Biography
Paul Webb extends the refined sensibilities and emotional resonance of his prior work with Talk Talk and .O.rang through his Rustin Man endeavor, sustaining a line of innovative, inward-looking music while drawing on many of the same collaborators. His debut release under that name, the 2002 album Out of Season, paired him with Portishead's Beth Gibbons in a project that channeled their shared admiration for Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, and Nick Drake into fresh, introspective territory. Nearly twenty years afterward, the atmospheric Drift Code of 2019 and the delicately unsettling Clockdust of 2020 demonstrated how Rustin Man's expressive force had deepened during the extended absence from public view.
Webb and his schoolmate, drummer Lee Harris, entered Talk Talk together in 1981, where Webb took up the bass and encountered sounds stretching from Miles Davis to Van Morrison under the influence of singer/songwriter Mark Hollis's wide-ranging preferences. His only individual songwriting credit with the group appeared as "Another Word" on the 1982 debut The Party's Over. He remained through the increasing intricacy of 1984's It's My Life, 1986's Colour of Spring, and the bold 1987 album Spirit of Eden, whose experimental textures and reflective atmosphere mirrored the band's evolving direction.
After departing Talk Talk in 1988 and witnessing its dissolution in 1992, Webb rejoined Harris to establish .O.rang, an ensemble more given to improvisation and worldwide influences that wove dub and Krautrock elements into its palette. The first .O.rang album, 1994's Herd of Instinct, included contributions from Bark Psychosis's Graham Sutton and Portishead's Beth Gibbons, followed by 1996's Fields and Waves and the 1997 collection Remixes before the project entered a period of inactivity.
Webb later launched Rustin Man and renewed his partnership with Gibbons on the 2002 album Out of Season, a radiant fusion of folk, jazz, and R&B that enlisted Harris and Gibbons's Portishead colleague Adrian Utley among its musicians. The record reached charts across several European territories and received silver certification in the U.K. In the aftermath, Webb helmed James Yorkston's 2007 release Year of the Leopard and the Belgian group Dez Mona's 2009 effort Hilfe Kommt, while devoting most of his attention to family life and the transformation of a disused barn into a residence and recording facility.
Webb and Harris continued to develop Rustin Man material intermittently, converting Dictaphone sketches into meticulously captured performances that employed numerous microphone positions for every instrument. The initial collection of songs Webb composed expressly for his own voice appeared as Rustin Man's 2019 album Drift Code, which incorporated contributions from local orchestral musicians and his longtime associate Snowboy. The following March brought Clockdust, a group of more concise and formally arranged pieces drawn from the same recording sessions.
Webb and his schoolmate, drummer Lee Harris, entered Talk Talk together in 1981, where Webb took up the bass and encountered sounds stretching from Miles Davis to Van Morrison under the influence of singer/songwriter Mark Hollis's wide-ranging preferences. His only individual songwriting credit with the group appeared as "Another Word" on the 1982 debut The Party's Over. He remained through the increasing intricacy of 1984's It's My Life, 1986's Colour of Spring, and the bold 1987 album Spirit of Eden, whose experimental textures and reflective atmosphere mirrored the band's evolving direction.
After departing Talk Talk in 1988 and witnessing its dissolution in 1992, Webb rejoined Harris to establish .O.rang, an ensemble more given to improvisation and worldwide influences that wove dub and Krautrock elements into its palette. The first .O.rang album, 1994's Herd of Instinct, included contributions from Bark Psychosis's Graham Sutton and Portishead's Beth Gibbons, followed by 1996's Fields and Waves and the 1997 collection Remixes before the project entered a period of inactivity.
Webb later launched Rustin Man and renewed his partnership with Gibbons on the 2002 album Out of Season, a radiant fusion of folk, jazz, and R&B that enlisted Harris and Gibbons's Portishead colleague Adrian Utley among its musicians. The record reached charts across several European territories and received silver certification in the U.K. In the aftermath, Webb helmed James Yorkston's 2007 release Year of the Leopard and the Belgian group Dez Mona's 2009 effort Hilfe Kommt, while devoting most of his attention to family life and the transformation of a disused barn into a residence and recording facility.
Webb and Harris continued to develop Rustin Man material intermittently, converting Dictaphone sketches into meticulously captured performances that employed numerous microphone positions for every instrument. The initial collection of songs Webb composed expressly for his own voice appeared as Rustin Man's 2019 album Drift Code, which incorporated contributions from local orchestral musicians and his longtime associate Snowboy. The following March brought Clockdust, a group of more concise and formally arranged pieces drawn from the same recording sessions.
Albums
Singles
