THE SKY MOVES SIDEWAYS

Let me put my cards on the table right at the start - I like Epic tracks. The long and predominantly instrumental masterpieces that most Prog groups have produced over the years are the Hallmarks, the way in which many of us rate our groups. It may be a bit of anti-pop, but any track that is over in 3 and a bit minutes hasn't really had time to get going, let alone allow the listener to get to know it...

When Prog started to be recognised as a 'genre' in its own right in the early 70's, it was almost a 'Right of Passage' - either an Side long epic and / or a Concept Album.

'The Sky Moves Sideways' was Porcupine Tree's third properly released album and maked their transition from Steve Wilson solo effort to group, whilst also moving from the deliberately Psyschedelic 'On the Sunday of Life' to the deliberately Prog 'Sky...'

Apparently, the Album was originally meant to be just the one track running for 50 minutes, although a full length version was never actually recorded. As it say's in the track listing at the top, there have been a number of variants - the original Vinyl just having 5 tracks (no Moonloop). The CD had Moonloop, and US editions had other bits.

(By the way - If you've got a black vinyl LP it's actually rarer than the Special Edition blue vinyl versions!)

Anyway, back to the review. This is Epic stuff. You get 34 minutes of The Sky Moves Sideways (Parts 1 and 2), which on hearing I immediately christened as an 'Echoes' for the 1990's. THe comparison is inescapable even if mr Wilson doesn't like it - I DO! If you like Epics - get this!

The other tracks are really just fillers. Disclocated Day is a brutal assault compared with the rest of the album, and although disonant, is at home here - and has become the last remaining live standard from the album.

Anyway, PT have had a way of re-releasing albums with new mixes, etc. and Sky finally came up for the treatment. So is the new version any better?

IMHO it's TWICE as good !. A bold statement, but easy to explain - It now has TWO versions of the title track on the 2 disc set... Disc 1 is the original album as released on vinyl, but Disc 2 has an entire 35 minute Alternate version of 'The Sky Moves Sideways', plus Stars Die (possibly one of the best short tracks they have ever produced) and a full length version of Moonloop.

Perfection. Goes straight into my top 10 Albums of all time collection.

Miles