Virgin revisit four classic albums. That what it says on the tin and that’s what you get, by golly. In fact, in an era where the likes of M83 and Sigur Ros have managed to somehow tickle the nation’s high brow with their mean and pernicious brand of existentialism and aching miserablism, it probably feels more vital now, than it did then. Back in the early1980s Japan straddled the happy divide between New Romantism and something else. What was that something else? I’m no nearer answering that now than I was then. The peroxide was of the same blinding intensity as everybody else’s. So too was the mascara, the silly hats and the crazy foppish Zoot suits. But whilst vocalist David Sylvian was as every bit as beautiful as Le Bon and Adam Ant, he was considerably less bovine. The weight of the popular masses seemed to weight heavily on this particular star’s shoulder-pads, and it wasn’t long before Sylvian furrowed the same semi-reclusive mile as his hero, Scott Walker. Like their associates, The Associates, the success of their singles was more accidental than planned. The prerequisite for any credible New Romantic was to adopt an air of louche sophistication and bands like Japan were simply in the right place at the right time. Success simply happened around them. Eventually though, the billowing Calvary shirts and the jodhpurs lost their air of sophistication and simply began to look ridiculous. Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet resisted this inevitable slide of fashion by ditching the clothes, the sophistication and battening down the power chords. Japan, on the otherhand were entrenched within the period they helped define, and it was this synonymity that consumed them. Which makes what we are left with, all the more magical.
Gentlemen Take Polaroids
The lightning follow up to Quiet Life, 1980’s Gentlemen Take Polaroids is generally regarded the point at which Japan begin to shape an individual mould for themselves. Not that Duran Duran were in any way disappointed, taking as they did, their cue for their first real hit ‘Girls On Film’ (1981) directly from this source.
Cool and aloof, Sylvian still manages to craft some perfect pop songs (‘Swing’, ‘Methods of Dance’) but it’s tracks like ‘Nightporter’ (the blueprint for Duran’s The Chauffer and Martin Grech’s ‘Open Heart Zoo’?) and near instrumentals like ‘The Experience of Swimming’ and ‘The Width Of A Room’ that show Sylvian driving the band on from pop formula into the sinister and profound. The Roxy Music and Yellow Magic Orchestra are still very much in evidence – but the sound is evidently morphing into something alien and unique.
Tin Drum
This reissue of Tin Drum – Japan’s most popular LP featuring surprise-hit single, Ghosts comes with a new boxed up 24-page booklet together with various photos, including some from Steve Jansen. The reissue also comes with a second disc of odds and sods from the The Art of Parties session- two alternate take of The Art Of Parties plus Life Without Buildings, as well as the single version of Ghosts.
Influenced by a collection of photos of Communist the album is part oriental, part Roxy Music. Whilst ‘Talking Drum’ remains a personal favourite, it’s Top Five hit single ‘Ghosts’ that delights the most. Inspired by John Cage and Henrik Ibsen, ‘Ghosts’ – just like 1980’s Burning Bridges, Nightporter and Taking Islands in Africa – sees Sylvian’s tender, melting vocal limp into the spotlight against a sparse and sultry backing track.
other Japan rereleses:
Oil On Canvas
(Double Live CD)
Previously only available as a single disc.
Rain Tree Crow
Japan under a different name (you can hear their managers crying even now).
Includes more Douglas Borthers photos.