Porcupine Tree
Recordings

THE REVIEW

Published in a limited series (but according to retailers, still available), "Recordings" gathers songs recorded and mixed by Steven Wilson between 1998-2000, in his historic No Man's Land studio in Wales. This is not leftover material that didn’t make it to the final tracklist of "Lightbulb Sun," quite the opposite. It's superb music that many would envy the Porcupine Tree for, if only they got hold of this juicy surprise for the fans, which flows from song to song as if it were an album conceived as such.

The references remain the same, so, for once, I’ll avoid mentioning in a Porcupine Tree review the Bands (or perhaps THE Band) they have so often, rightly or wrongly, been compared to: I would be doing a cruel disservice to a song like "Buying New Soul," which opens the album, with a sweet and refined crescendo, culminating in a chorus full of vocal harmonies. It continues with the bewildering "Access Denied," where you can, let me say, smell the spice at the gates of morning. "Cure for Optimism" is 6 minutes in parallel space, traversed in a spaceship that, initially soundproof, lets a few notes pass at a time, culminating in an acoustic guitar, more earthly than ever, accompanied by the echo of a piano. Magnificent too, and to say it was initially a B Side.

Something doesn't add up. Even more delicately soaring is the progression of the almost 9 minutes of "Untitled," improvisation born in the recording studio and faithfully reproduced on this album. The following tracks continue to offer high levels of Progressive Rock, enriched by tribal percussion, synthesizers, electric guitars... a nice mix of ideas perfectly blended, like the instrumental "Ambulance Chasing" or the extraordinary and epic 14 minutes of "Even Less," never previously released in its complete version, where Steven Wilson magnificently encapsulates all his past experiences into one unique journey in the driver's seat. End credits with the sweet "Oceans Have No Memory," almost a little reminder of what happened before. Okay, you've got it, you need to get it, I’m not going to drag this out longer than necessary: this is not the usual album of odds & sodds. There's substance here.