Coma Divine – Recorded Live in Rome

Coma Divine
Cover art by John Blackford
Live album by
Porcupine Tree
Released20 October 1997[1]
Recorded25–27 March 1997
VenueFrontiera (Rome)
GenreKrautrock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, space rock
Length78:06 (original album)
100:51 (expanded and remastered edition)[2]
LabelCD: Delerium, Snapper
Vinyl: Headspin
Porcupine Tree chronology
Signify
(1996) 		Coma Divine
(1997) 		Metanoia
(1998)
2004 Reissue
Digipack reissue on Snapper
Cover art by Lasse Hoile

Coma Divine – Recorded Live in Rome or just Coma Divine, is a live album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released in October 1997. It was expanded to a double album in 2003, adding the three tracks from the promotional single Coma Divine II (1999), and one more previously unreleased outtake. The expanded edition was also released on vinyl containing 3 LPs, plus a bonus 7 inch single with two demo versions of the song "Disappear" (later included on the compilation album The Sound of No One Listening in 2020; a newer version was included on the "Four Chords That Made a Million" single in 2000 and the compilation Recordings in 2001). The album was finally revamped in digipack through Snapper label in 2004.

Recording

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The band recorded three shows at the Frontiera in Rome (on 25, 26 and 27 March 1997) for the purpose of this release; however, only recordings from the 2nd and 3rd night were used, as the recordings from the first concert were flawed with technical problems. A vast amount of material had been performed during the shows, but the band eventually decided to release only the best performances on a single CD. While later the album was reissued as a double CD featuring an extra 25 minutes of music, there are still other unreleased performances from the show, featuring both original phases of "Voyage 34," "Dark Matter," "Burning Sky," "Stars Die," "Idiot Prayer," "The Nostalgia Factory," "Nine Cats," the first performances of "Every Home is Wired," and an instrumental called "Cryogenics" written especially to feature on the album;[3] it was ultimately dropped as the band felt it wasn't good enough. Several of these recordings were later released on the 2020 EP Coma: Coda (Rome 1997), made available through the official Porcupine Tree Bandcamp page.

Although essentially a live record, Coma Divine features studio overdubs of the vocals, as the original takes were too poor both in terms of performance and the quality of recording.[4]

Track listing

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Original release

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All songs written by Steven Wilson unless otherwise noted.

Original Release
No.TitleWriter(s)Studio albumLength
1."Bornlivedieintro"Richard Barbieri, WilsonSignify, 19961:23
2."Signify" Signify5:52
3."Waiting (Phase One)" Signify4:32
4."Waiting (Phase Two)" Signify5:28
5."The Sky Moves Sideways" The Sky Moves Sideways, 199512:38
6."Dislocated Day" The Sky Moves Sideways6:37
7."The Sleep of No Dreaming" Signify5:18
8."Moonloop"Wilson, Ricky Edwards, Colin Edwin, Chris MaitlandThe Sky Moves Sideways11:40
9."Radioactive Toy" On the Sunday of Life, 199215:26
10."Not Beautiful Anymore" Up the Downstair, 19939:43
Total length:78:37

There were various technical problems with the original CD edition due to its extreme length, and later pressings had about two minutes of audience noise removed between tracks to try to solve the problem.[5]

Expanded edition

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All songs written by Steven Wilson unless otherwise noted.

Disc One
No.TitleWriter(s)Studio albumLength
1."Bornlivedieintro"Barbieri, WilsonSignify, 19961:23
2."Signify" Signify5:52
3."Waiting (Phase One)" Signify4:32
4."Waiting (Phase Two)" Signify5:28
5."The Sky Moves Sideways" The Sky Moves Sideways, 199512:38
6."Dislocated Day" The Sky Moves Sideways6:37
7."The Sleep of No Dreaming" Signify5:18
8."Moonloop"Wilson, Edwards, Edwin, MaitlandThe Sky Moves Sideways11:40
Disc Two
No.TitleStudio albumLength
1."Up The Downstair" (*)Up the Downstair, 19937:40
2."The Moon Touches Your Shoulder" (*)The Sky Moves Sideways5:05
3."Always Never" (*)Up the Downstair4:51
4."Is...Not" (previously unreleased)The Sky Moves Sideways6:09
5."Radioactive Toy"On the Sunday of Life..., 199213:32
6."Not Beautiful Anymore"Up the Downstair9:43
Total length:100:28

(*) N.B. Originally released on the Coma Divine II EP in 1999.

Musicians

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Reviews

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
DPRP[6]

Professional reviews:[7]

  • Metal Hammer – Captured live in Rome, they reinforce both their ability and their charm through the likes of 'Moonloop' and 'The Sky Moves Sideways', lengthy but not overdone pieces, led as ever by Steve Wilson's intriguing vision. Admittedly, it'll make them few friends (live albums never do), but it's essential listening for the faithful.

References

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  1. ^ "Delerium". Archived from the original on 24 July 2008. Retrieved 26 July 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. ^ "Amazon.de". Germany: Amazon.
  3. ^ "Porcupine Tree Setlists for Rome, Italy 1997". Setlist.fm. 10 March 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  4. ^ "Porcupine Tree - the Official Site". 24 April 2001. Archived from the original on 24 April 2001. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
  5. ^ Porcupine Tree – Official Website – Coma Divine Archived 2 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ "DPRP CD Reviews – 1998 – Volume 1". dprp.net. Archived from the original on 4 April 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2009.
  7. ^ "Delerium Records: Porcupine Tree – Coma Divine". Archived from the original on 24 July 2008. Retrieved 18 April 2008.
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