Porcupine Tree-Stars Die

A great 2 CD box set of their earlier recordings for the Delerium label. This came out in 2002 and when I bought it I didn’t know much about the band. I have never listened to this but in the last five years I have bought seven of their records with many tracks from them on this compilation. I listened to the first CD with tracks from their first three releases released from ’91 to ’93. These were primarily recorded by Steven Wilson himself. The tracks on disc to and future recordings were made with a four piece band. There are ten tracks on here, 72 minutes. All are excellent. “Radioactive Toy” from the first album brings to mind Pink Floyd. “Voyage 34 Phase One” is the first of the four phases of the album. Borrowing a riff from Pink Floyd’s The Wall and samples from Dead Can Dance and Van der Graff Generator Steve Wilson adds some ambient sounds, trippy guitar and narration to describe someone’s bad LSD trip. “Synesthesia” is an extended version of a song from their second LP Up The Downstair. That is followed by “Phantoms”, an outtake from that record and then the title track. “Fadeaway” the lasr track from the record is followed by “Rainy Taxi” another unreleased track. Disc two looks very interesting and looks like I have never heard most of it. I’ll save that for another time. Throughout the two discs there are new mixes, unreleased tracks and a few non-album singles. The set comes with a 40 page booklet with photos, extensive commentary on all tracks and interviews with Wilson and other band members. So glad this was not sold when I offered up my Box sets, CDs and cassettes for sale in 2013.

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