Customer Reviews

Voyage 34

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Here is my review from the other Voyage 34: The Complete Trip:

This is great music, especially the first 2 phases. It is truly music that you can float away in, though the narrations are the one thing I could have done without. (Actually, I've grown to enjoy the narrations now.)

I concur with the other reviewers about the Pink Floyd sound. Just think of the guitar riff from Another Brick pt. 3 and the synths from Welcome to the Machine. Add a dash of the Orb a la the narratted parts and the mixing, and you have trip 34. As these long songs progress, the Floyd influence diminishes, but is still recognizable.

Since I love both groups, and The Porcupine Tree, I was quite happy with this recording. If you like any of them, I think you will be too. Definately best appreciated in a dark room on a good stereo played loud.
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This is a re-released version of the now very expensive version I just reviewed. It looks to me like the only reason to get this if you have the other is for the new cover artwork and digipack format, and the music has been remasterd a 3rd and final time. I personally like the remastering on my Delerium copy so will stick with that one.

If you don't have this album yet, then by all means pick this one up for the better price and possible better sound quality. Look for their next full album, Deadwing, near the end of March.

** Hey Woofbear (Anthony), can you tell me anything about this new Warzawa CD? My email is at kramerkreationsdotcom. Thanks. :o) **

This is the wrong album for introducing yourself to Porcupine Tree; I'd go first to the compilation "Stars Die: The Delerium Years" or "Deadwing" for that purpose. However, once you're into the band, it's a must-own component of the back-catalogue.

Ya gotta love the sheer audacity of the concept: To provide a 64-minute soundtrack for a head trip. There are only four tracks, all of which are lengthy and bear no resemblance to typical song structures. They just meander all over the place, held together by a lick lifted directly from "The Wall" and interspersed snippets of dialogue from people who have taken LSD (or the researchers monitoring them). I enjoy Phase I the best, and it will be familiar to those who own "Stars Die," but this is not the kind of album you put on to hear individual tracks. It's not an album at all, in the traditional sense, but it is a concept album in the very best sense, one that would almost certainly make Pink Floyd proud.

This album is pure genius, there is not much more to say about it. Not only is the premise (To musically follow an acid trip) very intruiging but the music itself has gravity. It pulls you in and before you know it you can't turn it off. This is the mellow rock/ambient genre in it's perfect state. The songs are constructed in such a way that you as a listener can expirience everything the subject is. It makes it so the obscurities that an acid trip may bring on seem normal, just as they would if you were really on the drug. Anyway you look at it, this CD is great and if you enjoy porcupine tree, no-man or any other great ambient groups like godspeed you black emperor you MUST have this CD. It's definetly worth your money and time.

I got this on my travels in Finland and have been quietly impressed by the music on it. As has been mentioned here, Porcupine Tree seem to be the middle ground between The Orb and Pink Floyd which is no bad thing. The music is very light, airy and definitely trippy too ( without the need of any psychedelic drugs I may add too ). I quite enjoy the random dialogue snippets as this makes it seem/sound a bit more of a scientific experimentation set to music. If you do like your psychedelic music more musically trippy than lyrically - this is as good a place to go for your dosage.

I absolutely love this album. None of other, usually great Porcupine Tree works have comparable atmosphere. Might not be to everyone's liking but everyone interested in Porcupine Tree should listen and form it's own opinion instead of relying on overly negative reviews posted here.

This is the beggining of the real sound of Porcupine Tree; an excellent cd for all PT fans, not for begginers.

Porcupine Tree fills a great gap for those hungry for more Pink Floyd, particularly the earlier works. "Voyage 34" is a tribute actually to Pink Floyd, as hints of "The Wall" and practically the whole catalogue from the David Gilmour era make no attempt to hide.
This is fine, because Porcupine Tree are an astonishingly brilliant band and can pull it off and still be themselves. No vocals except spoken word snippets are here, leaving the music to do the soothing, soaring, tripping and floating. Steve Wilson playfully recalls the main motif from Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell" during "I", and Richard Barbieri provides keyboards and synths that proudly pay homage to Rick Wright, and since Wright's passing, it becomes a flattering tribute.
There are some weird moments throughout, but mainly we get an instrumental workout with washes of guitar and loads of effects. Is it trippy? Probably, but this fan has never imbibed, so to speak. Rather, "Voyage 34" recalls the best moments of Floyd, a little of Alan Parsons and PT's own signature sound for a CD that will have classic rock fans smiling and younger fans hearing a band that can create so many different moods over their several albums. Porcupine Tree deserve to be huge, and maybe they'll catch on in the U.S. like they have in Europe.

In a nutshell this album is an hour long musical journey through an acid trip. The album is all instrumental with the exception of quite a few voice over¡¦s from old 1960¡¦s LSD documentaries, and acid tripping participants. 60¡¦s acid guru Timothy Leary is featured as well. There is a definite Pink Floyd influence to all of this, especially the main theme which is very similar to ¡§Another Brick In The Wall¡¨ from ¡§The Wall¡¨ album. This is another disc that was created prior to Porcupine Tree actually becoming a band. Stephen Wilson is the sole contributor to the music on phase 1, 2 and 3 of the disc, and that in itself is pretty amazing. Some Porcupine Tree fans really dislike this album while others hail it as an early triumph. I think you have to take it for what it is, but for the most part I have always really liked it. Listening to the album with the aid of inebriating substances can definitely enhance the experience (I admit to nothing º), but I have also always enjoyed the disc straight up as well.

I love Porcupine Tree. I find their music stimulating and unique. I own quite a bit of their stuff. This album is very interesting and it gets four stars for creativity and some nice guitar work.

Having said that, unless you are a rabid collector of PT works, you may want to purchase the Stars Die compilation as the 12 minute mix on it is more or less the highlight of this album (the mix on Stars Die is a modified version of Voyage 1). I often find myself admiring the Stars Die mix, but I will rarely stick this entire cd in my stereo. However, if you want to purchase it to support the band (lord knows that too many horrible "artists" are supported these days), you can't go wrong either, as this cd can be obtained for a reasonable price.

Voyage 34 was actually a collection of two extended singles released in 1992 and 1993, the first two parts from 1992 and the last two from '93. OK, so material here was supposed to be slated for Up the Downstair, but didn't. At this early point in Porcupine Tree's career, it was still a Steve Wilson project, he had yet to have a band (but that would quickly change), although on "Phase IV", Richard Barbieri provided synth work.

Many people regard this as one of the worst albums in the Porcupine Tree catalog, but it's not that bad. For one thing this is an instrumental album, you won't find Wilson's voice anywhere, but you do hear spoken dialog, about some guy by the name of Brian and his experience of LSD. Porcupine Tree was hardly the first to do an album about the experience of LSD, way back in 1967, none other than well-known Bay Area psychedelic rockers Jefferson Airplane recorded an album called After Bathing at Baxter's which was supposed to document the LSD trip. But of course you'll never mistake Porcupine Tree for Jefferson Airplane. For one thing, the production and the sound is quite modern, and you do hear plenty of '90s influences to go with '70s influences. The music has a darker, much more sinister tone, not the hippie type flower power stuff like you expect from the Airplane. The Pink Floyd comparisons are valid, the first two parts, especially features the same David Gilmour-type delayed guitar you hear on The Wall (like "Another Brick in the Wall Part 1"), with lots of ambient sounds to go with it as you expect from Porcupine Tree. The third part is much more techno-influenced, but I can understand why many might turn away from this cut, as the rhythm does stay the same throughout. The final part is mainly all ambient with yet more spoken dialog, I suspect the female narrator is the same person who also did "Not Beautiful Anymore" off Up the Downstair. People expecting some regular songs to go with the band's techno and ambient experiments might have been put off by Voyage 34, because it doesn't have regular songs.

I happen to own the most recent CD reissue, in digipak, and a new cover.

People wanting to explore the earlier PT catalog would obviously be advised to start with Up the Downstair, The Sky Moves Sideways, or Signify, but this is also worth having if you're a fan.