Flowermouth

Flowermouth
Studio album by No-Man
Released	27 June 1994[1]
Recorded	September - December, 1993 at No Man's Land
Genre	Trip hop Dream pop Art rock
Length	57:26
Label	One Little Indian
Producer	Tim Bowness, Steven Wilson
No-Man chronology
Loveblows & Lovecries - A Confession (1993) Flowermouth (1994) Wild Opera (1996)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Brum Beat	[3]
Daily Mail	[4]
Melody Maker	(favourable)[5]
NME	[6]

Flowermouth is the second studio album by British duo No-Man, released in 1994 on the One Little Indian Records label, and subsequently reissued on September, 1999 by 3rd. Stone Ltd, and in a deluxe format by Snapper Music in February 2005.

Flowermouth was considered the band's most ambitious album to date, and remains a fan favourite. Despite being the band's best selling release, it was obvious by now that No-Man couldn't continue along the path which their record company wanted them to follow. Following Flowermouth's release, No-Man parted company with both One Little Indian in Britain and Epic/Sony in the US.

Long-term band member Ben Coleman had left prior to the album's release and by 1994, the band had effectively retired from live performance.

Considered a vitally important evolution, the album realised the expansive promise of the band's earlier material. Combining dream pop, art rock and moody minimalism, with an epic orchestral scope, Flowermouth was well served by the guest performances of Japan/Rain Tree Crow's Jansen and Barbieri, King Crimson's Robert Fripp and Mel Collins, jazz trumpeter Ian Carr and eerie Dead Can Dance singer Lisa Gerrard.

The original One Little Indian version of Flowermouth features several slightly different mixes to the ones featured on the later reissues.

For the second reissue, Steven Wilson delivered a definitive remaster and the band have added two bonus tracks to the running order ("Angeldust" and "Born Simple", both originally from the now-deleted "Flowermix" album and featuring extensive soundscape contributions from Robert Fripp). The reissue also features improved digi-pack artwork and new sleevenotes containing a combined band interview/essay by music journalist Dann Chinn.^[7]

As the album sessions were parallel to those of the Barbieri & Bowness' Flame project (also released on One Little Indian), Wire Magazine released, along with their 125th edition, a free sample CD which included four songs from both Flowermouth and Flame.^[8]

Track listing

1. "Angel Gets Caught In The Beauty Trap" – 9:56
2. "You Grow More Beautiful" – 5:37
3. "Animal Ghost" – 6:09
4. "Soft Shoulders" – 3:57
5. "Shell Of A Fighter" – 7:48
6. "Teardrop Fall" – 4:37
7. "Watching Over Me" – 4:48
8. "Simple" – 7:03
9. "Things Change" – 7:31

2005 bonus tracks

1. "Angeldust" – 9:11
2. "Born Simple" – 12:09

Personnel

• Tim Bowness – vocals, words
• Steven Wilson – instruments

with:

• Richard Barbieri – electronics (5)
• Ian Carr – trumpet (1)
• Ben Coleman – violins (1,3,4,5,6,7), electric violin (9)
• Mel Collins – soprano saxophone (1), flute (3,6)
• Robert Fripp – guitar (1,3,5,6,8), frippertronics (1,5,8,9)
• Lisa Gerrard – voice sample (8)
• Steve Jansen – percussion (7)
• Chris Maitland – drums (1,9), percussion (1,3)
• Silas Maitland – fretless bass (1)

Release history

References