Top 5 no-man albums by Iris

A personal top 5 of one of my favourite band, no-man! For the people who never heard of them: it’s a band/project formed by Tim Bowness and Steven Wilson back in 1987. A band you can’t place in a certain genre because they changed their music styles and influences over the years. Want to know which albums my favourite masterpieces? Here they are!

Purple Flower Progressive Hour Special Show! Interviews with Colin Edwin, Adrian Belew & LizZard!

Interviews with Colin Edwin, Adrian Belew & Lizzard!

Komara & O.R.k., live at the Boerderij Zoetermeer, 17 February 2016

First, I would like to apologize because this concert review is a bit shorter than my concert reviews. The most important reason is that I actually was completely caught up in the music of both bands, and because of that I totally forgot to make notes during the gigs.

IWKC – Evil Bear Boris (2015)

The name of Russian band IWKC is an abbreviation of the words I Will Kill Chita, a joke that refers to the tensions the band members had in the past. There are ten different musicians contributing on this album (most of them playing classical instruments like cello and violin or jazz instruments like saxophone), plus the Gnesin State Musical College Choir. The band itself describes their music as a combination art rock, neo-psychedelica, post rock and neo-classic… Which makes me very curious. I just love the sleeve of the album. It’s a very very artistic painting of a furious bear. The inside of the album sleeve contains a letter written by Russian composer/musician Vladimir Martynov, it’s written in English and in Russian (and I have to admit, my English is better than my Russian). Vladimir gives a brief opinion about the album, which makes me even more curious.

La YnE – La Grande Illusion (2014)

Let’s start this review with a quote from the artist himself: Music is a journey, not a destination. This album is, indeed, a journey itself! La Grande Illusion is Matti ‘la Yne’ Laine’s debut album. All songs are written by Matti himself, and there are several guest musicians contributing on the album. The music is mostly instrumental. This album is dedicated to Mick Karn, one of my favourite bassist who passed away too soon.

Richard Barbieri & Tim Bowness – Flame (1994)

Why a review about this album? Well, it’s because it’s one of my favourite albums of all time. Every time I put this album on I enjoy it in its entirety.

Gazpacho – Molok (2015)

I discovered Gazpacho a couple of years ago through a friend of mine. He always played it at his home when I was visiting him. Because it was always used as ‘background music’ during our conversations I never really paid attention to the music. I appreciated the music when it got played but never thought to buy one of their albums because ‘it didn’t hit me’. I had the feeling something was missing, like a recipe that misses an ingredient, and needs a bit of extra pepper or garlic.

Bruce Soord – Bruce Soord (2016)

Bruce Soord is known as The Pineapple Thief’s frontman/guitarist/lead vocalist. He collaborated with different musicians over the past few years and also does production/mixing work for several artists and bands. This self-titled album is Bruce’s first solo album. He wrote and performed on all the tracks of the album, with Darren Charles (Godsticks) playing additional guitar.