
Scraping the already-worn Talk Talk barrel still further, 'Missing Pieces' is a collection of recordings from 1991's 'Laughing Stock' album. This translates to 4 'alternative' versions of the original album cuts plus 3 previously hard to find tracks not featured on the album. Of most interest to collectors will be the rarer stuff, naturally. 'Stump' is a jam session involving percussion, blasts of trumpet and general disarray but '5.09' is much more worthy; in this song you can hear the warm, bluesy melody of 'New Grass' possibly played backwards but nevertheless it still sounds beautiful. 'Piano' is the missing link between 'Lauging Stock' and Mark Hollis's eponymous solo album from 1998; a minimalist piece of - you guessed it - piano notes played very slowly. Many have commended Talk Talk for their use of space in tracks but at 15 minutes it certainly tries the patience. It's always a pleasure to hear the likes of 'Myrrhman', 'New Grass' and 'Ascension Day' again but listeners will be hard pushed to discriminate them from their original album cuts. Only 'After The Flood' differs but that's only because this particularly recording seems to miss the original's introduction out. Talk Talk's later work has proved to a defining and influential body of work on the post-rock scene in particular but if many more tenuous releases see the light of day there's a danger of that impression being cheapened.