STARS DIE: THE DELERIUM YEARS 1991 - 1997

I had heard so much about this group PORCUPINE TREE that the urge to listen became overwhelming. Well, I finally had my chance to hear for myself what all the fuss was. I can understand why people that love progressive-rock would really enjoy listening to this band. They are the entire package. These four talented gents manage to create music that is an amalgamation of rock, jazz, progressive, and just a sprinkling of pop to smooth the edges a bit, but the amount is miniscule mind you. Progressive is unquestionably the key term when describing their music.

The influence of PINK FLOYD (70s) is strong, how could it not be if you are playing music that is in any form progressive? Some folks may scoff at me for saying this . I was reminded of OZRIC TENTACLES more than once while absorbing some of their more elongated musically journeys. They happen to be one of my favorite bands so it was very gratifying to hear that association in their music.

This beautifully packaged set served as a fine introduction for me to this superb band. What you will get is two CDs of previously unreleased tracks, new mixes, and assorted rarities with a 40-page booklet in a box, and the icing on the cake is the wild cover depicting the falling star. Music filled with otherworldly soundscapses is what highlights this pleasure ride upon the wings of music. Their musical statement does not seem to lack in any area whatsoever; in fact, I do not think it could be any more poignant. Most of what you will hear is long instrumental runs including some strange sexual connotations stuck in here and there to catch you off guard, which prompts you to ask yourself "What was that all about?" Then that is what they want to do, make you wonder and think about the meaning of their songs. They lure you in without mercy with acquiescent and prolific keyboards layered for maximum effectiveness, and then suddenly bring you to a climatic zenith with cascading sheets of powerful guitar chords and billowing keyboards accented with a rhythm section that is hitting on all its cylinders. After that, you get a jolting push back down to an earthly plane to force you to feel the emotional tides the music puts you on. That should suffice in bringing you to where you would like to go while listening to music, it sure worked well for me.

There is a lot of music on these two CD's, it took me a few days to take it all then finally sit down and convey my thoughts. I will most definitely seek out more recordings by this group. I agree with the press I have read thus far, they are one of the very best in their genre.

I'm not big on compilations either, but there are two reasons you should buy this one. First there are 8 songs on here that either haven't been on an album prior to this release or were previosly unreleased. And secondly the liner notes are fantastic, each song is commented on by the band with some interesting revelations. As mentioned above the two discs are very different from each other, the first more electronica, the second more of a rock / spacy flavour. The second is my favourite. "Waiting" is my favourite track followed by "Stars Die" and "The Sky Moves Sideways". I love the album cover with the piano looking like it's just gone through earth's atmosphere, it's on fire about to crash.

Instead of reviewing the songs, most of which I have already done in my reviews of the albums they come from, i'd like to relay to you some of the comments in the liner notes. The first four songs are from the "On The Sunday Of Life..." album. "Radioactive Toy" was written by Steven and was inspired by the movie "Threads" which is about the aftermath of a nuclear attack on Britain. I like the raw sounding guitar on this one. "Nine Cats" was originally performed by Steven at 14 years of age. A psychedelic ballad. "And The Swallows Dance Above the Sun" is Steven's favourite track from the "On The Sunday Of Life..." album. It's "about the contradictions of being trapped in boredom while still being surrounded by wonder." "The Nostalgia factory" title "was a sly dig both at the "tribute band" mentallity on the psychedelic scene, and at the short, passive memories of music reviewers and consumers".

"Voyage 34-Phase One" is an almost 13 minute sample of the original. I love the guitar 9 minutes in. "Synesthesia" is the 8 minute extended version.This was the first track on the "Up The Downstair" record. "Phantoms" was left off the "Up The Downstair" album because Steven didn't like the way his voice sounded on it at the time. He's since changed his mind about that. This is a melancholic song. "Up The Downstair" was the first song that Richard Barbieri worked on for PORCUPINE TREE. A trance epic. "Fadeaway" is still a favourite with Steven and Richard. This is the version with Gavin on drums. "Rainy Taxi" is an instrumental Steven wrote when he was listening to a lot of Krautrock. He says "I can clearly hear the influence of the organ driven "Kosmische" sound of ASH RA TEMPEL and Klause Schulze. I still love this kind of music..."

Disc two starts with "Starsdie" a song Steven left off of the "Sky Moves Sideways" album, which he says is the worst mistake he's ever made. That mistake was corrected for the American version. "Men Of Wood" was originally recorded for "Up The Downstair". It mixes psychedelic pop with heavy Krautrock. "The Sky Moves Sideways" is "Probably the most single-mindedly beautiful composition in the PORCUPINE TREE catalogue". "Waiting" was their third single they released. "The Sound Of No-One Listening" was cut from the "Signify" record and became a b-side to the "Waiting" single. "Colourflow In Mind" was a song Steven wanted on the record but the rest of the band didn't. "Fuse The Sky" was another b-side from the vinyl version for "Waiting". "Signify II" was also left off the "Signify" record. This one for lack of space, and with some regret. "Sever" "is perhaps the most dramatic track on "Signify" "it's certainly the densest-and features one of Steven's most distressed lyrics." "Every Home Is Wired" is about "Steven's early concerns about the depersonalising effects of life in cyberspace." "Dark Matter" is "the last song on "Signify" and therefore a good place to close the "Delerium" chapter of PORCUPINE TREE's career".

A must-have for PT fans.

What's the value of having a compilation box set if you have al individual album CD in your collection? The sleeve notes! Oh yeah . Out of the music presented in this double CD set, I really enjoy reading the liner notes in full color mini booklet. I like the way Steve Wilson managed his music career from no one to some one. I love to enjoy how he was so crazy about the sounds produced from any kind of source. I remember vividly that he did mention recording natural sounds coming out from the street and brought back the recording material to his own studio for further processing. And everyone knows that he is really a sound genius! I always imagined if by the time Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon were made in the seventies and was adult already, He might did a great job as Alan Parsons did for DSoTM.

My first experience with Porcupine Tree started with fabulous live album Comma Divine where a song "Waiting Phase One and Phase Two" was performed with elegant soundscape - despite it's a live album. Since then I explored almost all releases Porcupine Tree has ever produced - especially official studio album. I even purchased the IEM (The Incredible Expanding Mindf.). Listening the music of Porcupine Tree requires patient and relax mode. Musically, there is nothing like complex chords or composition. The music of Porcupine Tree boils down into great soundscape and incredible sonic quality of the CD.

As the title implies this compilation comprises all tracks produced and recorded during the band's engagement with Delerium label in 1991-1997. I do enjoy the music presented here. "Radio Active Toy" starts the box set wonderfully with great soundscape and guitar effects. Almost all songs are in the similar vein like this one. "Up The Downstair" is very enjoyable.

This collection is , I can consider, reasonably representative of the band's career. It started off with Steve Wilson's experimental beginnings with "On The Sunday Of Life" through to the confident performances on "Signify". All the band' key developments are here. For those of you who just known the band from its later albums like "Stupid Dream", "Lightbulb Sun", "In Absentia" or "Deadwing", you might be surprised due to wide variety of music Porcupine Tree has ever made.

For a beginner, this box set is suitable as it depicts the kind of music Porcupine has ever played and some represent also what it came out in later albums as well. At least one thing for sure: the sonic quality of this CD is excellent. Otherwise, why do you call Steven Wilson?

Progressively yours, GW

i-Rock! presents: ANGRA Live in Jakarta - October 16, 2006. Be there! Or die!

The Early Years - a curio, but not essential.

After having heard the brilliant 'Deadwing' and the excellent 'In Absentia' and 'Scenes From a Blank Planet' I had come to the conclusion that Porcupine Tree could do no wrong. I love their blend of Progressive Metal and Symphonic Rock. The lyrics are inspired and Wilson's soft crystal clear vocal style is awesome on all these three CDs that I can highly recommend. However these early years as represented on this compilation are not quite as absorbing or well-produced as their latter work. While these tracks do not live up to the high expectation or excellence as the aforementioned CDs, there is still much to recommend on this compilation.

CD1 begins with the catchy riff heavy 'Radioactive Toy' - a 10 minute rocker with incredible instrumental breaks that features in their live performances. 'Voyage 34 - Phase One' is a blissful combination of rock and experimentation with prog elements. There is a very eerie track that relies heavily on keyboards and is overall an instrumental with a creepy spoken voice that explains how the recipient was high on hallucinogens and was able to come down every time except for the one time when he met himself on the downstairs. It sounds cheesy perhaps, but it genuinely is very ethereal. (Many tracks are based on LSD experiences and seems to be a major theme on the album.)

CD2 begins with the excellent 'Stars Die' and the epic 18 minute 'The Sky Moves Sideways - Phase One' which is phenomenal music and worth getting hold of if you love symphonic prog.

'Signify II' is also a highlight and the distorted weirdness of 'Sever' and 'Dark Matter' are worthy additions.

In conclusion, this is a good addition to your collection if you are after early Porcupine Tree and don't want to fork out for the first few albums. There seems to be a good mix of what the band were doing in those days. However, this is not their best work. Far from it. Many of the tracks are very dull and forgettable. But this was an experimental phase of their evolution as progenitors of neo progressive heavy prog, and as such are well worth a listen. The best of course was yet to come.

If you are only mildly interested in Porcupine Tree's space rock beginnings, then this is one fine document with the essential songs from that period. It's a beautifully package with excellent liner notes and an interesting list of non-album tracks that will also charm the fans of the band that already own all or most studio albums.

The first 4 songs are compiled from the debut, PT's most psychedelic album and an acquired taste even for most fans. The selected tracks will give you a good idea of what that album was about and will probably suffice for people not enthused by it. The Voyage 34 album is one of the very few PT releases that I would rate below excellent, the fine excerpt here makes it even more unnecessary.

PT's second full length album Up The Downstairs is represented by the remainder of the first CD. For me that's an entirely essential album. The extended version of Synesthesia and the beautiful acoustic Phantoms (only to be found on this compilation) still makes this section interesting for fans.

The second CD concentrates on the 1995 and 1996 albums. If you should not own the reissue of The Sky Moves Sideways for one or other obscure reason then Stars Die might be another reason to win you over to the spaced-out trip rock period of PT. For fans, there is the little psychedelic tune Men of Wood which belongs more to the early PT years but which wasn't recorded till 1995.

PT's most amazing album for me is Signify, which is documented with 7 tracks of which one comes in an extended version and 3 are unique to this compilation. Especially the instrumental trip The Sound of No-one Listening appeals to me, but also Colourflow In Mind will be a nice addition to your collection. Fuse The Sky is ok but probably the least interesting rare track of this excellent compilation.

Because this compilation is equally worthwhile for fans, newcomers and people that are only mildly interested in PT's earlier trips, 4 stars are deserved.

It's been a long time since I've rated anything with five stars, but now I can truly do it. I have listened to PORCUPINE TREE for only less than a year (albums Lightbulb Sun & Fear Of A Blank Planet, and their Anesthesia concert DVD). I guess I had some prejudices of them, too heavy and depressive for me or something like that. Well, I may not like them at their heaviest, but this 2-CD compilation covering PT's early years was a fantastic enjoyment, and I'm guaranteed now that Steven Wilson is a multi-talented musical genius. I didn't know that at first he played ALL the instruments himself. Who could ever guess, listening to this set? Very few musicians in the whole history of rock have the similar broadness of talent.

I won't go into track-by-track analysis. The music can be described as trippy, dreamy, spacey, psychedelic, exciting, dark-toned and emotionally captivating. Their (or his) originality is in no doubt right from the start, even if the influences can be rather easily spotted. Especially PINK FLOYD, Syd Barrett, ambient and Krautrock such as ASH RA TEMPEL or KLAUS SCHULZE. These names are also mentioned in Wilson's comments on each track. Thanks for them, this set serves perfectly also as a companion into the band history and Wilson's creativity.

For a newcomer this is a perfect place to start, but as there are a lot of material that is not on the main albums, at least not in the same format, this is very useful package to the long-time fans too. The best tracks take you to heavenly trips, so to speak.

'Stars Die ' The Delerium Years 1991 - 1997' is a double CD set released by Porcupine Tree on March 25, 2002. It collects some of the most interesting aspects of PT's formative years for those who don't want to wade through the many albums, singles and EPs that were released by the band early on. There is an interesting variety of music here, and it definitely serves the purpose well if you just want to hear some of the best of the music from that period of time. A good part of this is music that is somewhat psychedelic and experimental and not necessarily the heavy prog that the band would later be famous for. Some tracks are based on long, improvisational jams, or taken from those jams and edited down to a more accessible run time. The double CD set came with a 40 page booklet that had portions of interviews from various band members.

Disc A: 1991 - 1993. Tracks 1 - 4

Most of the music on Disc A is completely performed by Steven Wilson. The first four tracks come from the band's first 'official' album 'On the Sunday of Life' which was released in 1992 and served to collect the best of the band's first two demo tapes, usually in remastered versions. All of the versions on this collection are identical to the versions on 'On the Sunday of Life'. 'Radioactive Toy' starts it off, and this track stands as the best track on the demo tapes, even though this version is much, much better than the demo version with a long and rousing guitar solo. This track could easily fit on any of PT's later albums after all of the remastering and remixing done to arrive to this version. However, this version is very different from the original demo tape version. 'Nine Cats' and 'And the Swallows Dance Above the Sun' are pretty close to the versions on the demo tapes, just cleaned up and remastered. 'Nostalgia Factory' again is the same as the 'On the Sunday of Life' version, but is quite different from the demo tape version and is slightly shorter.

Disc A: 1991 - 1993. Tracks 5 - 10

The version of 'Voyage 34 (Phase One)' is from the 30 minute single 'Voyage 34', and was somewhat hard to find at the time of the release of this collection. It was also made available on 'Voyage 34 ' The Complete Trip' which combines all four phases of the voyage 34 collection. This version is the same as the original. This is also the best phase of the 4 phases having the best guitar work of the four, and most of the narration from the story. The track is a definite psychedelic track with no singing, but it does contain a recurring sample of the Dead Can Dance track 'As the Bell Rings, the Maypole Spins' and also a sample from a Van Der Graff Generator track. After this, we get an extended version of 'Synesthesia' which was not available anywhere else upon release of this collection, though the shorter, original version appears on the 'Up the Downstair' album and on the 'Radioactive' EP. This version adds more than 3 minutes to the original.

'Phantoms' then comes next, which is also available on the 2004 LP edition of 'Up the Downstair as a bonus track and also on the EP 'Staircase Infinities' in the same version. 'Up the Downstair' is quite an amazing instrumental and this is a remix version of it which was exclusive to this release, though the differences to the original are quite minimal. This is the same case with 'Fadeaway', a remix with minimal changes and also originally from 'Up the Downstair'. The last track on this CD is the instrumental 'Rainy Taxi' which is the same version as the one on the 'Staircase Infinities' EP.

Disc B: 1994 - 1997, Tracks 1 - 3

The disc starts off with 3 tracks recorded during 'The Sky Moves Sideways' session, starting with 'Stars Die', which is a lovely and dark ballad that was releasaed previously on the 'Moonloop' EP and on the US version of 'The Sky Moves Sideways' album. It was later made available on the 'Delerium' EP and all versions are the same. Next is the epic and excellent 'The Sky Moves Sideways (Phase One)' This is the full 18 minute first part of that suite as it was heard on the original album. The original suite consists of two phases, but this is the better of the two. The third track was not previously available. 'Men of Wood' is a more upbeat vocal track and it later became available as a separate 7' vinyl which was included in with the 2003 LP version of the album, but is usually quite hard to find.

Disc B: 1994 - 1997, Tracks 4 - 11

The rest of the disc is comprised of tracks originally from the 'Signify' sessions. 'Waiting (Phase One)' is the same version that is on the Signify album. 'The Sound of No-one Listening' is a remix of the original, which was only previously available on the 'Waiting' EP (CD edition) which was released to promote the upcomeing 'Signify' album. The remix is exclusive to this collection however, but it doesn't really change much from the original. The next two tracks 'Colourflow in Mind' and 'Fuse the Sky' both come from the 'Waiting' EP, but only on the 12' vinyl version, and are the same versions as the originals.

'Siginify II' is an exclusive track that was previously unavailable, and as far as I know, not available anywhere else. It is an instrumental that is quite upbeat and exciting. The last three tracks are all as heard on the 'Signify' album; 'Every Home is Wired', 'Sever' and 'Dark Matter', in that order.

In Summary

So, some of this collection isn't necessarily rare, but there are some tracks that are hard to find, and some that are exclusive to this album. For collectors or completionists, it is up to you to decide if it is worth getting. For curious fans interested in their back catalogue, it offers some of the best material of the band from that time, and will help you decide if you want to explore each individual album or EP in more depth, so it is a good starting point to PT's older music. Those that already have most of this material on other formats will probably not find it worth their time to search for this one unless they absolutely have to own and hear every track and every version of PT songs. But, as far as a collection, and for the purposes of a collection, it is a great mix of early music from the band. The run time is quite extensive as, even with the edited versions of some tracks, it is quite long, and casual listeners might find that some of the jam tracks are still too long. However, I feel it serves its purpose well, and as for the music itself, it is top notch. The 40 page booklet is also something else to consider as there are comments from the band members about each track. It's up to you to decide whether to take the plunge or not.