Back in March, something cool showed up online: an official Porcupine Tree Bandcamp page. Today, Bandcamp spilled the beans to the world by featuring Porcupine Tree on their Daily blog. (Though the snarky tone of the listicle left something to be desired — as is all too often the case. Oh well, all publicity is good publicity, right?).
So what’s on Bandcamp for your listening and downloading pleasure?
- Porcupine Tree’s very first live performance, recorded at the Nag’s Head in High Wycombe, England on December 4, 1993.
- XM and XM2, recorded live in studio for satellite radio. XM, recorded in 2002, focuses on songs from the then-new In Absentia, while 2003’s XM2 delves into the back catalog.
- Plenty from the Fear of A Blank Planet era: A BBC session, live sets from shows in Finland and Germany, and the acoustic in-store performance We Lost the Skyline.
- An acoustic Steven Wilson/John Wesley radio session from 2009.
- Pure Narcotic, the band’s last studio sessions: acoustic re-recordings meant to fill out the live Octane Twisted album but never released.
I’ve already got a few of these on my list for Bandcamp’s upcoming first-Friday artist support days. Along with the excellent deluxe edition of In Absentia released back in February, it’s shaping up as a very good year for Porcupine Tree fans indeed!
— Rick Krueger
Progarchy 
Not counting the releases previously available on CD:
“Köln 4th Dec 2007 (TV broadcast)” is surprisingly good. The performances are inspired, the setlist is rather unique and the sound/mix fits their music from that period better than on any other release. It actually a top 3 live PT release for me.
The first performance is good, more than just a historical curiosity.
The “Pure Narcotic” acoustic session has some unusual twists in the arrangements and is a very pleasant listen.
The BBC session from 2007 and the 2009 acoustinc session are by far the least interesting. The former is redundant and the latter finds SW and JW in less-than-stellar form, e.g. most of the solos fall off the rails.
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