Housekeeping

Somewhere (somehow) between the feverish grooves of Madchester and the anthemic charge of the Britpop brigade, musically eclectic mavericks No-Man made a small mark on the early 1990s UK Independent music scene.

The band released two albums and series of singles on the influential OLI label (Björk, The Shamen etc), which generated rave reviews (Singles Of The Week in Melody Maker, Sounds, and Hot Press) and radio/TV play aplenty (BBC Radio One sessions/playlist, appearances on MTV, Channel Four and ITV1).

Housekeeping is a comprehensive remastered collection of No-Man’s output for the OLI label between 1990-1994.

Featuring the band's first two albums Loveblows and Lovecries (1993) and Flowermouth (1994), along with the singles compilation Lovesighs (1992), the deluxe 5CD bookset also contains outtakes, alternate versions and the band’s sessions for BBC Radio from the period (which reveal a very different, more visceral, side to the band).

Formed by Tim Bowness and Steven Wilson, the band also included violinist Ben Coleman and the albums featured notable appearances by Mick Karn and Steve Jansen (Japan), Robert Fripp, Ian Carr, Lisa Gerard (Dead Can Dance), and soon to be Porcupine Tree members Richard Barbieri, Chris Maitland and Colin Edwin.

Containing driving electronic pop music, epic ambient rock suites and emotive groove-enhanced ballads, ‘Housekeeping’ is a lovingly compiled tribute to the creative anomaly that is (and was) No-Man. Designed by Carl Glover, the hardback book includes essays by Matt Hammers (author of No-Man blog, All The Blue Changes), Tim Bowness and Steven Wilson, alongside rare photos and memorabilia.

A companion release to Housekeeping, Swagger chronicles the in-between period that came after the initial, wildly eclectic Tim Bowness / Steven Wilson studio experiments of 1987 and 1988, and prior to No-Man signing its first record deal in 1991. It mostly captures the band making a propulsive Electro-Rock music and forging a fresh and more flamboyant identity courtesy of new recruit, virtuoso violinist Ben Coleman.

Featuring Steven Wilson's guitar playing to the fore and Tim Bowness’s “before voice”, Swagger contains 45 minutes of music - 6 unreleased songs and 3 early versions of pieces that ended up on later releases - and showcases a hungry band making its alternate universe debut album.