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Porcupine Tree — Coma Divine
(Delerium DELEC CD 067, 1997, CD)

by Dan Casey, Published 1998-02-01

Coma Divine Cover art

Immediately upon its release, fans were hailing Coma Divine as the definitive live album for the 90s. High praise, indeed. To be fair, Tipographica and Deus Ex Machina have both put out stunning live releases this decade. Porcupine Tree is without a doubt the biggest up-and-coming thing in progressive music (in terms of their mass appeal) and Coma Divine is certainly a great release, worthy of competing with the aforementioned bands for the honor the die-hard fans claim this album deserves. Digitally recorded, produced, and mixed by multi-talented guitarist / vocalist / keyboardist / songwriter Steven Wilson, the album opens with the sounds of the band standing around backstage and follows them as they fire themselves up for the performance and walk out on stage (predictably) to "bornlivedie" and the Neu-inspired "Signify." The talent in this band is obvious right from the beginning, as they move through a version of "Signify" which is much different from the original studio version. Both phases of "Waiting" follow, and again the band does much more than simply reproduce the original version. Colin Edwin's gorgeous bass tones carry much of the first half of the album as Wilson and keyboardist Richard Barbieri create some rich and warm atmospherics. The beauty and appeal of Porcupine Tree has always been the manner in which they combine obvious influences such as Floyd, Crimson, Can, and others with a passion for 90s elements such as rave, techno, and modern jazz in a manner which is completely fresh and yet comfortable and familiar. In many cases, the versions of the songs included here are even better than the originals. Two cases in point: "The Sky Moves Sideways" with its shortened and more dynamic arrangement, and "Dislocated Day" which highlights the enormous talents of drummer Chris Maitland (who also plays with Wilson in the live form of the Brit-pop band No-Man). Maitland has never stretched out like this on the Porcupine Tree studio stuff, instead favoring a supporting role. Extended versions of "Radioactive Toy" and "Not Beautiful Anymore" close out the album, as they did the show that night in Rome. Some very minor complaints: the end of "Moonloop" is just too fast, "Dark Matter" isn't included, neither is "Always Never," and neither is "Sever," all of which were played on this tour. Guess this thing should have been a double live album. Nobody would have complained at all.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 14, 1997 releases

Related artist(s): Porcupine Tree, Richard Barbieri, Steven Wilson / I.E.M., Colin Edwin

 

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