# Japan (the band)



## Guest (Sep 12, 2015)

Despite their name, they were actually British consisting of David Sylvian (lead vocalist, guitar and keyboards), Mick Karn (bass, sax), Rob Dean (guitar), Richard Barbieri (keyboards), Steve Jansen (drums). Masami Tsuchiya (Ippu-Do) was a sometimes member on guitar, Simon House did some violin work and Ryuichi Sakamoto (Yellow Magic Orchestra) was a collaborator. Although classified as new wave, I thought this was a simplistic labeling. I thought they clearly transcended this pigeon-hole quite admirably.

The reason was the incredible songwriting of David Sylvian--genius, really--and the band's superb musicianship. Steve Jansen (supposedly Sylvian's brother) had to be one of most proficient rock drummers ever. His beats and fills were unlike anything else I've ever heard. Mick Karn (whose real name was Andonis Michaelides) was definitely one of the finest bass guitarists that ever lived (he's deceased). Barbieri and Sylvian came up with excellent synthesizer patches that had this really dreamy pseudo-Japanese quality to them.

They toured Europe and Japan (where, of course, they were very popular) but, to my knowledge, never toured the US. I could be wrong about that but I don't believe they ever did. I would have killed someone for the chance to see them especially if they had Masami Tsuchiya on guitar.


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## Guest (Sep 12, 2015)

I can't imagine how Mick Karn came up with the bass line he puts to this:















Unfortunately, there can be no Japan reunion with Mick Karn gone (died 2011 of cancer). Nobody else played bass like that and it is essential to the band's sound.

Gary Numan liked Mick Karn's bass-playing so much that he hired him to play on the "Dance" album:









I was in a new wavy sort of band at this time and we played this one at my insistence. I had the bass down pat. The rest of the band didn't really want to do it until people would come up to us and go: "Wow! I can't believe you guys do that one!! Nobody does this song and you sound just like the record!!!"


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## Guest (Sep 12, 2015)

Robert Fripp had a healthy admiration for Sylvian's genius and wanted him to join King Crimson as lead singer and writer. Sylvian declined but agreed to do an album with Fripp--"The First Day". Although marketed as a Fripp & Sylvian collab, it's actually King Crimson with Sylvian singing, co-writing and supplying backing guitar. The album's "hit" was "Jean the Birdman" but these two are my faves--this is the kind of stuff that happens when two musical geniuses work together:











This next clip is not Japan but it is Japanese. "Folding Fan as Target" by Ayako Handa was sampled and used on least two songs by Japan--"Still Life in Mobile Homes" and "Talking Drum"--showing that Sylvian was listening to Japanese music to get ideas for his brilliant songs. Strange but this lady sings exactly like my mother--their voices are indistinguishable--and stranger yet my mother's name is also Ayako:


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I like Japan and, opposite to what usually happens with me when a group undergoes a noticeable shift in musical direction (Rush, Roxy Music etc.), I prefer the later, more textured music to the earlier guitar-led glammy stuff.


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## Guest (Sep 13, 2015)

Same here. //////


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## Guest (Sep 13, 2015)

From wikipedia...



> the combination of their newer sound and the band's stylised visual appearance led to them unintentionally becoming associated with the early-1980s New Romantic scene. The band had always worn make-up since their inception in the mid 1970s at the tail end of the glam rock era, many years before the New Romantic movement had begun. In an October 1981 interview, Sylvian commented "There's a period going past at the moment that may make us look as though we're in fashion."[SUP][4][/SUP] In another interview, he stated "I don't like to be associated with them [New Romantics]. The attitudes are so very different." Of Japan's fashion sense, Sylvian said "For them [New Romantics], fancy dress is a costume. But ours is a way of life. We look and dress this way every day."[SUP][7][/SUP]


This says it all for me. Although I'd heard of Japan, I'd never listened to their music until I bought _Tin Drum_, attracted by the singles and the style. When I started to look back at their earlier work, I didn't find much to keep me with them.

But _Tin Drum_ has survived a number of culls of my record collection, and it's on my list to get a digital copy.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Listen a bit to Japan back in the day's. but today I find myself listening more to the members solos efforts, especially David Sylvian's albums of the last ten years, Manafon and Wandermüde (w. Stephan Mathieu) being one's that I return to most often.

/ptr


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Love their later albums (_Quiet life_, _Gentlemen take polaroids_, _Tin drum_), as well as Sylvians solo efforts. _Forbidden colours_ and _Ghosts _are among my absolute favourite all-time songs.

Richard Barbieri went on to become a member of Porcupine Tree, one of the best bands of the past three decades.


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## MrTortoise (Dec 25, 2008)

Reading this thread I can't believe that Japan and David Sylvian didn't make it into my ears. Thanks for the thread!


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## Guest (Sep 13, 2015)

Japan, in a way, reminded me of Gentle Giant. Not musically, of course, but both were groups of skilled musicians and songwriters of great imagination. Both got pigeon-holed--Giant as a techno-rock band and Japan as a new wave/romantic band--when it was clear to me that neither belonged in those categories. Both were bands that sounded like no other. Nobody else, to this day, sounds like them or could sound like them.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

I also like their later material better than the earlier stuff.

But even more so, I like Sylvian's solo material better yet. 

Also very good is the Japan 'reunion' project, Rain Tree Crow. Even less commercial than that later Japan material.


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