NIL RECURRING

Because these four tracks were rejected from the 'Fear of a Blank Planet' album, they can hardly be considered essential. They continue on the good work from that album, having the same feel: tight drumming, crunchy guitars, not as melodic and perhaps a little less progressive and a lot more metal than the PORCUPINE TREE we've known.

The four tracks are an odd bunch, and don't really flow together. The title track is an instrumental, and I feel it's an odd choice to open the EP. 'Cheating the Polygraph' might have been a better selection, despite it being a slghtly warmed-up remix of 'Anesthetize'. I'm also not sure that an inferior arrangement of 'Sentimental' - masquerading here as 'Normal' - ought to have followed the opener. Because this means we don't get to the meat and veg until the last track, which is indeed the equal of anything on their latest album.

From me, however, that's not the highest praise. I don't find FOABP that convincing, and these four tracks add little to the puzzle. At times they sound - well, recycled. The best of them, 'What Happens Now?' should, I think, have been on the album, but the rest are marginal. This is not up to the standard of some of the other supplementary PT releases, such as 'Insignificance', 'Staircase Infinities' and 'Recordings'. Still, FOABP and Nil Recurring do make a nice package - at nearly twice the price.

After this less than satisfactory change in direction, I wonder what happens next for PORCUPINE TREE.