OFF: Porcupine Tree

[K Henderson]

Nick askes...

>Back on Porcupine Tree- I see there are all sorts of PT obscurities/out-
>takes/limited editions being re-released. I've cooled on PT, so I find it
>hard to get too excited about this, but one that did catch my eye was
>"Staircase Infinities", recorded around the same time as "Up the
>Downstair"- easily their best album IMHO. I'm confident some folks here
>have that one - is it in a similar style to UtD or is it more in the later
>poppy mode?

SI is nearly all-instrumental.  Very dreamy/spacey material, more like the
last track on UtD (forgotten the title).  Certainly not poppy at all.  It's
only about 35 minutes or so, but I think it's worth it.  It lacks a certain
'identity' being more like pure atmosphere, but sometimes atmosphere is what
you want.

>Incidentally, why does everyone cite "Stupid Dream" as the album where the
>major shift of style occurred? 'Cos to me, "Signify" is the one where
>everything changed. Yes, these changes become crystallised on the
>subsequent albums, but "Sky Moves Sideways" to "Signify" is more of a
>departure than "Signify" to "Stupid Dream", surely?

I don't think so.  I think the level of 'orchestration' and IMHO
over-production (esp. on vocals) became an issue with "Stupid Dream."  At
least for me.  I've never liked this about SD, but over time I began to
realize that underneath all that schmaltziness was a great album trying to
be heard.  So I'm a (slightly hesitant) thumbs up about that album today.
In contrast, I've hardly had any strong opinion whatsoever about the last
two studio releases, other than them being just plain boring.

>Now- does anyone know where I can get the album by Speaker\Cranker??

I could take a look in local stores for you...sometimes, they have this in
the 'local' bin.  I know the Cleveland store www.bentcrayon.com is another
Pere Ubu-family friendly dealer.  Dunno if overseas ordering would be any
better with them though.

Grakkl (FAA)