listening to the live version when the polished studio version is just as accessible? Secondly, a risk of doing things live is sloppiness: in the studio, you have the ability to correct any mistakes you made, and try it again. Unfortunately, sloppiness on a live album is incurable. And lastly, if the sound quality is poor due to insufficient recording material, then it's a real waste. Porcupine Tree conquers all the above obstacles.

With an excellent set list, ranging way back to the debut album, this recording is steller. This is the perfect collection of Porc Tree's psychedelic days, as the proceeding album, Stupid Dream, will have a much rock-ier edge to it. The versions of most of the songs here are a bit different, but not drastically. This album, particularly with The Sky Moves Sideways is the greatest drumming from Maitland ever recording. The majority of the songs are from the preceding album, Signify. The punchy, crunching metal riffs are balanced evenly by the milky free-form improvisations, and the psychedelic, hypnotic pop-ish choruses. Unfortunately, my version of this little gem is the shorter, one disc edit, and I am missing several tracks. But even lacking a total of 24:35 minutes of music, I can firmly proclaim this album's importance. It is the ideal collection of pre-Stupid Dream era Porc Tree.