Collection of outstanding tracks by the songwriter and performance artist best known as frontman of the group Tuxedomoon. Recorded between 1982 and 1990, the twelve tracks gathered on In A Manner Of Speaking include five tracks from Tong's acclaimed 1985 solo album Theoretically Chinese, produced by former Associate Alan Rankine and featuring a stellar cast of guest musicians including Jah Wobble, Steven Morris, Simon Topping and Dave Formula. Two are in the form of dance remixes previously only available on an Italian maxi single.
This Best Of CD also features representative tracks from Tong's other two solo albums: Like The Others and Miserere, as well as rare compilation tracks: covers of Duke Ellington's Prelude To A Kiss, witty festive ditty The Twelve Days Of Christmas, and Syd Barrett's Late Night. Further included are two especially memorable Tong songs recorded with Tuxedomoon, the Albert Camus tribute The Stranger and In A Manner Of Speaking, the 1985 song later covered by Martin Gore of Depeche Mode and more recently by Nouvelle Vague. As a result of the Nouvelle Vague cover version, IAMOS has now become a standard, featuring in the soundtracks of several high profile movies and television shows, including A Mighty Heart, Sugar Rush, Fragile and Riviera.