| Signify | ||||
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Cover art by John Blackford |
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| Studio album by Porcupine Tree | ||||
| Released | September, 1996 | |||
| Recorded | 1996 | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock, psychedelic rock, space rock | |||
| Length | 61:56 | |||
| Label | Delerium | |||
| Porcupine Tree chronology | ||||
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Remastered Edition
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| Allmusic | [1] |
Signify is the fourth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released in September 1996. It was the first album that frontman Steven Wilson recorded with a full group of musicians on board from the beginning. Previously he had been recording albums primarily as a one-man band with help gradually from other musicians. A number of the songs, albeit in early forms, were debuted live on The Sky Moves Sideways tour before being recorded. The song "Every Home is Wired" has been covered by Polish electronic group Cabaret and included in their single Electric Chair Song.[2] The full quote from the background words of "Idiot Prayer" can be heard on the song "Trippin'" by SRM.
Kscope is set to release the third vinyl edition of the album on May 9, 2011.[3]
Contents |
"Signify" was the first album recorded by Porcupine Tree as a full band unit, rather than by Steven Wilson occasionally joined by other musicians. Before the recording process started, the band had been touring for a period of around 18 months. Steven Wilson: "The album was recorded in quite a piecemeal way with tracks written and recorded in batches of 2 or 3, followed by gaps of up to 3 months." While this was also the first Porcupine Tree album to feature live drums throughout, the track "Light Mass Prayers" written by drummer Chris Maitland features no drums. The title track of the album started its life as a cover version of a song called Hallogallo by the band Neu! but was later developed into a new composition (a demo of "Hallogallo / Signify" can be found of the Signify era outtakes compilation "Insignificance"). According to bassist Colin Edwin, producer Wilson allowed him a lot of freedom with his parts, however sometimes he would simply "replace original demo parts with (his) own take" (as was the case with the tracks "Sever" and "Dark Matter"). Keyboardist Richard Barbieri pointed out that during the Signify sessions he would often try "to use what in isolation would be a weird and abstract sound or texture and to make it work in the context of a pop song".[4]
The 2003 reissue on Delerium Records contains a second disc of demos from the Signify sessions, originally released in cassette format titled Insignificance, available only to subscribers of the former Porcupine Tree information mail service called "Transmission". This disc is also included with the 2004 reissue on Snapper Music. The tracklist has been slightly altered from the cassette:
Some of the tracks are working titles of songs that were later included on the album (i.e. "Dark Origins" and "Sever Tomorrow") whilst others were not included (i.e. "Wake as Gun I" and "Wake as Gun II"). Two tracks from the original cassette release, "Insignificance" and "Door To The River" were removed from this bonus CD reissue, but later appeared as bonus tracks on the reissue of Metanoia. The track "Dark Origins", in turn, was not on the original cassette release. "Wake As Gun I" also appears on the CD single "Piano Lessons" where it's simply titles "Wake As Gun". A remixed version of "Hallogallo" appears on the B-side of the 7" single "Stranger By The Minute".
Several other tracks were recorded during the Signify sessions, which made it to other releases.
The tracks "Signify II", "Colourflow In Mind", "Fuse The Sky" and "The Sound Of No-one Listening" all appear on the compilation album "Stars Die", while the three latter tracks also appear on various versions of the "Waiting" single.
Moreover, an album of studio improvisations from that period, called "Metanoia", was released in 1998. The album features (among others) a track called "Metanoia I/Intermediate Jesus", edited version of which served as the main backing track for the song "Intermediate Jesus".
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