Search - No Man :: Dry Cleaning Ray

Companion to "Wild Opera".

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 06/15/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

""Dry Cleaning Ray" is an EP of remixes and leftovers from the Wild Opera sessions. Like its parent album, the material on "Dry Cleaning Ray" is of startling diversity and intensity, and while I find it comparatively a bit weak, a lot of people prefer this EP to the album.



The title track is presented in a somewhat different remix that enforces a bit more directness-- the piece maintains its claustrophobic and bleak sounds of the studio record before turning over to a '70s prog rock guitar solo from guitarist Steven Wilson.



The remainder of the EP consists of a handful of new tracks, a previously released piece, and a couple remixes. The new tracks tend to feel like they came off '70s art rock records-- "Sweetside Silver Night" and "Jack the Sax" both sound like they could have been yanked off of early David Bowie records-- the former built on a churning bouncing guitar lick, the latter an acoustic ballad with vocalist Tim Bowness taking a "Man of Words, Man of Music" desperation to his voice. In this, "Jack the Sax" actually proves to be a great cut-- Bowness is so intense it carries and an eventual turnover to fuzz guitars further accentuates the piece. Likewise later in the record, the band continues a general '70s vibe on brief instrumental "Kightlinger" and bizarre alt-pop "Evelyn (The Song of Slurs)" (a nice falsetto workout for Bowness). Closer "Sicknote" sinks into a morbid groove-- clean tone guitars and gentle leads provide a great framework for Bowness' gentle, remorseful delivery before turning over to a pure noise solo from Steven Wilson and eventually a more traditional one. It's a great, great piece and establishes a powerful mood.



The remixes are the real weak point for the record-- "Diet Mothers" recasts Wild Opera standout "Pretty Genius" as a trip-hop piece, replacing the groove of the original with a haze and recessed vocal. "Punished for Being Born (Muslimgauze mix)" is theoretically a reconstruction of "Housewives Hooked on Heroin", but you'd be hard pressed to find the original buried in it-- all electronic noise and blips, this one wisely wraps up in less than two and a half minutes. The remixes are sandwiched around the previously released rarity "Urban Disco" (from the Housewives Hooked on Heroin single). One of the truly bizarre cuts on a pop record, it's a complete freak of a piece, fusing disco beats and sampling with industrial slabs of guitar into an explosive, churning and somewhat inexplicable piece.



"Dry Cleaning Ray" is in the end of the collection of leftovers, and it falls somewhat short of Wild Opera. Nonetheless, as a companion piece, it's worth a listen."