PORCUPINE TREE — Up The Downstair (review)

PORCUPINE TREE — Up The Downstair album cover

Album · 1993 · Non-Metal

3.5/5 · 2021-05-19
UMUR

"Up The Downstair" is the 2nd full-length studio album by UK progressive rock act Porcupine Tree. The album was released through Delerium Records in June 1993. It´s the successor to "On The Sunday Of Life..." from 1992. The predecessor was more or less just a collection of demo tracks frontman Steven Wilson had written and recorded during the late 80s/early 90s and it´s more a solo album than a full band effort. "Up The Downstair" is similar in the respect that it´s also more or less a solo effort by Steven Wilson who sings and plays most instruments, although future Porcupine Tree members Colin Edwin and Richard Barbieri guests on bass and keyboards respectively. The material on the album is not culled from any of the three pre-album demo releases that Wilson recorded in the late 80s/early 90s.

"Up The Downstair" exists in two significantly different sounding versions. The original version from 1993 which features programmed drums, and the 2005 double album reissue, which was partially re-recorded (featuring drum tracks recorded by then Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison), fully re-mixed, and remastered along with the 1994 "Staircase Infinities" EP. It´s two very different listening experiences as the original version suffers a bit from the artificial sounding drum programming, while the re-recorded version has a completely different organic feel to it. "Up The Downstair" was originally intended to be a double album release featuring the album material plus the "Voyage 34" single track and the material from the "Staircase Infinities (1994)" EP. So the reissue is probably a little closer to Wilson´s original vision, than the 1993 version of the album.

The material on "Up The Downstair" is psychadelic rock with ambient keyboards, soaring guitar leads and powerful rhythm playing, sound effects and samples, a driving organic beat, and Wilson´s melancholic restrained mellow vocals in front. The album feautures a coherrent musical style, which is a change from the eclectic debut album, and therefore "Up The Downstair" also feels more like a "real" album than the debut did. The album both features some relatively normal vers/chorus structured tracks (well...relatively), but also longer spaced out psychadelic jams (the title track for example features a style similar to contemporary Ozric Tentacles), so there is variation enough to the found on the album. The album is predominantly instrumental though, but the tracks featuring vocals like "Synesthesia", "Small Fish", and the absolutely stunning closing track "Fadeaway" mean a lot for the listening experience as a whole.

"Up The Downstair" is upon conclusion definitely a step forward for Porcupine Tree compared to the debut album. The original version as mentioned does suffer from featuring programmed drums, and I would strongly recommend purchasing the reissue version instead, and leave the few copies which still exist of the 1993 version for the hardcore collectors. I would probably have rated the original version with a 3 star (60%) rating but the 2005 reissue deserves a 3.5 star (70%) rating. This is one of the rare cases where a re-mixed and remastered version of an album truly makes sense.