DAYS IN THE TREES

This is a single of the song "Days in the Trees", but they are all remixes of the beautiful minimalistic song. There are 4 tracks here, all named after famous composers, but it is the same song, but with plenty of variation to keep things very interesting. I suppose the goal here was to do remixes that were inspired by the composers they are named after. It's a great concept. And it works pretty well. Mahler's style is apparent in the last few minutes of the track during the instrumental part and it is very nice. The percussion track is looped and sort of trip-hop sounding but the rest of the instruments are nicely complex. Tim Bowness' voice is nice and soft as usual and glides and soars over the top of Steven Wilson's programmed beats. The second track is Ives, and it is definitely styled after the composer it is names for. All instrumental and instantly apparent that the violin is playing it's hook at the beginning in Ives style. No percussion here, but there is also a nice piano playing along with the violin and it sounds very pre-contemporary classical like it is supposed to sound. Bartok is also instrumental, but it has a percussion loop that is different from the Mahler version. Guitar joins in later with some strong bass. It is actually quite straightforward totally unlike Bartok would be. Really the only thing reminiscent of Bartok is the synth in the background that keep coming in that sounds like the synth in the first part of Porcupine Tree's "The Sky Moves Sideways". Not much like Bartok, but still nice. Reich is the last version and the least like the original. Tim's vocals are replaced by a soft sounding female spoken word voice. In fact, the spoken word is a sound bite from the TV show "Twin Peaks". Underneath the voice is a keyboard playing an arpeggio chord with some other ambient music. Somewhat similar to Reich's music in that it is very relaxing and hypnotic.

On the Japanese version of this single, there are two more tracks, but they are placed as tracks 2 and 3. Track 2 is Bach, which is a short simple instrumental, so I guess it's based on Bach's simpler works like the short works in "The Well-Tempered Clavier". The 3rd track is named after Arthur Askey, whose work I am not familiar with. The track itself is quite similar to the Mahler track with a different percussive loop and Tim's vocals. I don't know how to compare it to the composer's style though.

A very nice single and one of the best concepts I have ever heard of for a single. The tracks are unique enough to stay interesting as you play through it. This is one of the best singles I've heard, but then No-Man has produced some great singles and albums. This is definitely 4 star material and remains progressive because of the concept and the stylized versions of the songs to mirror the composers styles. 4 stars.