Porcupine Tree - The Nostalgia Factory (1990)

Porcupine Tree
The Nostagia Farm
1990

PT's second proper album…. Some of this material eventually re-surfaced on either 'SUNDAY OF LIFE….' or the limited edition CD 'Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape'. However, these are the originally released versions as found on the limited edition cassette tapes that Steven Wilson produced and distributed in 1990. Also, a number of tracks appeared on the previous release, the 'Love, Death and Mussolini' EP.

Tracklist:
1. Hymn ……………………………. 1:22
2. Footprints ………………………. 5:56
3. Linton Samuel Dawson ……………… 3:04
4. And The Swallows Dance Above the Sun .. 4:12
5. Queen Quotes Crowley ……………… 4:40
6. No Luck With Rabbits ……………… 0:47
7. Begonia Seduction Scene …………… 2:33
8. Colours Dance Angels Kiss …………. 3:01
9. Prayer ………………………….. 1:50
10. The Nostalgia Factory …………….. 8:15
11. This Long Silence ………………… 6:51
12. Sinatra Rape Scene ……………….. 0:39
13. Hokey Cokey ……………………… 5:05
14. Landscare ……………………….. 3:16
15. Delightful Suicide ……………….. 1:19
16. Nine Cats ……………………….. 3:51
17. Split Image ……………………… 1:58
18. It Will Rain for a Million Years …… 10:50

The original cassette-tape flip point is after track 10.


With this particular RoIO/Transfer/torrent, preparing it went something like this….



My buddy Jeff (Jaman57 to you) obtained the initial cassette to Flac transfer. However, it was noted that the track times on this transfer didn't exactly match the known/reported times for the tracks, so Jeff checked for tuning and speed issues and then corrected them. This is what he did to achieve this feat. (so, between the '=========' marks are his comments, all in his own write!! Over to you, Jeff)…..

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1. I extracted On The Sunday Of Life and Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape CD's to my hard drive.

2. I took the original files from the cassette-transfer I had received (I had gotten them as 2 files - 1 for each side) and shifted the pitch down 18.5 cents using Sound Forge.

3. I compared the CD version from step 1. above of the following files with the corresponding sections of the pitch-corrected files:

- Footprints
- Linton Samuel Dawson
- And the Swallows Dance…
- Colours Dance Angles Kiss (aka Track 11 on YHD)
- This Long Silence
- Hokey Cokey (aka Execution of the will… on YHD)
- It Will Rain For A Million Years

I figured that was a good sample. I would have done Nostalgia Factory, but it is a different version (and in fact is even in a different key to the one finally released by SW on CD).

Now what was interesting is that the tuning between songs was not the same on the CD versions - in other words, an "E" on Footprints was not exactly an "E" on Swallows, and there were other examples. I assume this goes back to the original machines SW used to create the tracks. But the RELATIVE pitch correction was the same. So when I tuned the synthesizer to match the tuning on Footprints, it matched the tuning on the pitch-corrected version, and when I tuned the synthesizer to match the tuning on Swallows, it matched the tuning on the pitch-corrected version, and so on. So the correction was consistent.

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So, there you have it!!…. Jeff has sorted out any tuning timing issues to get this transfer as authentic as can be….

When the files worked on by Jeff arrived back with me the first thing I did was confirm that they were 'good and correct' by use of the FFP files supplied (which they were. Jeffs original files are in the 'Audio Archive' folder).

I then went through the file names and removed the '-fixed' extension (due to SBE Correction at Jeffs) from each name and then opened up the complete file set in FOOBAR2000 to insert the file tagging. Once tagging was complete, I ran my own copy of Traders Little Helper across the file set to create new FFP's, MD5's and check for sector-Boundary-Errors.

NO AUDIO CHANGES WERE MADE. Just file names, check-file creations and flac-tags. I then contructed the file/folder structure you now see.

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As an additional note, the afore-mentioned 'Audio Archive' folder also contains the original ZIP of the UN-ALTERED cassette transfer; That is, prior to Jeffs corrections above. I left this in for completeness and for those that might prefer to go for the original transfer for some reason.
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Also, I recently layed out some artwork for a previous version of this album, but that transfer isn't as clean as this one, so to differentiate it I have added the wording "April Fools Edition" here and there (Case spine, disc face etc, you'll find it if you look). Also, The track timings on this version are not identical to the previous transfer. It seems the tracking points are in a slightly different spot here and there, and this is also reflected in the artwork.

This here art-layout constitutes a 12 page booklet, back/tray inner and outer covers and a disc face, all based around the art-work of the original DELERIUM and Cassette releases, taken from scans. I also used info' from 'Steven Wilson Discography V8_Mar 2009.pdf' on the back outer art. A copy of this PDF is also contained in this file-set.


Thanks to Jaman57 and his buddies for their efforts getting all this together. Appreciated!!!



Don't forget, Porcupine Tree are a fully functioning recording and touring combo' who, incidentally, don't like us traders all that much, so please, if you like this then go buy some CD's eh? It's bit rude if you don't, really, yeah? Besides, the albums are bloody awesome!!! Specifically, if you like what's on here, you'll likely enjoy 'Tarquins Seaweed Farm' (another cassette/RoIO semi-rarity). Also, the high-points of these two 'cassette' albums plus some additional stuff make up the 'On The Sunday Of Life…' officially Released album.

Checkout www.porcupine Tree.com for details and an oppertunity to buy some stuff and settle your guilty conscience a bit. Also, if you sign up to the web-site store you get to download a free track! Worth having, too. It's the missing song from the 2001 recorded/ 2004 released 'Warszawa' live album (cracking CD it is, too!!).


That's a Wrap!!!!


Novak (2010)