No-Man - Heaven Taste (c) 1995 Hidden Art
Artist....: No-Man
Album.....: Heaven Taste
Type......: Album
Source....: CDDA
Tracks....: 05
Genre.....: Avantgarde
Label.....: Hidden Art
Catalogue#: hi-art 1
Encoder...: LAME 3.97
Quality...: VBR kbps / 44.1KHz / Joint-Stereo
URL.......: http://www.no-man.co.uk/
Tracklist:
----------
01 Long Day Fall 05:20
02 Babyship Blue 04:53
03 Bleed 06:50
04 Road 03:21
05 Heaven Taste 21:22
Total:51,7 MB / 41:46 min
Release Notes:
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A B-sides and rarities collection, Heaven Taste doesn't take in all the
various odds and sods of No-Man's life from the early '90s, but it does
make for a handy sampling of some of the best. Most notable of the
inclusions is the title track itself, a 22-minute instrumental
collaboration with the same Japan-minus-David Sylvian lineup that
helped out on Sweetheart Raw. It's an easygoing piece, one that perhaps
verges on being merely tasteful rather than being truly stunning at the
start -- while Mick Karn's sax work is just fine, it also calls up the
specter of smooth jazz in combination with the rhythm and keyboards. Of
the remaining tracks, two feature early member Ben Coleman on violin,
who also appears on "Heaven Taste" itself. While perhaps he simply
couldn't or didn't want to make the journey to where No-Man went next,
his contributions do lend a lovely edge to the recordings. "Long Day
Fall" makes for a great way for the album to begin, starting with
little more than Coleman's work before a rich combination of guitar and
sequencers (and fretless bass, though not from Karn) comes in,
suggesting Porcupine Tree a touch. Tim Bowness' singing, as ever, is
the lovely icing on the cake. "Babyship Blue," meanwhile, having
originally appeared on the Flowermix compilation, here gains vocals
while otherwise still sounding as wonderful as ever. As for the
remaining numbers, "Bleed," which surfaced on the "Sweetheart Raw"
single, here gets a reworking with a slow, muffled funk beat, adding to
the elegant mystery of the original and its central, fragile keyboard
line. Part of "Say Baby Say Goodbye" appears at the end, though without
credit on the sleeve. There's also another hint of No-Man's
wide-ranging roots with a cover of Nick Drake's "Road," delivered in
appropriately understated fashion.
-allmusic