Porcupine Tree vs. No-Man

No-Man is just sorta the older band by a bit -- Wilson and Tim Bowness met in the late eighties and started recording then, while PT as such was initially Wilson solo engaging in psychedelic spoofery a la the Dukes of Stratosphear. The two bands have run concurrently since -- in PT Wilson handles all the vocals, while No-Man is Bowness's vocals and Wilson's music.

Since No-Man was initially my entry point into the whole Bowness/Wilson world of associated bands and side projects -- there's a huge amount of stuff out there, from collaborators, kindred souls and more -- I favor it more in the end. Initially they were something of a lost dream band for me, in that nobody else in the early nineties was so actively pursuing a fusion of at once modern dance/pop styles and lush seventies-into-eighties synth/art pop. No-Man has quietly changed and evolved with time, though (and why not?), and the last two albums respectively make me think of late Talk Talk's fragility and Neu! in driving drift mode, no percussion per se but plenty of obsessive flowing textures. Bowness is still one of my favorite singers ever, and he's a pleasant fellow to chat with in e-mail as well.

I have about eight million reviews all over the All Music Guide for PT, No-Man and more, so go nuts. You might as well go to the No-Man page for more info too, as well as plenty of links hither and yon. I also strongly recommend the Burning Shed label -- I own just about everything on it, and a variety of spiff Bowness and Wilson side projects (as well as a collection of unreleased No-Man songs) can be found there. And I should offer up praise for the likes of Peter Chilvers, Os, Michael Bearpark...

Couple tracks into the Steven Wilson solo album and it's kinda great... Certainly working for me more than the last couple of Wilson-related albums.