The Sky Moves Sideways

The Sky Moves Sideways
Studio album by Porcupine Tree
Publication (s)	1995, 1996, 2004, 2012
Label (s)	Delerium, C + S Records, KScope u. a.
Format (s)	CD , LP
Genre (s)	Progressive rock , psychedelic rock , space rock
Title (number)	6 (original edition)
running time	59 min 39s (original edition)
occupation	Guitar , keyboard , synthesizer , flute , bass , vocals : Steven Wilson Synthesizer : Richard Barbieri Bass guitar : Colin Edwin Drums : Chris Maitland Drums : Gavin Harrison Percussion : Rick Edwards Singing : Suzanne Barbieri Flute : Theo Travis
production	Steven Wilson
Studio (s)	No Man's Land, Doghouse
chronology Up The Downstair (1993) The Sky Moves Sideways Signify (1996)

The Sky Moves Sideways (in German roughly: "The sky moves sideways") is the third studio album by Porcupine Tree , which has been released in five different versions since 1995.

Origin and style

The musical direction of Porcupine Tree, a formation that initially only consisted of Steven Wilson , moved in its early phase within the framework of Progressive Rock , Psychedelic Rock and Ambient , so that this epoch, which is not clearly defined in time, is also known as the "Psychedelic Phase". As the successor to the 1993 album Up The Downstair , The Sky Moves Sideways from 1995 represents a further step in the departure from a one-man project to a band-oriented formation, since in addition to the addition of keyboardist Richard Barbieri and bassist Colin Edwin , who already participated on the previous album, the drummer Chris Maitland was used for the first time for studio recordings.

The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1 (18:37)

1. The Color of Air (4:39)
2. I find That I'm Not There (3:47)
3. Wire the Drum (6:18)
4. Spiral Circus (3:56)

Steven Wilson in 1997

The title of the two-part piece The Sky Moves Sideways is divided into four sections in phase 1 . The instrumental introduction The Color Of Air introduces the work with crescending soundscapes in the second part, called I find That I'm Not There . The existing sound surfaces are supplemented by drums, guitar, bass and vocals. The basic tempo is slow, with a restrained verse creating a dynamic contrast to a more spirited chorus. The work crosses over into Wire The Drum, which is dominated by electronic beats and solo keyboard interludes, to increase the overall tempo until the more subtle section Spiral Circus , which is characterized by acoustic guitars, initially forms the preliminary conclusion.

With a total length of 35 minutes, the two parts of the title track form a framework around four shorter, more song-oriented pieces.

The Sky Moves Sideways - Phase 2 (16:46)

1. Is.. . Distress (12:01)
2. Off the Map (4:43)

The Phase 2 of The Sky Moves Sideways takes at this point the soundscapes from the introduction of the first phase again. Overall, however, the passage of the piece, called Is ... Not , develops into a guitar-oriented, straightforward song fragment which, apart from a vocal solo by the singer Suzanne Barbieri, is entirely instrumental. The space thus developed is filled by extensive solo interludes of the electric guitar. In order to form a link to phase 1 , the second part of the second phase, entitled Off The Map, takes up the tenor of I find That I'm Not There again around The Sky Moves Sideways in a moderate tempo with a melody-oriented, accompanied by keyboard passages Complete a guitar solo and a subtle use of drums.

The purely instrumental moonloop adds another psychedelic note to the album with its leisurelyness and the repetitive pattern of the ostinato played on the bass , which is enriched by dominating soundscapes and simple guitar playing .

All pieces were composed by Steven Wilson except for the collective composition Moonloop (Edwards, Edwin, Maitland, Wilson).

On the The Sky Moves Sideways tour , which took the band through England and Italy , the tracks The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1 , The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 2 , Moonloop , Dislocated Day and The Moon Touches Your Shoulder were played.

occupation

On the KScope 2-LP version released in 2012, the individual musicians involved were broken down as follows:

The Sky Moves Sideways

• Steven Wilson - guitars, keyboards, programming, flute, vocals
• Richard Barbieri - synthesizers, electronics
• Colin Edwin - bass guitar, double bass
• Chris Maitland - percussion
• Suzanne Barbieri - vocals
• Theo Travis - flute

Dislocated Day, Moon Touches Your Shoulder

• Steven Wilson - guitars, keyboards, bass, vocals
• Gavin Harrison - drums

Prepare yourself

• Steven Wilson - guitars

Stars Die, Moonloop

• Steven Wilson - guitars, keyboards, tapes, vocals
• Colin Edwin - bass guitar
• Chris Maitland - drums
• Rick Edwards - percussion

Versions

The various publications differ from one another in terms of the number, length, division and selection of titles, as well as their sound carrier medium:

1995: Original edition CD / vinyl

1. The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1 (18:37)
2. Dislocated Day (5:24)
3. The Moon Touches Your Shoulder (5:40)
4. Prepare Yourself (1:58)
5. Moonloop (17:04)
6. The Sky Moves Sideways - Phase Two (16:46)

With this track list, the album was first released on the Delerium label . Another release on C + S Records in the US includes Stars Die instead of Prepare Yourself . Moonloop can again be heard in an 8-minute version and the individual sections of the title song are separated into individual subtitles.

1996: US Edition CD

1. The Color of Air (4:39)
2. I find That I'm Not There (3:47)
3. Wire the Drum (6:18)
4. Spiral Circus (3:56)
5. Stars The (5:01)
6. Moonloop (8:11)
7. Dislocated Day (5:24)
8. The Moon Touches Your Shoulder (5:51)
9. Is.. . Distress (12:01)
10. Off the Map (4:43)

The US version was also released on the Delerium label. On this version, both parts of the title track have been separated into individual titles. Thus, pieces one to four correspond to The Sky Moves Sidesways Phase 1 and pieces nine to ten The Sky Moves Sidesways Phase 2 . Moonloop is included as a shortened version and thus corresponds to the version of the C + S Records release of the original edition.

2004: Expanded Remaster Digipak CD

CD 1

1. The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1 (18:39)
2. Dislocated Day (5:24)
3. The Moon Touches Your Shoulder (5:40)
4. Prepare Yourself (1:58)
5. The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 2 (16:48)

CD 2

1. The Sky Moves Sideways (alternate version) (34:37)
2. Stars The (5:01)
3. Moonloop (improvisation) (16:18)
4. Moonloop (coda) (4:52)

In the pieces Dislocated Day and The Moon Touches Your Shoulder , the programmed drum computer was replaced by recordings with real drums played by Gavin Harrison . Moonloop corresponds to the version of the original edition from 1995, but has been enriched by three additional minutes.

2004: 3LP Edition

page 1

1. The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1 (18:39)

Page 2

1. Stars The (5:01)
2. Dislocated Day (5:24)
3. The Moon Touches Your Shoulder (5:40)
4. Prepare Yourself (1:58)

Page 3

1. The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 2 (16:48)

page 4

1. Moonloop (improvisation) (16:18)
2. Moonloop (coda) (4:52)

page 5

1. The Sky Moves Sideways - alt ver part 1 (16:36)

page 6

1. The Sky Moves Sideways - alt ver part 2 (18:01)

This version includes all tracks from the Expand Digipak Remaster version from 2004. As a bonus, however, this version includes an LP single with two versions of the track Men Of Wood , which was created during The Sky Moves Sideways recordings. Originally, this track was released on the Stars The: The Delerium Years 1991-1997 compilation in 2000.

2012: KScope 2LP Edition

page 1

1. The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1 (18:40)

Page 2

1. Stars The (5:07)
2. Dislocated Day (5:24)
3. The Moon Touches Your Shoulder (5:40)
4. Prepare Yourself (2:00)

Page 3

1. The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 2 (16:56)

Side 4

1. Moonloop (22:23)

On the tracks Dislocated Day and The Moon Touches Your Shoulder , Gavin Harrison can also be heard on drums instead of a programmed drum computer that was used on the original edition. Moonloop corresponds to the version of the Expand Remaster Digipak or the 3-LP version, but has been combined into one title.

This publication contains a reference to the quality of the sound reproduction, which should tend to differ from the practice of Loudness Wars in music productions:

"This 2012 vinyl edition features a new" anti-loudness "remaster - in order to preserve the natural dynamics of the music hardly any limiting or EQ have been applied to the original masters."

"This record from 2012 has a new artistic" anti-loudness "finishing of the sound recording, which is supposed to preserve the natural dynamics of the music without artificially increasing the loudness level of the original recordings via an equalizer."

- Note on the record cover of the 2-LP version of The Sky Moves Sideways

Compared to Pink Floyd

The album, released in 1995, on which clear references to the style of the Pink Floyd group can be recognized due to the conceptual and musical structures , is considered the climax of the psychedelic phase Porcupine Trees. The relationship with the album Wish You Were Here , released in 1975, and the Shine On You Crazy Diamond contained on it, can no longer be dismissed here at the latest:

“Form-defining for the album center […] is the division of the title track into two roughly equal parts, which flank the song-heavy middle section. The result is a gondola-like structure, the bow and stern of which is characterized by extravagant decorations. "

- Sascha Ganser : musikreviews.de

This parallel led Porcupine Tree to be referred to as the "Pink Floyd of the 1990s". Steven Wilson has distanced himself from the album because of this development and in favor of his own musical direction:

“To me it sounds so close to Pink Floyd and that is a very bad thing for me, because I never ever wanted to be a copy of another band. And when I listen to it now, I just think this is an album for people who love Pink Floyd and they want to hear more of the same. [...] But for me as an artist it was dead end. I don't want to be making records that sound like another band. I wanna be making records that sound like something new and fresh and innovate. So for me although I can appreciate it's well put together, the songs are good and the production is not bad on that record. Musically for me, it was a dead-end. It was too close to past preaching a band that I loved when I was a kid and you know I still do like them now, but I had to move on. And I think that record was important for me to get out of my system. […] I think probably I would have stopped by now making music completely, if I hadn't found another way forward. But it was an important stepping stone for me, very important. "

“It sounds too much like Pink Floyd to me. And that's a very bad thing for me because I never wanted to sound like a copy of another band. And when I hear the album now, I think it's for people who like Pink Floyd and who want more music like that. [...] But for me as an artist it was more of a dead end. I don't want to make recordings that sound like other artists. I want to record something that sounds new, fresh and innovative. I think "The Sky Moves Sideways" is a good compilation of great songs and is well produced. But musically it was a kind of dead end for me. I was just too close to preaching the past of a band that I loved when I was a child. I mean, I still like Pink Floyd, but it had to go on musically for me back then. So I think this album was important for me to get away from my old system. […] I think that if I hadn't found another way forward, I would have stopped making music completely. But it was an important stepping stone for me, a very important one. "

- Steven Wilson on The Sky Moves Sideways in 2010

From the follow-up album Signify in 1996, the band composed more song-oriented pieces. This found more elements u. a. from styles like Progressive Metal , Alternative and Britpop their way into the increasingly shorter progressive rock songs of Porcupine Tree, so that the psychedelic sound structures that were extended over time, as they can be found on The Sky Moves Sideways , almost completely disappeared.

Live versions and other publications

The live album Coma Divine - Recorded Live in Rome , released in 1997, contains the following tracks from The Sky Moves Sideways album in live versions:

• The Sky Moves Sideways (12:38)
• Dislocated Day (6:37)
• Moonloop (11:40)
• The Moon Touches Your Shoulder (5:05)
• Is ... Not (6:09)

The title track was presented in a shortened 12-minute version, which largely corresponds to The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1 in the studio version . As an excerpt from The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 2 , the piece Is… Not was extracted, which can be heard as a single and longer track in a studio recording on the US release of The Sky Moves Sideways album from 1996. Moonloop was shortened to about twelve minutes in the live version.

The Sky Moves Sideways was released on the live album We Lost The Skyline from 2008 in a greatly shortened, four-minute acoustic version , with Steven Wilson only accompanied by John Wesely on guitar. "We lost the skyline" is a quote from the text of The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1 .

On the compilation The Delerium Years 1991-1997: Stars The are the pieces Stars The and The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1 has been used.

In 1994 the EP Moonloop was released, which only contains the two pieces Stars Die and Moonloop .

The promo CD Transmission IV , released in 2001, contains a 40-minute version of the piece Moonloop , which Steven Wilson and the band realized live in the studio in 1994.

reception

Overall, The Sky Moves Sideways was received very favorably by the critics. So the reviewers of the German-awarded progressive rock - Encyclopedia Baby Blue Pages , a resultant of four reviews average rating of 11 possible 15 points. Jochen Rindfrey describes the album as an "excellent example of new psychedelics" and observes a clear Pink Floyd influence, whose works The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here are decisive. Thomas Kohlruß agrees with this opinion, since "this album follows the footsteps of Pink Floyd like no other of the band" and sums up that Porcupine Tree succeeded in creating a "wonderfully flowing" album on which "there is no boredom." Christian Rhode views the work in a more differentiated way, as it shows "some lengths" and does not achieve the "complexity" of the later albums. Still, The Sky Moves Sideways have "a lot of deep atmosphere."

On the English-language website of the Prog Archives , the album is rated 4.09 out of 5 possible points. This rating is made up of 988 reviews, which a visitor to the website can submit with a click, and 81 written reviews. Overall, the album is given the following rating:

"Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection."

"Excellent enrichment for any Prog Rock music collection."

- Overall assessment of The Sky Moves Sideways on www.progarchives.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Porcupine Tree Homepage: Details on The Sky Moves Sideways. Retrieved October 31, 2014 . 
2. ↑ KScope Store: The Sky Moves Sideways (double vinyl). Retrieved October 31, 2014 . 
3. ↑ Porcupine Tree - Official Website: Biography. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
4. ↑ Baby Blue Prog Reviews: Porcupine Tree. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
5. ↑ Biography - StevenWilsonHQ.com. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
6. ↑ Information on the record cover of the 2-LP version of The Sky Moves Sideways .
7. ↑ Porcupine Tree Album Statistics: The Sky Moves Sideways (First Leg) - setlist.fm. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
8. ↑ Porcupine Tree Album Statistics: The Sky Moves Sideways (Second Leg) - setlist.fm. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
9. ↑ ^{a b c d} Porcupine Tree Homepage: Details on The Sky Moves Sideways. Retrieved October 31, 2014 . 
10. ↑ Note on the record cover of the 2-LP version of The Sky Moves Sideways .
11. ↑ Baby Blue Prog Reviews: Porcupine Tree. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
12. ↑ Porcupine Tree: The Sky Moves Sideways (Re-Release) (Review / Critique) - Album Review (Psychedelic Rock / Space Rock). Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
13. ↑ Biography - StevenWilsonHQ.com. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
14. ↑ Rocktimes - Interview with Steven Wilson. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
15. ↑ Porcupine Tree - Official Website: Biography. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
16. ↑ Porcupine Tree Homepage: Details on Coma Divine - Recorded Live in Rome. Retrieved October 31, 2014 . 
17. ^ Baby blue prog reviews: Porcupine Tree: We lost the skyline. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
18. ↑ Songlyrics.com - know the words: Text for The Sky Moves Sideways. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
19. ↑ Progarchives.com - PORCUPINE TREE Stars Die: The Delerium Years 1991–1997 reviews and MP3. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
20. ↑ Progarchives.com - PORCUPINE TREE Moonloop EP reviews and MP3. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
21. ↑ Progarchives.com - PORCUPINE TREE Transmission IV reviews and MP3. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
22. ↑ Baby Blue Prog Reviews: Porcupine Tree: The Sky Moves Sideways. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
23. ↑ Baby Blue Prog Reviews: Porcupine Tree: The Sky Moves Sideways. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
24. ↑ Baby Blue Prog Reviews: Porcupine Tree: The Sky Moves Sideways. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
25. ↑ Baby Blue Prog Reviews: Porcupine Tree: The Sky Moves Sideways. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 
26. ↑ Progarchives.com - PORCUPINE TREE The Sky Moves Sideways reviews and MP3. Retrieved November 1, 2014 . 

Web links

• Homepage of Porcupine Tree