CATALOGUE/PRESERVE/AMASS

Steven Wilson's first solo live album is taken from the Grace For Drowning tour. Whilst that album had Steven play the multi-instrumentalist and enjoy the company of a large number of guests, for the live shows it became necessary to assemble a tight live band to deliver the tracks here (which make up the cream of Grace For Drowning - including the standout track Raider II - and a couple of cuts from Insurgentes). The band manage marvellously, really teasing out the jazz fusion influences on material like No Twilight Within the Courts of the Sun.

Inevitably, the material lands differently in a live context than as the product of patient studio work, making the live album an interesting alternate interpretation of the tunes in question. It says a lot that a mere two albums into his solo career, Wilson was already producing enough quality material to fill out a setlist without drawing on the Porcupine Tree catalogue, and Catalogue/Preserve/Amass does a good job of capturing this excellent live set.