No-Man

No-Man is another Steve Wilson project with Tim Bowness. This is from Discogs (great site btw):

"Formed in Hemel Hempstead, U.K. in 1986, the first incarnation was as No Man Is An Island (Except The Isle Of Man), featuring guitarist Stuart "The Still Owl" Blagden and violinist Ben Coleman. Blagden left and the remaining three abbreviated the name to No-Man. 

The trio seemed set for mainstream success, winning the Single of the Week in both Melody Maker and Sounds for 'Days in the Trees'. But commercial success eluded them. No-Man headed into deeper art rock territory, recording with the likes of Robert Fripp, Steve Jensen, Richard Barbieri and Mick Karn. Bowness and Wilson split with Coleman and their label, One Little Indian in 1994 and have recorded since as a duo." 

No-Man is not Porcupine Tree. They have a very melodious, sometimes ambient sound that is easy to take for granted and let slip into the background. That's a big mistake. The more I listen to them, the more I hear the quirks, sarcasm, playfulness, and challenging concepts that are more typical of Wilson's work. That adds an intentionally deceptive contrast to their sound which makes it easy to understand why No-Man would fly over the heads of mainstream attention almost like a tv show or movie missing the track telling the audience how they should be reacting. 

No-Man doesn't seem overly concerned with the continual drive towards success in the way that Porcupine Tree has evolved into. They almost intend to be skipped by anyone who isn't willing to listen to them. 

No-Man's latest release is "Schoolyard Ghosts" 2008, and their best yet - but it is also more serious than their previous work. I found "Schoolyard Ghosts" on plenty of other sites.

FlowerMouth 94

Angels Get Caught In The Beauty Trap

You Grow More Beautiful

Animal Ghost

Soft Shoulders

Shell Of A Fighter

Teardrop Fall

Watching Over Me

Simple

Things Change

Wild Opera 96

Dry Cleaning Ray

Ghost Track 1 and 2

Housewives Hooked on Heroin

Infant Phenomenon 

Libertine Libretto

My Revenge on Seattle

My Rival Trevor

Pretty Genius

Radiant City

Sheeploop

Sinister Jazz

Taste My Dream

Time Travel in Texas

(*I had a hard time getting the album cover for Returning Jesus uploaded into Blogger. I'm still working on it. It is included though)

Returning Jesus 01

Only Rain

No Defence

Close Your Eyes

Carolina Skeletons

Outside the Machine

Returning Jesus

Slow It All Down

Lighthouse

All That You Are

Together We're Stranger 03

part 1

part 2

Together We're Stranger

All The Blue Changes 

Things I Want To Tell You

Photographs in Black and White

Back When You Were Beautiful

The Break-Up For Real

True North from the album "Schoolyard Ghosts"

And I will be returning to The Residents soon.