NO-MAN - DRY CLEANING RAY - 1997

"It's the same old song/With the same old bits", TIM BOWNESS sings: "It's the same old thing/It's the same old sh*t/Thirty years without a hit." 'Dry Cleaning Ray' is a companion CD to the 1996 album 'Wild Opera', pushing their sound a little further and in the process becoming a more memorable record. Not the same old thing at all, Tim. But yes, no hits here.

Ostensibly this record is an EP, but to me it's the missing piece of the mid-nineties NO-MAN puzzle. I wondered where their sound had gone; this album gives part of the answer. This is an extension of 'Wild Opera', a remix in parts, experimentation in others. Put the best bits of this together with the best bits of 'Wild Opera' and you have something as good as what came before.

I can't work out why 'Sweetside Silver Night', 'Urban Disco' and 'Jack the Sax' didn't make the 'Wild Opera' cut. Perhaps they weren't written back in 1996. But the inclusion of AUTECHRE-like experimental 'Punished for Being Born' and the minimalist, epic 'Sicknote' would have given that album some needed punch. As it is, they are welcome here, as is 'Diet Mothers', a remix of 'Pretty Genius'.

Overall this is an eclectic collection: jazzy, dancey, minimalist, experimental. 'Sicknote' is the outstanding track, and makes the album worth purchasing.
http://www.progarchives.com