On the Sunday of Life

Artist: Porcupine Tree
Label: Delerium Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Original recording remastered
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 604388465026
EAN: 0604388465026
ASIN: B00004S2V6

Release Date: 2000-05-02

On the Sunday of Life

Related Categories:

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

Progressive Rock

| Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

Experimental Rock

Experimental Music

| Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Music For The Head
Jupiter Island
Third Eye Surfer
On The Sunday Of Life...
The Nostalgia Factory
Space Transmission
Message From A Self-Destructing Turnip
Radioactive Toy
Nine Cats
Hymn
Footprints
Linton Samuel Dawson
And The Swallows Dance Above The Sun
Queen Quotes Crowley
No Luck With Rabbits
Begonia Seduction Scene
This Long Silence
It Will Rain For A Million Years

Customer Reviews:

Seriously underrated.......2006-09-04

Porcupine Tree got started in the late '80s as simply a Steven Wilson project. He had also used other names as No-Man and I.E.M. for other projects, all essentially Steven Wilson. But as luck turned out, it was Porcupine Tree that became the most successful and he actually later assembled a full band. But in the beginnning, he simply started the way of Ozric Tentacles: a couple of privately issued cassettes with Tarquin's Seaweed Farm (1989) and The Nostalgia Factory (1991). By '91 he got in contact with Delerium Records, who had the idea of making both cassettes available as two separate double LPs, but he felt a lot of the material wasn't worth releasing, so he instead used the highlights of both cassettes, and re-recorded "Nuclear Toy" to make up On the Sunday of Life, which was released as a double LP set (as a limited edition of only 500 copies). Delerium quickly made it available on CD.

Really, I find these collections of songs very seriously underrated. I can understand that fans of their later offerings as Deadwing and In Absentia might be put off by this album, but you have to bear in mind there are certain bands out there that started quite different from their later material. "Music For the Head" starts off with a rather sinister feel and some nice flutework. Next comes "Jupiter Island". Even this early in Steven Wilson's career, he knew what he was doing, as this is one great catchy number. The next couple of pieces are rather experimental, "Third Eye Surfer" and the title track before coming to "The Nostalgia Factory" which pretty much in the same vein as "Jupiter Island", but has some sitars too. I find it really interesting that John Marshall of Soft Machine actually provides drums on "Third Eye Surfer" (this was the only piece on this CD where someone aside from Steven Wilson plays). Here he provides some really amazing jazzy drumming done totally in '70s style. Listening to this, you can understand why Soft Machine included him when Robert Wyatt left that group. While the drumming is impressive, most of the this piece is mainly strange experimental sounds. "Space Transmission" features some really sinister spoken dialog, one of the more creepy numbers, that leads up to "Message From a Self-Destructing Turnip", which features some more spoken dialog, about a countdown, which then leads to "Radioactive Toy". This is another great piece in classic Porcupine Tree fashion, it reminds me a lot of "Fadeaway" from Up the Downstair, plus it also has some really nice ambient experiments to go with it. "Nine Cats" vocals that sound different from the usual Steven Wilson, here he sounds more like David Gilmour, and there's plenty of that Pink Floyd-like feel to this song. "Linton Samuel Dawson" is absolutely hilarious, here Steven Wilson speeds up his voice to sound like Jerry Samuels (Napoleon XIV) or The Chipmunks. This is one of the rare instance of humor popping up on a PT CD, simply because their music tends to be quite serious. "Footprints" has more of that darker sound you expect from PT, but the lyrics have quotes from Sgt. Pepper ("tangerine trees", "marmalade skies"), despite the Sgt. Pepper reference, you'll never mistake it for that album. None of the rest of the disc is anywhere as bad as it's often made out to be. I guess On the Sunday of Life didn't come as too much of a shock, because I was one that didn't become aware of this group when they started releasing stuff like In Absentia or Deadwing, but much earlier, back when they were still recording for Delerium, in which The Sky Moves Sideways was the very first PT CD I ever tried. On this earlier release, I can already tell where they were headed on following CDs, but also has some rather experimental passages that wouldn't have fit on later albums, plus there is no techno here like "Wire the Drum" from The Sky Moves Sideways. To me, I think it's quite impressive all this stuff was done by one guy, without the benefit of any band.

It's pretty safe to say On the Sunday of Life is to Porcupine Tree what Afterswish was to Ozric Tentacles, except of course, in the Ozrics case, they had the benefit of five studio cassettes to choose from (there was also a live cassette called Live Ethereal Cereal which no material from that album was featured). That meant that Porcupine Tree got a record deal quite a bit faster than the Ozrics did. While the Ozrics did feel their early cassettes deserved CD releases (which did, as first part of the Vitamin Enhanced box set, then sold separately), Steven Wilson did not feel that the complete Tarquin's Seaweed Farm or The Nostalgia Factory were worth releasing. I, of course, hadn't heard those cassettes, as they're a little difficult to come by, but even most fans who heard them didn't think they were all that great. But at least he chose well the highlights from both.

Anyway, I think it's a great CD and worth having.

diamond in the rough.......2004-07-12

To those who wrote harsh reviews of On The Sunday of Life, you have to understand first that this is Steven Wilson's earliest and very experimental work, and is a compilation of what he did which is why it sounds so diverse. It's Steven Wilson the mad scientist, and was probably never really meant to be released, but the material is actually pretty good all things considering he was a ONE-MAN band in the very beginning. Some of the material contains the raw sound of what Porcupine Tree would eventually become, such as Radioactive Toy. There is also a little humor injected such as the odd Message from a Self-Destructing Turnip and Linton Samuel Dawson, and trippy songs like Jupiter Island. Listen to the album for what it is, which is the beginnings of what would be a terrific group.

Wow this cd blew me away........2004-06-03

Ok. this cd is AWESOME. Porcupine tree is awesome. It just sucks you in and dosent let you go. The song Nine cats is like the greatest. The first time i heard it i accually started laughing cus it was so good. i couldn't believe it. It would be like one of the ideal cds to get really messed up to and listen to front to back. And it keeps you interested throughout. If you like pink floyd and stuff like that this will probably be up your alley.

I'm at suprised how good this is...........2004-02-06

...based on some other reviews here.

This album's sound is unique to this band's other works, true, but thats no reason to ignore it. Every band starts somewhere and this is really bold and polished.

This album is very comparable to one of Sky Cries Mary's(a similar band) early albums "Return to the Inner Experience". That album's sound was very different then, but they later evolved into a more progresive psychadellic style. The same could be said here with "On The Sunday of Life".

The songs here are for the most part, more upbeat and sometimes garage grungy. As a whole, this is Porcupine's trippiest, darkest album. This has louder drums and bass, and is filled with echoing and dripping sound effects often. Some vocals here sound very different from the usual Steven Wilson, but work extremely well. Each of the 18 tracks stands out on their own, but they all fit together really well. It's sort of like a "the best of early stuff" album.

If your into psychodellic/progressive rock bands like Sky Cries Mary, Pink Floyd, Pixies, and of course Porcupine Tree, then do your self a favor and get this.

Watch out for track 6. Don't hear it alone.

Prepare for the ultimate trip.......2003-12-18

Porcupine's tree debut "On the sunday of life" remains their most challenging,strange and exciting album up to this day.back in late 80-ties Porcupine Tree was one man's band.Steven Wilson played almost all the instruments (Guitars,Vocals,Bass,Synths) with adittion of few musicians playing drums,guitar and oboe.
the material from this album is a compilation of 3 early demo cassetes that Steven's band recorded during 1988 and 1991.that is why the quality of each tracks is a bit different.

After quiet ambient styled "Music for the head" Porcupine strikes wiht "Jupiter island", catchy and melodic pop song that has a psychedelic spirit in it.i do not know what exactly is the Jupiter island but i think that the lyrics were written during some narcotic trips (as other lyrics too).this great tune is one of the few highly accesible moments on album.psychedelic and difficult instrumentals like "Queen quotes crowley","Space transmition" or "Hymn" are mixed with more typical songs."Linton samuel dawson" is speed up amusing tune (funny vocals),"Nine cats" is closer to pop music than anything other here although the lyrics are strange and quite mysterious."Footprints" and "Swallows dance above the sun" are genius dark and moody pieces.and of course "Radioactive toy" - Porcupine's first big hit and classic track.great guitar solo and great melody.the other outstanding song is "It will rain for 100 years",long epic 10 minutes track.dreamy atmosphere,beautifull oboe part and bass solo hidden inside...

Music Album:

Music Album

Music Album

Music

100° and Rising ~ Incognito

Definitive Collection ~ Martin Carthy

Akuma No Uta ~ Boris

G'n'r Lies ~ Guns 'N' Roses

Phantom's Divine Comedy, Part 1

Con Gli Occhi Chiusi ~ Franco Simone

Ti Amo 4 ~ Various Artists

Bolero ~ Georges Guetary

Latin Grooves: Brasil, Vol. 1 ~ Various Artists

Best ~ Megumi Shina