The More You Live, The More You Love

September already and it seems the year is filled with a lot of new releases. The last top 10 I presented came from July, and at that time Unheilig and It Bites topped the list. Just two months later and several new releases have found their spot in the new top 10. Even surprisingly is the new number one. After so many years The Fixx finally wrote a new studio album, which is one of the best they ever made. Also it is thirty years ago the band released their first album Shuttered Room, which still is one of my favourite eigthies albums. 01. The Fixx – Beautiful Friction 02. It Bites – Map Of The Past 03. Unheilig – Lichter der Stadt 04. Clock Opera – Ways To Forget 05. Rush – Clockwork Angels 06. Nik Kershaw – Ei8ht 07. No-Man – Love And Endings 08. Marina And The Diamonds – Electra Heart 09. Big Big Train – English Electric (part one) 10. Dead Can Dance - Anastasis

No-Man, Cultuurpodium de Boerderij 31 August 2012  After four years No-Man returned to the Cultuurpodium de Boerderij at Zoetermeer with a great setlist and an enthousiastic band. This time the band was much more relaxed then when they played there in early september 2008. Tim Bowness and Steven Wilson did introduce the songs with a smile and a joke and the band was in top shape. With an audience that came to listen to the band, instead of talking during the concert, it became a memorable evening. The setlist contained all the songs from their recently released live album Love And Endings with eight extra’s including the new uptempo track Warm-Up Man Forever, and also Close Your Eyes and the encore Back When You Were Beautiful, which were both on the setlist for the first time. Housewives Hooked On Heroin was spontaneously played as a third encore, Tim and Steven both complaining against eachother that they had not had the time to practice the song. Steven even asked...

NO-MAN FLOWERMOUTH (1994) (One Little Indian Records TPLP67CD) With Flowermouth No-Man delivers their first full CD, showing they’re still alive. With the signing of a contract to a large recordcompany, there was time and money enough for a full album, which in spite of the multi-instrumental talents of Steven Wilson contains a list of well-known guest musicians. Since Steven Wilson played as a guest role on their CD Beginning To Melt, Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri (also a member of Porcupine Tree) are both involved. Robert Fripp and Mel Collins are well represented. The final result contains a clearly stamp of Fripp, who makes use of his flippertronics. Vocalist Tim Bowness sounds like Marc Almond, but keeps its vocals too monotonous. So the real fire work needs to come from Steven Wilson and the guest musicians. Especially notable is the link of balance the band has created from their equivocal past. He who knows No-Man specifically from the Exposure albums (then working und...

The last day of the year brings me to the final list of the best albums for me over the year 2009. I have to say it was a good year. I discovered some nice new bands which turned out to become live favourites soon afterwards. Also this final list contains a nice mixture of new releases and re-releases. Because 2009 turned out to be a great year of re-releases. 01. (01) Editors - In This Light And On This Evening (2009) 02. (02) White Lies - To Lose My Life... (2009) 03. (--) No-Man - Mixtaped (2009) 04. (09) Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age Of Wireless (collector's edition) (2009) 05. (03) Muse - The Resistance (2009) 06. (--) Keane - Hopes And Fears (deluxe edition) (2009) 07. (10) Florence And The Machine - Lungs (2009) 08. (05) H2O - Faith (remastered) (2009) 09. (11) Ultravox - Lament (remastered definitive edition)(2009) 10. (--) A-Ha - Foot Of The Mountain (2009) 11. (04) Depeche Mode - Tour Of The Universe (Werchter) (2009) 12. (07) Porcupine Tree - The Incident (2009) 13. (--)...

August 22nd, The Rosemary Branch Theatre, Islington, London 20 years after performing its debut concert at the venue, No-Man returns to The Rosemary Branch for the launch of the band's forthcoming double DVD, Mixtaped. The presentation will consist of a special 70 minute preview of last year's Bush Hall performance (in widescreen and 5.1 surround sound), a 20 minute excerpt from the No-Man documentary Returning, and a 5.1 showing of the videos for Back When You Were Beautiful (especially commissioned for Mixtaped) and Wherever There Is Light. There will be two screenings at 2pm and 7pm. No-Man merchandise will be on sale and Tim Bowness, Steven Wilson and Mixtaped/Returning director Richard Smith will be in attendance at both showings. Please note that tickets are extremely limited due to the size of the venue and no refunds can be given. Venue location: Rosemary Branch Chech out at: No-Man website

Several people have asked me to repost the eigthies material of No-Man. So here it is again. No-Man is the band of Steven Wilson and Tim Bowness and dates back to the late eighties. After playing in Karma and Pride Of Passion Steve Wilson decided to start his own band. The first release, From A Toyshop Window, of this band, called No Man Is An Island Except For The Isle Of Man was released on the compilation album Exposure (1986). On this track Wilson plays all the instruments. It's a very progressive rock orientated song. On the Double Exposure album from 1987 the name is cut to No Man Is An Island, and ex plenty vocalist Tim Bowness and Stuart Blagdan on guitar have joined the band. Faith's Last Doubt is the track featured on this compilation. In 1989 The Girl From Missouri 12" is released which shows a hugh step forward towards the music No-Man is known for these days. Violin player Ben Coleman has joined the band and Blagdan has left. Later that year they change the na...

At the moment i'm enjoying my holiday and listen to a lot of (mostly) new music. In my present top 15 there are some great new bands, to me, with very good releases. 01. White Lies - To Lose My Life... (2009) 02. Keane - Perfect Symmetry (2008) 03. The Script - The Script (2008) 04. Simple Minds - Graffiti Souls (2009) 05. 10CC - Windows In The Jungle (japanese re-release + bonustracks) (2006) 06. Coldplay - Left Right Left Right Left (2009) 07. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid (live at Abbey Road) (2009) 08. H2O - Faith (remastered) (2009) 09. It Bites - The Tall Ships (2008) 10. Echo And The Bunnymen - Ocean Rain Live 2008 (2009) 11. IQ - Frequency (2009) 12. Ultravox - The Very Best Of (2009) 13. Steven Wilson - Insurgentes (2009) 14. Depeche Mode - Sounds Of The Universe (2009) 15. No-Man - Schoolyard Ghosts (2008) Other albums that need to be mentioned and get a recent re-play, but are not in my top 15 at the moment, are: Propaganda - A Secret Wish (special edition) (1984) Marillio...

'Mixtaped' concert DVD/CD, documentary and new No-Man material The live recordings from the No-Man mini-tour of autumn 2008 are now complete in terms of audio soundtrack and visuals. The band are planning a double DVD release in spring/summer 2009, which will be called 'Mixtaped'. The DVD will feature a second disc comprising a detailed documentary on No-Man's history, written and produced by Richard Smith and featuring interviews with Tim and Steven, as well as several extras. An audio CD of the best of the Bush Hall performances, also called 'Mixtaped', is likely to be released at a later date.

No-Man will be releasing a new EP in summer 2009 (most probably in early May). The EP will be called 'Wherever There Is Light' and will feature one previously released track plus new recordings and live audio/visual content (serving as a taster for the forthcoming live DVD). The full tracklisting for the EP is: Wherever There Is Light Death Was California Counting Carolina Skeletons (live) All The Blue Changes (live) Wherever There Is Light (video) All The Blue Changes (live video) 'Wherever There Is Light' is taken from last year's 'Schoolyard Ghosts' album (as is the accompanying video for the track) and features frequent band ally Theo Travis on flute and ex-American Music Club pedal steel guitarist Bruce Kaphan. All of the live tracks were taken from No-Man's concert at Bush Hall, London on 29th August 2008 and feature the full live band. The new studio tracks were recorded at No-Man's Land during 2008 and 2009 and feature a guest performance by...

No-Man is the band of Steven Wilson and Tim Bowness and dates back to the late eighties. After playing in Karma and Pride Of Passion Steve Wilson decided to start his own band. The first release, From A Toyshop Window, of this band, called No Man Is An Island Except For The Isle Of Man was released on the compilation album Exposure (1986). On this track Wilson plays all the instruments. It's a very progressive rock orientated song. On the Double Exposure album from 1987 the name is cut to No Man Is An Island, and ex plenty vocalist Tim Bowness and Stuart Blagdan on guitar have joined the band. Faith's Last Doubt is the track featured on this compilation. In 1989 The Girl From Missouri 12" is released which shows a hugh step forward towards the music No-Man is known for these days. Violin player Ben Coleman has joined the band and Blagdan has left. Later that year they change the name to No-Man and release the Swagger tape. From 1990 till today No-Man releases albums durin...

No-Man, Schoolyard Ghosts Tour de Boerderij, Zoetermeer 3 September 2008 Finally after years of waiting No-Man made it to mainland Europe. Playing their first gig at de Boerderij in Zoetermeer. At 8:30 their support Fear Falls Burning, which turned out to be just one man, Dirk Serries, tried to warm up the crowd. But listening to guitarloops played over samples for nearly half an hour isn't my kind of pleasure, so after a couple of minutes I returned to the bar to have another drink. At 9:15 No-Man kicked off when violinist Steve Bingham played his first string sample into the computer. Three samples followed and the string background of Only Rain played through the venue. Since Micheal Bearpark was having problems with his pedals, Bingham was given more time to play a nice violin solo intro. After five minutes, with the problems solved, the band finally took off. A nice set of songs was played in the nearly two hours that followed. Besides contributions from their latest album Sch...