Neha Patil (Editor)

Tarquin's Seaweed Farm

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Released
  
early 1989

Label
  
No Man's Land

Release date
  
1989

Length
  
76:52

Artist
  
Porcupine Tree

Genre
  
Psychedelic rock

Tarquin's Seaweed Farm wwwprogarchivescomprogressiverockdiscography

Recorded
  
1988-1989, Periscope Station, Devon

Tarquin's Seaweed Farm (1989)
  
Love, Death & Mussolini (1990)

Similar
  
Porcupine Tree albums, Psychedelic rock albums

Tarquin's Seaweed Farm, subtitled "Words from a Hessian Sack", is the first album to be released by Steven Wilson under the name "Porcupine Tree". It was originally a compiled cassette of experimental music made by Steven Wilson for his joke band he formed with his friend Malcom Stocks. The cassette was only sent out to a few people, but was enough to give the band a bit of fame in the UK underground music scene of the time, being picked up by the underground magazine Freakbeat. It was later released under Delerium Records in 1991 in a limited edition of 300 copies. Eventually, the tracks from this and the later Porcupine Tree album The Nostalgia Factory were compiled into what are considered Porcupine Tree's first true studio albums, On the Sunday of Life and Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape.

Contents

In 2004, this and the other two Delerium cassettes were privately remixed and remastered by Steven Wilson and rereleased in a special boxset called "Footprints: Cassette Music 1988–1992". 25 copies were made and distributed to friends and family of Wilson, who also kept a copy for himself and sent some to the rest of the band.

Track listing

(All tracks written by Steven Wilson except "Jupiter Island" written by Wilson/Duffy, "Clarinet Vignette" written by Wilson/Masters and "The Cross" written by Prince. Artwork by Alistair Campbell.)

Side A ("Studio LP")

  1. "Music for the Head (Here)" - 2:44
  2. "Jupiter Island" - 6:09
  3. "Nun's Cleavage (Left)" - 2:45
  4. "Clarinet Vignette" - 1:18
  5. "Nun's Cleavage (Right)" - 1:09
  6. "Space Transmission" - 2:56
  7. "Message from a Self-Destructing Turnip" -  :28
  8. "Radioactive Toy" - 5:49
  9. "Towel" - 3:33
  10. "Wastecoat" - 1:10
  11. "Mute (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)" - 8:06
  12. "Music for the Head (There)" - 1:24

Side B ("Live LP")

  1. "No Reason to Live, No Reason to Die" - 11:09
  2. "Daughters in Excess" - 6:46
  3. "The Cross" - 8:17
  4. "Hole" - 1:34
  5. "Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape" - 10:48

Even though Porcupine Tree have only been officially active since 1987, some of these songs can be dated back to 1986 according to the liner notes of the 2000 vinyl reissue of Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape.

Tracks 1 through 7 and a re-recorded version of Radioactive Toy would be released on Porcupine Tree's official debut album, On the Sunday of Life, in June 1992. Track 3, however, was renamed "Third Eye Surfer", with tracks 4 and 5 being indexed as one track called "On the Sunday of Life". The rest of the tracks, including the original version of Radioactive Toy, would be released on CD for the first time on Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape in 1994. In 2000, YHD was re-released on vinyl, with "The Cross" and "Hole" being replaced by "Out", track 8 from the followup, Love, Death and Mussolini.

Credits (fiction)

Tripping Musicians Extraordinaire:

  • The Porcupine Tree – Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Flute, Koto and Vocals
  • Sir Tarquin Underspoon – Organ, Electric Piano, Synthesisers and Vocals
  • Mr Jelly – Bass Guitar
  • The Expanding Flan – Drums, Percussion, Drum Computer and Spoken Word
  • Timothy Tadpole-Jones – Acoustic Guitar, Percussion
  • Sebastian Tweetle-Blampton III operates the delay circuits and mixing desk
  • Solomon St. Jemain – Guitar on 'Wastecoat', Drum Computer on 'Towel' and Spoken Word
  • Master Timothy Masters – Oboe, Cor Anglais
  • Linton Samuel Dawson operates the light show

    • References

    Tarquin's Seaweed Farm Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA