Porcupine Tree - The Sky Moves Sideways (1995)

Steve:

In the early 1990s, with the Internet in its infancy, large groups of fans of niche cultural phenomena suddenly found each other and were able to join together and communicate. Prior to that, magazines, radio and TV provided content for fandoms to bond over, but such outlets could only cover so much area. As a progressive rock fan without a computer at the time, I was amazed to learn of my friend Rob's discoveries of "newsgroups" (this was before web pages per se - just text) wherein progressive rock fans from all over the world shared their knowledge of long-forgotten bands. Concurrently, new bands emulating both the style and spirit of classic 1970s prog began to emerge, providing an alternative to the 80s prog-inclined bands who relied heavily on early synthesizer technology. It's funny how this movement happened around the same time that the pop landscape also moved away from synthesized pop and rock in favor of grungy guitars and good old punk attitude. Porcupine Tree came to my attention around this time as a new prog band that delivered the classic values I hungered for at the time.

I first heard Porcupine Tree on The Sky Moves Sideways, led by guitarist, vocalist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson. Although the band began as a fully solo project, by 1995 Wilson he had assembled a fairly stable band: Richard Barbieri (formerly of Japan) on keyboards, Colin Edwin on bass, and Chris Maitland on drums. Theo Travis, a woodwind player with an impressive resume (including full time membership in the current lineup of Soft Machine), makes key contributions as well. 

As has been remarked upon by other reviewers, The Sky Moves Sideways is structured much like Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here - as one long composition (the title track) split into two parts to open and close the album, with a few shorter songs in the middle. The overall mood is similar to WYWH, although there is definitely a harder, more modern edge to the music that ensures it will never be mistaken for a Floyd rip-off.

The first 18 minutes of the title track begin the album with a slowly drifting guitar theme leading into the first vocal section, which keeps the slow tempo but adds dark hues and tension. The piece then kicks into a faster percussive section with electronics that betray a more modern flavor. The piece continues through a couple of sections before giving way to "Dislocated Day", an edgy bit of electronic rock that reminds me of Nine Inch Nails in spots. Two more atmospheric songs ("The Moon Touches Your Shoulder" and the acoustic "Prepare Yourself") set the stage for the gradual resumption of "The Sky Moves Sideways". The conclusion doesn't so much reprise the first half as it picks up where it left off. As before, the spacious sound and respect for classic prog traditions make the album very enjoyable to my ears, particularly the free and spacey first minutes of the concluding piece.

Despite this auspicious introduction, I lost touch with Porcupine Tree's output shortly afterwards, as my musical interests shifted to other bands and styles. Strangely, after becoming involved with an online music discussion group ten years later, I became re-acquainted with Porcupine Tree and discovered the albums I had missed in the interim. In this discussion group (we called ourselves "The Trainwreck"), classic rock fans started a lively thread about Porcupine Tree, which seemed like everyone's new favorite band.  

Beginning in the early 2000s, Porcupine Tree's sound evolved into a more straightforward rock sound not unlike Rush - still very progressive, but heavier and more song-based, even incorporating heavy metal sounds at times. I enjoy this later era of that band as much as I do the earlier material - the band was tighter by this time, and Wilson's production skills were second to none. But none of it would have happened without the success and quality of albums like The Sky Moves Sideways. It's an early chapter in the work of a band (and bandleader) that came to virtually define the sound of progressive rock in the new millennium.

Steven Wilson, incidentally, is well known outside of Porcupine Tree not only for his successful solo career but also his remixes and restorations of classic progressive rock bands' catalogs. He did wonders on Jethro Tull's Aqualung and ELP's Tarkus, two albums reviewed earlier on our blog.

Dan:

Like all of the albums that are new to me this year, thanks to our blogging project, I have the advantage of judging them as they are now, without much sense of the trajectory they were part of when they were made. The Sky Moves Sideways impresses immediately with its long, thunderous chords that increase in intensity as the long pieces (Phases 1 and 2) progress. I love stuff like this and was not expecting it. Almost none of the rather spacey lyrics seem to matter much; it's the instrumentals that rule my attention. Steve's track-by-track description is much more detailed than I could provide. For me, it's the overall impact of the album, not its pieces.

I think the Pink Floyd comparison, which always seems to be raised in posts about this album, somewhat diminishes Steven Wilson's accomplishment. Sure, The Sky Moves Sideways has a similar structure and loud guitar passages, but Pink Floyd did not invent those things. I'd be happier just to celebrate the originality of Porcupine Tree.

If I were labeling prog subgenres (and I usually don't bother), I would easily find "space rock" to be an apt description of what Porcupine Tree do on this album.